sgsr_053

recorded 2022

a sonic record of surfaces, structures, and residual tension — collected during a 2022 trip through argentina, with focus on urban and postcolonial layers in buenos aires and the engineered stillness of bariloche.

recorded using consumer-grade binaural gear, these documents are minimally edited: no compression, no smoothing, no correction for environmental irregularities. unintended audio anomalies remain as evidence of friction between personal observation and public infrastructure.

this project sits at the intersection of ambient documentation and soft protest — a kind of anti-tourism, attentive to the leftovers of violence, aspiration, and failed retail logistics. shopping malls, state-run museums, and sites of historical brutality all make equal appearances. the distinctions between them are often aesthetic more than ethical.

field notes

[buenos aires] ezeiza airport (6am) - due to some very stupid problems leaving mexico city on our original flight, we were rerouted through panama and on to buenos aires on a red eye flight that arrived at 530am. so this was recorded in the ezeiza airport at 6am on zero hours of sleep, while trying to figure out how to get to and check in to our airbnb. arghhh it was all terrible. on the plus side, the airport code for this airport is EZE which makes me think about NWA.

[buenos aires] abastos shopping - on one of many (failed) attempts to find proper boots for our trip to bariloche, we visited abastos shopping, which is one of the biggest shopping malls in buenos aires. indeed it was massive, and also an interesting very loud soundscape.

[buenos aires] humboldt 1934 (midnight) - recorded at midnight from the terrace of our large and cold airbnb, in a light drizzle, this recording was notable because midway through i noticed the source of this ominous hum which was a ventilation fan that was essentially sucking all the warm air of the house. no wonder it was so cold. fantastic recording dynamics here!

[buenos aires] museo de belles artes (gallery ambience) - wandering room to room through endless oil paintings of 18th century aristocracy, a style i’m not personally inclined towards, i did like the somewhat empty reverberation in these galleries. i did my best to avoid the guided tour explaining the art to a bunch of seemingly disinterested high school students.

[buenos aires] museo de arte moderne (gallery ambience) - plenty of great art on display in this museum, and clearly the attendance was greater here. some really dynamite ambience echoing through the building. you can always count on video art to give an otherworldly affect to these types of spaces.

[buenos aires] museo de arte moderne (sintomario exhibit) - this was a large scale exhibit by the artist florencia rodríguez giles, which you can read more about here. overall the exhibit not only looked great, but sounded great as well, i couldn’t help but snag a short recording of that.

[buenos aires] mercado san telmo - if you’re in buenos aires, this place is a don’t miss. plenty of great food and stores to check out. i bought a new (used) camera here! and there is a great and extremely creepy store full of dolls that’s worth a few minutes (or more). i recorded this while waiting for lunch to be brought to our table, which took a very very long time. you definitely get a sense of the crazy overall vibes here.

[buenos aires] alto palermo shopping - another place where we tried and failed to find adequate footwear for our time in the andes. i mean what the hell. the people in buenos aires certainly fly to the andes to ski, so how is it utterly impossible to find a goddamn pair of snow boots. we did end up finding a pair (ladies only), so i had to make due with my regular woolen shoes (hardly ideal, i assure you).

[buenos aires] buquebus ferry terminal (indoors) - the jumping off point to montevideo uruguay, this place had a pretty interesting overall soundscape. plenty of folks gearing up to make the crossing. after an interminable wait, you can queue up for a long time through customs and then get on an enormous ferry for the next three hours. it’s pleasant enough, honestly.

[buenos aires] buquebus ferry terminal (outdoors) - since you’ll get bored waiting around in the terminal lobby, you can take a walk outside and watch them prep the cars to board the ferries lower decks. pretty cool to watch, its a fairly time consuming process.

[bariloche] cerro catedral ski resort (basecamp) - going from the ski rental house out to the mountain to start hitting the slopes. some real beautiful terrain here, if you get the chance to ski here, it’s absolutely worth the trip (three hour flight from buenos aires).

[bariloche] charming hotel resort (beach and birds) - i don’t know what kind of birds these were, to be honest. i’m no ornithologist. but the sound just bugged me out, it had kind of an interesting synthesizer-y flavor to it. the view from the hotel room over the lake was incredible. worth every very expensive penny.

[buenos aires] palacio raggio (friday night) - a quiet night back in san telmo, this was the soundscape from the 5th floor penthouse. the ambient sound was so quiet, the cars seem especially loud, so this is an especially “3D” recording.

[buenos aires] esma (video gallery) - our last day at buenos aires, we visited a super fun place: the “espacio memoria y derechos humanos” at the esma… which happened to be the site of some outrageous human rights violations (murder, rape, general repression) were committed during the military junta in the 70’s-80’s. this recording is made right after you walk in the door, which is a series of projected videos of (currently living!) women who were tortured and raped in the very space that we were standing in. and there were so many videos, it felt like it went on forever. fun stuff!

[buenos aires] esma (admirals quarters) - the fun continues here, in the ambience of the admirals quarters. so when you’re running a concentration camp, you get to stay in the “nice” rooms (i’d give 3.5 stars on yelp at best). the video projection here is of a woman who apparently was friends with the admirals daughter, and saw the military loading prisoners into the torture basement.

[buenos aires] esma (torture basement) - so you’re standing in this basement looking at photo of a dead guy against a wall, and the photo is hanging on the wall shown in the photo. not creepy in any way! the audio here is basically a tour guide speaking through a microphone, which is pretty weird because it was fairly quiet in there and he probably just could have talked to the people seated two feet in front of him, but to each their own, i suppose. anyway, after this, we had pretty much gotten our fill of being balls deep in a concentration camp, so out we went.

[buenos aires] museo malvinas (main gallery) - a whole museum dedicated to the malvinas (perhaps better known to US and EU citizens as the falkland islands), this was certainly quite an educational place. i really had 1) no idea where these islands were (it’s further south than you’d think), and 2) no ideas whatsoever about these islands. besides that they had a war with england of all places over it. anyway, it was definitely interesting and pretty well put together.

[buenos aires] museo malvinas (british war film exhibit) - our final recording here is a film exhibit of footage surrounding the war with england. plenty of vintage newsreels and in-field battle footage, more gory than you might think would be ok for kids to see. in any case it was pretty cool and certainly sounded cool. 

These recordings are free to use under a creative commons attribution share-alike license.

If you’re using these in a work about empire, collapse, or cultural disappearance, that would be fitting. credit where it's due (me).