When does music become an object? Is there music hidden in buildings, actions, or gestures? We invite you to explore and experience, during our second úúú expedition into contemporary music, the moments when an instrument or performer becomes an object — or when an object begins to function as an instrument: musical, sonic, performative, or action-based.
A series of seven performances, concerts, sound and video installations, composed conversations — or, ultimately, one curated perspective on the ways music can perceive the world around us.
úúú is a series of sound art events curated by the ooo collective, exploring through sound the impact of (non-)human interventions in the world and their relationships within the ecosystem of a single planet. The aim is to encourage audiences to become more attuned to their surrounding sonic environment and to question the current anthropocentric and masculine-centric perception of the world.
Artists and Works
Peter Cusack: Aral Sea Stories (UK), audiovisual performance, 40’
Elia Moretti: We Want Everything (IT), performative sound installation, 30’
Michal Kindernay: Cargo (CZ), video installation, 6’
Tomáš Prištiak: Circumnavigation of the Island (SK), video installation, 11’
Michaela Prablesková: Sonata of the Gentle Drill (SK), guest: Michael Dore, interactive installation and performance, 15’
Erik Ždiľa: Anthem for Six Beer Bottles and a Compressor (SK), installation, 6’
Students of the Department of Intermedia, AFAD Bratislava (SK) and Fero Király (SK), sound installation
WHEN: 15 November 2025, doors open 12:30
WHERE: Fabrika 61, Nitrianska 61/61, Partizánske
ADMISSION: Limited capacity, free registration at tootoot.fm
Acoustic ecology is a discipline that examines the relationship between sound, the environment, and human (or other) perception. It emerged in the 1970s around the Canadian composer and theorist R. Murray Schafer. As part of the úúú series, we also present critical works in this field.
Our perception of the world whispers that we are not alone — that we are part of a much larger network of organisms, intertwined in creating this fragile possibility of being. The human-centered worldview gives us the false impression that the world consists of ones and zeros — humanity and nature, the latter existing solely for our use and exploitation.
The story of the Aral Sea, once the fourth largest lake on the planet — hence often called a sea — is the outcome of such thinking. Its history and current condition are told through Peter Cusack’s performance Aral Sea Stories.
Unfortunately, Slovakia also has its examples. One of them is the mega-project on the Danube River, which significantly damaged the river’s ecosystem, changed the landscape, and whose consequences we now attempt to mitigate through costly reparations. One such consequence was the halting of natural island-formation processes. Tomáš Prištiak’s video installation Circumnavigation of the Island explores the story of Veľkolélsky Island (Nagyléli sziget) — one of the last large Danube islands in Slovakia, covering more than 250 hectares.
The ease of ordering goods from around the world online drives today’s economy. The illusion of a higher quality of life — where having outweighs being — is omnipresent. Have you noticed the rise of massive new warehouse boxes across Slovakia? How the landscape changes just to serve the consumer’s desire for faster delivery? The citizen turns into a consumer under the spell of consumption. Imagine an area the size of three Petržalkas — that’s the scale of the container terminal at the Port of Hamburg, depicted in Michal Kindernay’s video installation Cargo.
In the 1950s, French composer Pierre Schaeffer developed the concept of composing music from sounds of the world — which he called objets musicaux (musical objects). A new genre was born: musique concrète. Techniques that were revolutionary at the time are now standard sound manipulation strategies. Michaela Prablesková’s interactive performance and installation Sonata of the Gentle Drill, using a MIDI instrument mapped with fine-tuned sounds of Partizánske, is a contemporary play that once would have been unimaginable. Want to play the city? Be our guest.
An abandoned Baťa factory building, once a singularity and the reason for the city’s founding, now awaits its new destiny. It becomes the subject of Elia Moretti’s performative sound installation We Want Everything, created especially for the úúú event.
In the context of national identity, anthems are particularly interesting objects. Emerging as musical symbols since the 18th century, most national anthems — as our small research has shown — are musically rooted in the European major-minor tonal system. As such, they carry traces of colonial and imperial influence, masked as patriotism, calls to arms, or celebrations of national unity and pride. Erik Ždiľa’s sound installation Anthem for Six Beer Bottles and a Compressor offers a personal reflection on our own national sonic symbol.
As part of the úúú project, you will also see and experience a sound installation created by students of the Department of Intermedia at AFAD Bratislava under the guidance of Fero Király.
