Æther is a new audio-visual project by Natalia Evelyn Bencicova and Samson G Balfour Smith (Screen Noise).
Æther explores world-building through story-telling, developing a compelling narrative with body, voice, sound, space, movement and graphic sound technology in the 3D realm. The first chapter, "O," marks the beginning of this unique experience. Æther unfolds across multiple interconnected planes, gradually revealing a complete story. The protagonist, avatar EVE, embodied by Bencicova, challenges and overcomes various forms of patriarchal oppression throughout history and into the future. From anger and fear to empowerment and hope, EVE guides viewers toward a world of transformation in the making.
Alongside her physical journey, her inner realizations are expressed abstractly through shapes and movements, often materializing as "sound bodies" that communicate in a symbolic language. These are, similarly to all shapes and landscapes predominantly created using graphic sound, a technique pioneered and developed by Screennoise, employing sound magnetic forces within bodies, spaces, and architecture to enhance the conceptual narrative.
Chapter O reimagines the origin story of Abrahamic religions, removing the burden of sin, shame, and guilt placed on women while reclaiming their bodies. The topic of power through seeing, object versus subject, or woman as others are also touched upon in this captivating introduction to the journey into Æther.
Natalia Evelyn Bencicova
Informed by her background in fine art and new media studies, Evelyn’s practice combines an interest in contemporary culture with academic research to create a unique space in which the conceptual meets the visual. She constructs compelling narrative scenarios that blur the lines between reality, memory and imagination “fictions based on truth”. Depicting multifaceted representations as illusions, Evelyn plays with the viewer’s perception to entice them into the labyrinth of her but also their imagination.
In 2019 Evelyn’s practice shifted from photography into more immersive and experimental forms of storytelling. Working collaboratively on worldbuilding in 3D and virtual reality she became increasingly interested in experience itself and where its boundaries can be challenged in digital space as well as physical multi-sensory installations. Her most recent interest in including performance developed during the creation of Æther and is aimed to be her first major performative project.
Samson G Balfour Smith - Screen Noise
The Graphic sounds idea comes from Samson’s (Screenoise) early childhood dream of making images as the base of sound architecture versus traditional audio production. Keeping this vision growing in 2011 he committed 2 years to create this original digital/analog graphic audio modular synthesis instrument that will free the graphic sound from its usual mode of being only a slave to sound dynamics and placing it to the core graph input on the very top modular synthesis chain.
Outside of ever evolving structures of these multiple instruments and modules, He translated the ideas of Graphic Sounds into visual 2D and 3D sound practices as organic bodies of magnetic forces coming from these new sciences and interactions. This practice further developed to merging video and render recording into an entire world of immersive soundscapes, where sound acts as an active narrator and protagonist.
Samson was previously signed on B-Pitch Control Berlin as an electronic music producer.
https://soundcloud.com/screennoise