Sonic Traces | Margarida Mendes

Embarking on a journey along hydrobodies - from the deep ocean’s abyssal planes all the way through the Mississippi river, outwards into Indonesian tropical rainforests - ‘Sonic Traces’ expands on my personal inquiries and journey as an activist and researcher. It sets out to expose how the traces of pollution - be they sonic or chemical - travel through watery spaces, impacting communities across ecosystems. Taking the form of a speculative dérive, it includes field recordings, poetry, field notes, and philosophical wonders. I address research developed in the Lower Mississippi river petrochemical corridor, North Kalimantan in Borneo island, as well as introduce my practice as an activist concerned with deep sea mining and the impacts of ocean noise. I enquire how the water column is affected by chemical particles circulating through it, as new industries arise and expand from the seabed outwards towards land, tracing some of the cumulative impacts of human presence, while raising awareness into how one is embedded in wider webs of ecosystemic exchange.