Dwellings in Machinic Passages

Dwellings in Machinic Passages is a sound-material intervention in the former Prvomajska machine tool factory in Raša. Posters installed throughout the factory guide visitors to eleven audio chapters published on the Industrial Art Biennial’s website. The recordings are accompanied only by a few sonic textures, allowing the acoustics of the building to remain present throughout the listening experience.

The Prvomajska factory is situated within the former mining settlement of Raša. The project emerges from the spatial and historical entanglement of the former Prvomajska factory and the Raša mine, as well as from their material presence.

The audio work takes the form of semi-prose, semi-theory of attunement. The chapters gradually establish sequences of movement through the site and attune attention to details found within the space.

The work leads the visitor deep into the interior of the factory, into its backside, where it gives way to the Raša mine. Once the handover performed by the voice comes to an end, the space begins to return responses to which the visitor continually adjusts their movement and attention. A discarded high-heeled shoe, a made bed, and other found objects direct attention towards an object in the backside of the complex.