A mosaic of lumi­nous foils with arti­fi­ci­al voi­ces res­ponds to imper­cep­ti­ble radi­a­ti­ons in the city.

The uni­ver­se is per­me­a­ted with radi­a­ti­ons that are not per­cep­ti­ble with our human sen­ses. That which is visi­ble and audi­ble to humans is only a very limi­ted part of the elec­tro­mag­ne­tic and sound spec­trum. Think of infra­so­nic sound, ultra­vi­o­let light or cos­mic radi­a­ti­on. Artist Aernoudt Jacobs, in his new work Humming the Ubique, cre­a­tes a mosaic of wafer-thin foils that trans­form such radi­a­ti­ons into lumi­nous fields of colour and arti­fi­ci­al voi­ces. These vocal sounds are cre­a­ted by arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gen­ce, whi­le the colour of the foils inten­si­fies with vol­ta­ge. The work’s input comes from sen­sors loca­ted along the Hear Here walk, direct­ly trans­la­ting the city’s pre­sent but imper­cep­ti­ble radi­a­ti­ons into this audio­vi­su­al artwork.

Note: Every 30 minu­tes, this work won’t be audi­ble due to Dick Raaijmakers’ work, which is in the same room.

At the end of the nineteenth cen­tu­ry, Leuven archi­tect Augustin Van Arenberg erec­ted an impres­si­ve new labo­ra­to­ry buil­ding for the uni­ver­si­ty, the Institute of Bacteriology. Animals were nee­ded to devel­op medi­ci­nal serums in the buil­ding. Therefore sta­bles, dog ken­nels and other ani­mal com­pounds were loca­ted at the rear. In the 1950s, the uni­ver­si­ty­’s bac­te­ri­o­lo­gi­cal research moved to the Rega Institute in the Minderbroedersstraat. The Institute of Bacteriology was sub­se­quent­ly rede­vel­o­ped seve­r­al times. Since 2016, the buil­ding has been used as an incu­ba­tor for con­tem­po­ra­ry arts at KU Leuven, first under the name ​‘BAC stu­dio’, today as ​‘BAC ART LAB’.

Text: Liesbet Nys (KU Leuven)