Nicolás Spencer is a Chilean-Spanish artist and researcher in the area of sound and visual
art based between Vienna and Berlin. He was formed as a Forest Engineer in Chile, and
followed studies in: Photography, Film studies in the EICTV (Cuba), Main Media Arts in the
Universidad de Chile, and holds a Diploma in online and offline Video and Digital
Technologies from the Media Centre d´Art iDisseny, Mecad/UNESCO (Spain). In 1996 He
founded the first Chilean experimental sound collective TRema. From this moment on he
has been realising several concerts and recordings. In 2007 he co-founded the first Media
Lab in Chile called “LaMe”, a collective platform for open experimentation, with a new
creation concept based on experience and developing theory through practice in the fields
of sound art, interactivity, reactivity, sculpture, video, hardware hacking, circuit bending,
and web art.
From his beginnings as a Forest Engineer, he realised the gap that exists between
Science-Nature, people and the importance to raise awareness with environmental issues.
That is why he begins to studied photography and film while remaining concerned about
the inefficiency of these for the sensitisation of audiences. Afterwards he studies art and
dedicates himself to installations with a marked emphasis on natural elements such as
water, wind, electricity, etc.
His artistic work is focused in the creation of situation that plays with expectations, shifting
awareness and totally transforming the perception of everyday environments. This
environment consider natural, artificial and social systems as one. He develop
conceptualisation and production of works with themes related to the materiality and
“natural” environments, aesthetic-technologic relationships, territorial phenomenologies
and overcoming (or questioning) the traditional categories related to “landscape”. His
sound work can be described as a fragmented, decomposed form of sound working with
software, vinyl, field recordings and Oscillators he betakes to sound different forms that
submit to any form.
In 2015 he commenced studies towards the building of sound installations in extreme
natural environments. This is why he travels to the Region of Magallanes and the Chilean
Antarctic where he collaborates with different institutions such as the Contemporary Art
Museum in Santiago, the Yagána community, the Chilean Navy, WCS and the close
collaboration with the archaeologist Dr. Alfredo Prieto
In 2017 he travels to Cape Horn the southernmost island in the world to make 888, a
sound sculpture. In 2018 he was in charge of an international artistic expedition to
Antarctica with a three-year project to identify the Antarctic culture and the implications the
white continent’s may hold for the future.
In 2020 he is invited to exhibit the results of these researches and works in the Museum of
Contemporary Art of Chile, with the aim of immerse the audience in the southernmost part
of our planet through a massive sound installation.
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