This video, The Song of Polysiren, extends the glass work of the same title; the two can exhibit together or separately. It examines polystyrene waste through its visual, tactile, and acoustic properties. Filmed from a bird's-eye view against a black background, children study Styrofoam pieces by touching, tapping, drumming, and rubbing them to explore their sound and shape. In other scenes, they play without intention—making music or spinning in slow motion. A child's voice, in textbook style, explains plastic's production, chemical composition, origins, and speculates on an uncertain future of living with it.
Inspired by Alain Resnais' 1959 documentary Le Chant du Styrène—commissioned by Péchiney to celebrate plastic's virtues—the title and narrative contrast that promising tone with our current plastic and climate crises, amplified by the artificiality of the child's AI voice. Divided into chapters titled with C-scale notes, the video evokes a beguiling siren song through Styrofoam's squeaks.
Created with Seoul German School kindergarten. Project assistance/structuring: Malte Min, Sandra Tjan. Sound: Kat Austen, Sascha Pohle. Editing/concept: Sascha Pohle.
