Participatory observations, extensive literature research, expert interviews, and in-depth conversations with members of our Advisory Board led us to the assumption and realization that extending the boundaries of empathy significantly impacts the perception and activity of living systems. Empathy arises, among other things, through mirror neurons, which are activated when we see someone, for example, getting hurt. Auditory stimuli, specific sounds, frequencies, and melodies also trigger different emotions and sometimes memories, allowing us to transcend the boundaries of our current perception.

The composer and sound artist Tuntun Taratawan Krue-On, with whom we collaborated on our project-related exhibition and performance at the Songkhla Art Center in southern Thailand, recorded field sounds in the London Underground/Tube during her studies at Goldsmiths University. This period was marked by pandemic-related restrictions and great homesickness. She intertwined these recordings with the sounds of animals and plants, and images of a table in the garden of her home in Thailand.

We relocated this scene to the Art Cabin in the ticket hall in Vienna and found that the auditory stimuli transported a wide range of visitors into a different perception of the world, sometimes moving them to tears with acoustic memories. Questions were evoked and discussed – where do we feel at home and truly in the here and now, alive and capable of action? How does our ability to empathize change through acoustic impulses?

We collected comments and reactions from visitors and found that the boundaries between past and present, between presence and concentration in the now, and mental and emotional drifting in all directions, are sometimes as transparent and fragile as the glass separating the atmosphere in the SENSING LIVING SYSTEMS Art Cabin from the happenings in the ticket hall.

About the series: ART CABIN at AIL

The Otto Wagner Cashier Hall offers a special opportunity to give insights to processes and activities of SENSING LIVING SYSTEMS. For the first time, the historical cabin is used for ongoing artistic installations to make methods more visible, relatable and comprehensible for a public audience. Surrounded by visitors of the hall, the cafe and AIL, also by other institutions in the building (Academy of Science, FWF, JKU) offer a chance to gather feedback and reactions to the project and the specific stages of studies that will be incorporated into the project outcome.