Julian Jaynes, in The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, introduces the reader with a poetic series of questions about unseen visions and heard silences, through which he explores the nature of consciousness. His introduction to an extensive study of consciousness and its complexities serves as an inspiration for my own investigation of enigmas encountered in the spatial exploration of field-recorded sonic dimensions and the phenomenon of the inner voice. This voice emerges through the reading of texts by authors who, in a sense, live through us as we engage with their words.

If we assume that certain entities are not merely fleeting occurrences, perceptible within a single temporal unit, but rather exist and operate across an extended range, unfolding through longer durations, then their mystery becomes all the more pronounced. What devices might we employ to comprehend the complexity of such modes of existence? What methodological approaches should we adopt in order to interpret and respond to the manifold questions arising from their intricacies?

Although scientific contexts inspire me, my answers and methods are not objective. One could say they exist beyond objectivity, incapable of offering absolute conclusions, thus carving out a space for poetic engagement. The phenomenon of the inner voice, in this sense, is also highlighted by Gertrude Stein, who understood it as a deconstruction of language and linguistic conventions in order to emphasize its poetic dimension. This approach has led me to perceive deconstruction not merely as a destructive process but as a means of establishing poetics. Through this perspective, I am able to expand my understanding and the metaphoric framework of past and present positions, which are interwoven into reciprocal relationships, traversing space-time.

To date, the following events have been realized: a performance on the staircase of the Cukrarna exhibition space in Ljubljana, a geolocated sound piece at the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna, and field recordings and algorithmic transformations at three locations in Venice, linked to the Renaissance poet Veronica Franco. These selected locations, buildings, and environments are rich in history—symbolic sites that resonate. Their physical realities absorb the sonic imprints of the destinies of individuals who once shaped their space-time. The sound performances transform into an immersion, an echo of the past, as participants walk through these locations, co-creating an auditory landscape that draws past visions from the very walls. In this way, the metal staircase of Cukrarna, for instance, became an instrument played by the visitors, who amplified its silence.

The artistic exploration of the inner voice at the Sigmund Freud Museum unfolded through a dialogue between the vanishing sounds of the space (the presence of visitors, the voice of Freud’s daughter Anna from a video projection, the sounds of the urban environment…) and the machine-reading of fragments from Freud’s texts. The museum itself is a layering of time, constituted not only by its archive and collection but also by reconstructions of objects placed within the rooms and remnants of original wall coatings, revealing, in fragments, the color palette once present in these spaces.

Venice, specifically the locations of Sant’Agnese Square, the square in front of the Church of Santa Maria Formosa, and the Ponte delle Tette bridge, are closely tied to the life and work of Veronica Franco, a Venetian poet who, in the 16th century, entered the intellectual discourse and positioned herself as an authority of reason and self-awareness. At these sites, the amplitude of her space-time was already widely expanded and distended.

From a technical perspective, the core of the performance incorporates a sound sensor, a programmed algorithm, and digitized databases of texts and poetry, as well as a digital linguistic model. Together, they generate a complex sonic image, composed of the acoustic layers of these environments and the inner voices of literary figures, read aloud by a machine-generated voice. The visitors, as co-creators of the performance, experience the inner voice sonically through the auditory immersion of a live online stream via headphones.

The “deconstruction” of the soundscape is executed by the algorithm, which transforms frequency patterns and rhythmic structures into a sequence of random letters through the configuration of Morse code. These letters, in certain combinations, begin to form individual or fragmentary meaningful words. When such a fragment emerges within the sequence of random letters, the algorithm searches the digital text database for matches. If a match is found, the corresponding text is read aloud through machine-generated narration.

The latest field recording has shifted the initial concept of a one-time event toward a contemplation of creating a sound library of inner voices.