Pál Zwickl: Ephemeral Mirage – András Blazsek: Sky Bends Dark

During May and June 2024, Hungarian musician Pál Zwickl has been in residence at A4 for the creation of Ephemeral Mirage, a sound work that offers an insight into the political and cultural development of Hungarian radio broadcasting. The project explores themes of technology, democracy and radio, focusing on the powerful influence of propaganda in fostering social anger. Through the fusion of coded and interpreted sounds, it seeks to create a unique soundscape and experience where the human voice serves as a central element in conveying emotion, storytelling and collective introspection. The performance challenges the audience to confront the ephemeral nature of truth and perception in an age dominated by technological innovation and political influence.

Intermedia artist András Blazsek works with sound, sculpture and installation. The native of Dunajská Streda worked at the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong from 2019 to 2021. He is currently a lecturer in the Department of Media Studies at the University at Buffalo, where he is conducting doctoral research in data-driven sound modeling and sonification.

The quadrophonic soundtrack Sky Bends Dark is made from the sounds of the Mangkhut super typhoon and freely available solar radiation data captured from 16 September 2018 to 12 June 2019 in Hong Kong. The temporal data are used to process the frequency components of the storm’s sounds and to express relationships between isolated events; the start date of the dataset corresponds to the date of the typhoon, while the end date refers to a cross-sectional point in the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests. The timeline of solar values manifests as fluctuations in sound intensity, reflecting the elemental and political rhythms of Hong Kong.

Supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council and Bratislava City Foundation.
The performance was created within the Visegrad Artist Residency Program with the support of the International Visegrad Fund.