A series of interventions by Johanna Hällsten taking place simultaneously at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (UK) and Kunming Institute of Botany (China). ‘Sounds Like It’ explores our need for translation, both literally and metaphorically, within intercultural communication; drawing attention to the open-ended processes of exchange and mediation taking place between the participant, botanist and artist. Johanna Hällsten is a Swedish artist interested in notions of duration, change and movement in relation to specific events and acts occurring in everyday situations. She has exhibited widely including; London, San Francisco, New York, Stockholm; and published in ‘Contemporary Aesthetics’, Wuhan University Publishing amongst others. She currently works as a lecturer in Fine Art at Loughborough University. A book on her practice is forthcoming by Yingpan Brother Publishing Co. Ltd, in Autumn 2007. For this project, Johanna Hällsten has worked with the botanists at RBGE and KIB researching the process by which they collate data. The project manifests itself through several pieces of work – photography, objects and audio – that have undergone a process of collection, interpretation and then re-insertion into the locations. Seeking not only to understand the way in which the process of translation occurs in different fields (art and botany) but also between media and the senses. From within the two gardens there will be web streaming, enabling a visual and auditory link, revealing what is foreign and creating an alternative pathway between the two places. Where do we find ourselves in this migration of information and experiences? Is there any real boundary between ‘the there’ and us, or is it rather a continuous flow of matter that binds us together; an undercurrent that allows us to relate to the other. This invisible cord becomes highlighted through the process of communication taking place through a continual interpretation between - words to speech, speech to visual, visual to auditory, auditory to words etc – ad infinitum. This website is a live archive of the project and will continuously change.
SOUNDS LIKE IT
听起来像它
同一场展览，在植物学家、艺术家和观展者眼里会有怎样的相同和不同？这场同时在中国科学院昆明植物研究所（ＫＩＢ）----昆明植物园和英国爱丁堡皇家植物园（ＲＢＧＥ）举办的展览将带领我们去探寻人们在跨文化交际中对信息和文化的阐释和理解。
 
布展艺术家Johanna Hällsten与ＫＩＢ和ＲＢＧＥ的植物学家通力合作，以在实景中加入特定的物件或图像音频片断的方式，使人们更好地理解信息在不同领域（如艺术和植物学）间，特别是在感知和媒体间传递的过程。
 
届时，两个植物园中的网络设置使观展人身处此园却亦能饱览另一园的美景。在这画面的交接转化中，人们到底身在何处？“那里”和“这里”之间到底有没有明确的分界线？或者就是这样一些不断流传的东西（图像？声音？）将我们联系到一起并使我们互相交流？而正是在从词到句、从语言到画面、从画面到声音，再从声音到文字这样一个信息无限循环传递的过程中，连接人类的那条看不见的纽带逐渐凸现了出来。
 
Johanna Hällsten，瑞典艺术家，目前任教于英国洛夫市立大学美术系。热衷于研究日常生活中事件发生的过程、运动和变化。曾在伦敦、旧金山、纽约、斯德哥尔摩等多处举办展览，作品亦被《当代美学》等杂志刊登。
 
该活动由英国艺术委员会、英国洛夫市立大学、有限公司联合赞助，由昆明植物研究所、爱丁堡皇家植物园联合主办。
 
 
Edinburgh
RBGE
Kunming
KIB