Crystn Hunt Akron - Plasticphonia

What does plastic sound like? Together with Greenpeace, environmental activists, and the “Clean Up the Beaches” initiative, sound artist Crystn Hunt Akron set out on a journey to explore this question. They searched coastlines and collected plastic waste washed ashore by the oceans.

Turning this collected plastic into music was no easy task, as Hunt Akron explains: “Plastic sounds very percussive, not melodic.” Yet she succeeded in transforming this challenge into a unique artistic language. For PLASTICPHONIA, field recordings of collected plastic objects—such as brushes, bags, buckets, bottles, hoses, cups, and more—are transformed into sampled sounds. From these recordings, the artist creates her own live sound interpretation and spatial installation.

Since 2022, Crystn Hunt Akron has presented the performance Plasticphonia at galleries, museums, festivals, and clubs, touring across Austria, Italy, Germany, and Spain. For Jazz&the City, she brings an adapted version of the performance to the Kollegienkirche.