Victoria Estok

The banner hangs, protests, scripted and shouted chants seemed almost destined to go unnoticed by those who attend these conferences because they fit in the paradigm. When I was a budding activist ten years ago I participated in those actions at a COP 6 in the Hague. I was struck that our efforts, chants, and words seemingly were ignored. I realized measures activists often take at these events tend to be less about opening up space for innovative solutions and more about dogging, pressuring, and guilting officials in the hope of achieving  concrete results. After learning more about Hyper Sonic Sound I wondered if I could break through this scripted blanket and inspire a different type of reaction and reflection. I certainly did not want my project to be experienced as more rhetoric. I didn’t want to project statistics at delegates or make a cute clever rhymes about the planet’s destruction. I wanted conference attendees to pause and deeply listen. I knew I needed to be careful and considerate for my work to function as an inner mirror in this context. To be effective, there were logistical restraints I needed to consider. I thought about how hurried and crazed these ten-day conferences can be. I knew most of the attendees would be sleep deprived and I wanted to respect what I imagined to be their semi-frazzled mental states. The sounds needed to be recognizable to an international population. The audio had to be something consistent, simple, and yet poignant. Imagining this as a conscience speaking, I knew I needed to access each conference attendee singularly – this was going to be a one on one intervention.