Maruza Imi Variations

Charles Nyiha

With Maruza Imi Variations, I bring the eponymous archived audio recording from the Pitt Rivers Museum back to life, transforming it into dynamic entities imbued with emotion and memory, taking on an ethereal quality akin to spirits or ghosts.
The technical process involves distorting the original recording with audio effects. While some level of artistic interpretation is inevitable, my aim is to derive as much as possible from the recording itself. This is done to allow the material to assert its own identity, to "speak" through its own complexity, while still resonating with modern audiences.
This work is inspired by the ideas of animism and panpsychism, which suggest that all things—even inanimate objects—may have a form of spiritual essence or consciousness. Through my work, the recording is not merely altered; it is reanimated. It becomes an entity that invites the audience to question traditional boundaries between what we consider sentient and insentient. This raises compelling questions for the broader practice of archiving sounds: if this recording can be reinvigorated with some form of "life," what implications does this have for the act of collection and preservation?