Underwater capsule with fused quartz sound instrument, copper head, four carved wooden legs, circuit box
190 x Ø 150 cm (sculpture)
51 x 39 x 45 cm (circuit box)
Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary


Musician, researcher, artist, iridologist, herbalist, and inventor Ariel Guzik’s  Nereida Capsule (2015)  is an instrument designed to search for communication with cetaceans. It materializes an intention of encounter with inhabitants of the sea, free from domination and devoid of utilitarian or scientific research interests.
 
For thirty years, Guzik has explored physics, mechanics, electricity, and magnetism with his Laboratory for Research on Resonance and Expression of Nature, leading to the invention of mechanisms that give nature a voice through music. Rather than intending to decipher and rationalize phenomena of alterity that lie beyond human comprehension, Guzik’s research is focused on making the natural world perceptible through the senses in all of its mystery.
 
The quartz submersible capsule contains a set of extremely tight strings, whose vibrations emit subtle sounds that constitute a gestural signal before the sonic gaze of marine mammals. Previous version of Nereida, and some other instruments of the same family, have been taken to the waters off the coasts of Baja California, Costa Rica, Scotland and India, with the intention of building a horizontal communication bridge between humans and cetaceans.

Guzik’s Nereida is an instrument whose creation responds to a drive for encountering cetaceans as others, bringing about an out-of-time bubble and a space where chant and sonority might be greeted by a ceremonial context, equivalent to an exchange of rhythmical drum beatings in an act of concerted or spontaneous communion. 


*1960 in Mexico City, Mexico | Living and working in Mexico City, Mexico

Ariel Guzik is a musician, researcher, herbalist, inventor and draftsman. Self-taught in studies of electromagnetic theory, electronic engineering, physics, physiology and traditional herbal medicine. In 2013, he represented México in the 55th Venice Biennale. He is the founder of the Nature Expression and Resonance Research Laboratory, which explores resonance, electricity, and magnetism as a basis for the invention of mechanisms which give voice to nature through music. His research reflects an intimate need to generate an atmosphere that fosters the re-enchantment of the world, seeking to preserve the mystery rather than decipher it. Some fields of research include the meteorological signals, the cosmic microwave background, the plants and the ocean inhabitants. For the last fifteen years, Guzik has concentrated his efforts on searching for a way of communicating with cetaceans. Guzik is currently working on the construction of a manned submarine capsule.