ZHAO JIAJING
赵嘉旌
Acousmatic Compositions
Installations & Multimedia
Sound Design & Soundtracks
Information
CV
2022, revised 2024
16-channel (3rd Order Ambisonics)
8’40”
Back to the Ocean explores the profound physical and spiritual connection between humans and the ocean. The composition captures an ineffable sensation of belonging and boundlessness, as if returning to the womb—an experience of “oceanic feeling.”
The piece primarily utilises sound recordings from ocean water and the human body, captured with hydrophones and field recorders. This sonic narrative unfolded in three stages: immersion, deconstruction, and rebirth. The first stage conveys a devotion to the ocean, like a ritual, as the soundscape shifts from coastal to underwater. In the second stage, the body is deconstructed, represented by enveloping, granulated sound bubbles. The third stage introduces a peaceful sound world, evoking an ineffable sense of boundlessness, akin to a fetus—a new life is born and flows back to the land.
Back to the Ocean is a response to the global environmental crisis, and highlights the essential truth that we are the ocean. Our human existence is but a fleeting manifestation of the ocean itself: we originate from its depths, and ultimately, our physical remnants will merge back into it, thus completing the eternal cycle. Back to the Ocean presents the experience of returning to the vast womb of our mother ocean.
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