Listening Through the Landscape (Free Jazz III. Sound. Walks)

Created during Singapore’s “Circuit Breaker” lockdown (a strict stay-at-home order and cordon sanitaire implemented as a preventive measure by the Government of Singapore in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country on 7 April 2020), Christa Donner and Andrew S. Yang’s Listening Through the Landscape is a meditative soundwalk that reclaims public space through the intimacy of listening. Part of the socially distanced exhibition Free Jazz III. Sound. Walks, the piece addresses how COVID-19 reshapes the boundaries of interaction, not only between people, but also between humans and the natural environment. Using narration, ambient recordings, and environmental audio collected during the 2020 lockdown, Donner and Yang transform ordinary environments into meditative soundscapes. Five short audio tracks are composed to be experienced through headphones during a brief short walk outside—a crucial activity for most people during prolonged isolation. “Imagine that the water is filling up space. Overflowing the drains, and moving on to find more openings and areas of spongy earth to soak it up, until everything around you turns into a kind of container”(Water—Listening Through the Landscape 03:03–03:18). The vivid layering of environmental audio with descriptive language by Donner enables an immersive, multisensory experience.

In the context of COVID-19, when people were largely confined indoors, the audio work became a subtle intervention against sensory deprivation. The loss of smell, for example, both biologically for those infected and figuratively for all those masked, speaks to a broader numbing of perception during the pandemic. The artists respond by foregrounding other senses, particularly hearing and proprioception, to revive what it means to be in a place. Moreover, an artwork that can take place in non-gallery spaces, Listening Through the Landscape challenges traditional exhibition models and embraces accessibility, flexibility, and openness in the pandemic era. During the pandemic, people are mostly indoors or online instead of having physical experiences around the city. This sound-based artwork frames the COVID-19 pandemic as a profound existential and sensory crisis, providing multisensory connection and a therapeutic ritual.