Sonar investigates the phenomenon of “human echolocation”, the ability to orient oneself in space through sound. Based on interviews and performances with the Harting, a family of blind singers, Sonar functions both as a “sonar”, the technique employing underwater sound propagation that allows boats to navigate and detect other vessels, and as a metaphor for the act of remembering. Searching our memories, we emit a sound pulse in space. What does the returning sound pulse tells us about our surroundings and ourselves? Throughout the experimental documentary, sound reveals itself to be for the Harting a medium to express identity, communicate emotions and a vector to recover individual memory.
Sonar was first presented at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montréal, 2011.
Director, Editor: Sandra Volny/ Camera: Unai Miquelajauregui, Sandra Volny/ Surround sound recording: Francis Rossignol.
© Sandra Volny, Sonar, HD video and surround sound, 2011 (excerpt).