Shadows Above My Window

Ocean-Archive.org digital residency by Robertina Šebjanič

Courtesy of Robertina Šebjanič

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Ocean-Archive.org

Shadows Above My Window: Hydro/Terra/Atmo _Sfere(s) <> rivers to forests, oceans to clouds, data to myth is a digital residency, conceived as a sonic ecological practice unfolding across hydro-, terra-, and atmo- sphere(s). Through field recording, hydroacoustic listening, remote sensing, data analysis, and embodied listening, the project explores how rivers, forests, atmosphere, and human infrastructures coexist within landscapes shaped by accelerated technological expansion and environmental exploitation.

Water and air currents, and ferns growing from soil and forest floors, function as parallel systems of sensing and awareness. In Slavic mythology, ferns are linked to invisibility, hidden knowledge, and moments of transition in midsummer. In this work, they act as land-based witnesses to slow violence and resource extraction, complementing Vodník’s* role as a guardian of aquatic realms. Listening unfolds across layered soils, through plants, water, and atmospheric systems.

Listening is approached as a practice of care - situated, ethical, and resistant to the instrumental use of environments. By listening with plants, waters, submerged ecologies, and algorithmic processes, the work reveals landscapes as contested spaces, shaped by extraction, energy production, data centers, military surveillance, and other forms of infrastructural violence. Sound becomes a medium of witnessing, allowing vulnerability and interdependence across species to surface, beyond what data alone can show.

In this context, listening is a form of ecological disobedience: an act of attentiveness grounded in care, responsibility, and more-than-human coexistence, even in the face of accelerating extraction.

*The Vodnik is a prominent water spirit in Slavic mythology, often depicted as a malevolent, shape-shifting entity residing in rivers, lakes, and ponds, specifically near water mills.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Robertina Šebjanič, based in Ljubljana, is an artist/researcher whose practice drifts through the fluid thresholds of ecology, (geo)politics, and arts, attuned to the rhythms and ruptures of aquatic worlds. Her award-winning works navigate the intertidal zones between species and bring to the surface the submerged voices of oceans and rivers. Her works received awards, honorary mentions, and nominations at Prix Ars Electronica, STARTS Prize, Falling Walls, and Re: Humanism. Her works are part of collections such as the New Art Foundation (Reus).

She has given lectures at Stanford University (Palo Alto), UCLA Art | Sci Center (Los Angeles), TARA Foundation at TBA21–Academy´s Ocean Space (Venice), the UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3, Nice), and UNAM (Mexico City), among others.

Her work has been exhibited widely in museums, biennials, and festivals such as Villa Arson (Nice), Momentum Biennale (Moss), Ars Electronica (Linz), Tribeca Immersive (New York), Kunstgewerbemuseum (Berlin), Cukrarna (Ljubljana), Matadero (Madrid), Sea Art Festival (Busan), Akbank Sanat (İstanbul), MSU Zagreb, MSUB Belgrade, MSUM Ljubljana, and CCD (Mexico City), among others.

ABOUT THE RESIDENCY

The Ocean-Archive.org Digital Residency is a digital fellowship opportunity that investigates the potential of storytelling and transdisciplinary collaboration within and beyond community and/or archival practices. Residents are invited to engage and interact with Ocean-Archive.org’s digital tentacles – the Archive, Stories, ocean comm/uni/ty, and OCEAN / UNI – as a digital ecosystem; to cast a net across the community, explore and re-interpret the Archive’s depths, add new research material, and interweave it into their own curatorial narrative.

The Ocean-Archive.org Digital Residency 2025/26 is conceived to run alongside OCEAN / UNI as an opportunity to develop a participatory project centered on sonic investigations and on concepts, understandings, and interpretations of biodiversity, as part of the Activations titled Sound Ecologies. The Digital Resident will engage the ocean comm/uni/ty through live moments of collaboration, culminating in a final work presented on TBA21–Academy’s digital platforms.

CREDITS

OCEAN / UNI: Spring 2026 Plural Seas, Porous Futures and the concept of Digital Residency and Activations are developed within the broader framework of the MEDiverSEAty project and supported by Ars Biologica (Budweis 2028, CZ)