LAST WHISPERS
www.lastwhispers.org
Oratorio for Vanishing Voices, Collapsing Universes and a Falling Tree
IMMERSIVE ORATORIO
Audio - video (AV) installation, immersive projection mapping and virtual reality experience (VR)
by Lena Herzog (Author / Director / Producer)
Sound design and compositions by Marco Capalbo and Mark Mangini
VR engineering by Jonathan Yomayuza
Last Whispers is a project about the mass extinction of languages. By definition, this extinction occurs in silence, since silence is the very form it takes.
Last Whispers is an invocation of languages that have gone extinct and an incantation of those that are endangered.
Last Whispers is an immersive oratorio composed of historical voice recordings of extinct and endangered languages spanning a century, as well as made-audible gravitational waves caused by supernovae.
Last Whispers exists in various formats: audio and video full immersive projection, sphere, dome as well as an AV installation and virtual reality (VR) experience.
FORMAT 1 / FULL IMMERSIVE PROJECTION MAPPING / GALLERY, SPHERE AND DOME PROJECTION
EDITION (final) 2022. Premiere: Venice Art Biennale, Italy, 2022
Last Whisperscan be projected with flexibility as a dome, a sphere, a four-walled show or a VR, expanding its ability to reach audiences.
FORMAT 2 / AV: INSTALLATION & CONCERT
EDITION (original) 2016. Premiere: London, The British Museum: Living & Dying Gallery, October 2016
Last Whispers is simultaneously a film projection and experience of film and spatially-designed choral composition of extinct and endangered languages (spoken and sung). It is experienced as a 45-minute visceral experience—an oratorio that transports the viewer through immersive (either 8.1 / 7.1 / 5.1 or binaural*) sound design. The audio in the Oratorio is a chorus of extinct and endangered languages, both spoken and sung, composed from the historical recordings (speech, recitatives, incantations, songs and ritual chants) punctuated by the sound of interpreted (made audible) gravitational waves of the collapsing stars and supernovae recorded by LIGO “The Listening Ear.” The video consists of 3D animation, video drone footage and stills (all in black-and-white) poetically linking image and sound. This original version premiered in 2016 at The British Museum as a classical audio-video (AV) piece and then it toured globally through 2019, showing last at Le Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Running time: 45 minutes
EDITION (final) 2022. Premiere: Venice Art Biennale, Italy,
Last Whispers as a new, 30-minute fully immersive projection is complete, experientially fulfilling the idea. It is a final edition. It can be projected with flexibility as a dome, a sphere, a four-walled show or a VR, expanding its ability to reach audiences and most importantly, to be a completely immersive experience—a world filled with the voices of “others.”. Deliverable as a large scale AV installation or “film” projection is also available. This 2022 version is different from the 2016 edition: it has new material and reimagined interpretation of both video and audio. The AV version of the 2022 edition premiered as a large scale outdoor projection during Art Night on June 18th, 2022, in Venice, Italy, during the Biennale Arte. Running time: 30 minutes.
Museum / Concert Hall / Cathedral Installation / Public Art and Concert Specifications
Last Whispers plays on a loop as an installation at the top of the hour or
Last Whispers plays as a choral concert and film event at a given time
Video screen projection of animation, stills and drone footage in black-and-white (1920 x 1080 resolution / 2K)
Audio projection (54.1, 8.1 / 7.1 / 5.1 or binaural*) either via an 8.1 PA sound system, a 7.1 / a 5.1 or via headphones for binaural
Public and land art installation via a weatherproofed 8.1 / 7.1 / 5.1 sound system in public spaces and a large scale video projection
FORMAT 3 / 360 VIRTUAL REALITY
An immersive virtual reality (VR) experience..
(1 completed, 2 additional VR experiences in progress)
Running time: 30 minutes
VR Specifications
Last Whispers plays as a VR (30 minutes) on various VR devices and platforms.
* LAST WHISPERS was created in the UNREAL ENGINE, the world's most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool. Last Whispers was mixed at the ALLOSPHERE, the only facility in North America with 360° full projection spherical mapping capability and 54.1 (separate channel) speakers, 8.1, 7.1, 5.1 and binaural sub-mixes were also created. All mixes mimic a sound environment the way human ears hear it live, unrecorded. They are perceived as a genuine 360° sound, registered by the mind as distinctly “present,” “real” and “alive.”
LAST WHISPERS overview of the formats and of the project’s history
LAST WHISPERS PRESENTATION AT UNESCO
during the 41st Plenary Session of UNESCO General Conference
November 18th, 2021
LAST WHISPERS AT LE THÉÂTRE DU CHÂTELET PRESENTED BY LE FESTIVAL' D’AUTOMNE
November 21st, 2019, Paris, France
LAST WHISPERS AT THE KENNEDY CENTER
February 24th, 2019 Washington DC
24 February, 2019 Terrace Theater (Millennium Stage Program) at The Kennedy Center, co-presented by The Smithsonian, Washington, DC
Immersive Oratorio (video & audio installation) / event (45 min) & VR (7 min)
LAST WHISPERS AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM
October 2016 London UK
