ABSTRACT 508 LEONARDO, Vol. 55, No. 5, pp. 508–511, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_02256 ©2022 ISAST MUSIC AND SOUND ART The Zone A Study of Sound Art as Hyperreality DIMITRIS BATSIS AND XENOFON BITSIKAS HYPERREALITY AND SOUND e marks of existential crisis that we have recently expe- rienced—especially during pandemic lockdown regimes— have become visceral; we are on the brink of encountering a newly developing crisis that drastically influences human evolution. is crisis originates from our prolonged engage- ment with cyberspace, which causes the blurring of time and space [1], a sense of psychological deprivation, and a kind of contamination. Paul Virilio calls this engagement “dromo- spheric” [2]. Instantaneity, a trait of telepresence technolo- gies, distorts and disorients our “depth of field,” which, in small-scale optics, defines the distinctions of spatial distance (such as near, far, here, there, etc.). Ultimately, we live in the network, an extension of what we call reality. We no longer connect and disconnect to this real- ity; instead, this situation has become a hyperreality (a term coined by Baudrillard, discussed in more detail below), an ongoing cyber-activity that occurs in the background of the constant connection to cyberspace. It could be said that this activity is based on a networked environment that enables corporations to use technology, imposing a networked life on humans, thus assuming more control over their everyday lives. James Bridle claims: “e weaponization of informa- tion is accelerated by technologies that purport to assert con- trol over the world” [3]. is situation reflects a perception of complex, intercon- nected, and oſten invisible systems responsible for the emer- gence of hyperreality, where there is no distinction between the “real” and the imaginary [4]. In support of the above Mark Weiser states that the technologies that are supposed to be the most intelligent are those that disappear into our everyday operations to the point of becoming universal and casual, as well as unseen [5]. One might argue that the digitalization of our everyday routines has occupied our consciousness to such a degree as to gradually monopolize our reality in a discrete but transgressive manner, violently disrupting the human con- dition. All needs that Western civilization has created are commodified within the ever-flowing data stream of cyber- space, which could also be seen as a parallel to Umberto Eco’s reality reconstruction paradigms (Disney World or Ripley’s Museums); this hyperreality has become widely established through the blend of reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence. In a manner comparable to the disruptive experience of hyperreality in cyberspace, e Zone creates an abstract sonic environment that is invisible, penetrating, and ever- flowing. e piece draws on sound’s ability to become space, as sound is composed of material vibrations in space. In addition, vibrations and their properties and spatial ef- fects occur within a region [6] of subjective and behavioral presences [7], and hearing is one of the senses that we use to interact with reality. Consequently, the abstract nature of sound could be interpreted as a vague network of data within hyperreality, a zone of activity that is communicated to the visitor and triggered sonically by human presence and movement. Dimitris Batsis (sound artist, academic researcher), Department of Fine Arts and Art Sciences, University of Ioannina, 2 Kapetan Lepenioti, Ioannina 45333, Greece. Email: dbatsis@uoi.gr. ORCID: 0000-0002-0508-4958. Xenofon Bitsikas (artist, educator), Department of Fine Arts and Art Sciences, Univer- sity of Ioannina, 45510, PO Box 1186, Ioannina, Greece. Email: xbitsika@uoi.gr. ORCID: 0000-0002-4553-3682. See https://direct.mit.edu/leon/issue/55/5 for supplemental files associated with this issue. This article concerns The Zone, an interactive sound installation by the collaborative group Volumetric Units. It focuses on the installation’s philosophical and creative aspects through a reflective analysis. The Zone expresses the phenomenological experience of hyperreal cyberspace: a condition where the shift in consciousness causes an inability to distinguish reality from the simulation of reality. The installation is an investigation of the sociopolitical effects of hidden online processes. The work intends to provoke a feeling of condensed confusion like the hyperreality that we experience online, a sense of dissolution of information that is followed by a dissolution of meaning. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/leon/article-pdf/55/5/508/2045681/leon_a_02256.pdf by NICK CRONBACH on 06 October 2022