Pre(N)atura | Phonocene — Chapter II

This chapter unfolds a speculative transmission from creatures that evolved to digest plastic waste, in a timeless era, in the Phonocene, where sound transforms us and communicates transspecies. Its message is not linguistic, but vibratory: a sensorial recipe for presence in a collapsing world. "We are one breath. We have always existed. We have also become extinct in many ways. Sound, that great assimilator, granted us a perpetual vibration." Pre(N)atura | Phonocene is a speculative audiovisual work based on postnatural studies, sonic imagination, and deep listening. It invites us into the Phonocene: an era where ecological, political, and affective listening reconfigures our relationships with bodies, technologies, and environments. In this chapter, we explore the metalanguage of bacterial and fungal beings on enormous scales. Having lived on Earth and in other spaces, such as the microbiota, through their movement and occupation, they have created ways of communicating with humans. Language is not a human tool, but a shared resonance between what is alive and what once was. These entities—hyper-evolved fungi, synthetic-organic hybrids—are a new language created by ancient ones that resisted extinction by being encoded in matter: stones, temples, codices. To build this phonocene language, we work with AI models, phonetic databases, and voice synthesis. We combined phonemes, rhythms, and cadences from languages such as: Sanskrit | Ancient Greek | Aramaic | Hebrew | Sumerian | Ancient Egyptian | Chinese | Tamil | Nahuatl | Quechua These languages were chosen not only for their historical depth but also for their vibrational power: their ritual and hypnotic resonance. Through their recombination, an impossible yet plausible voice emerges: a speculative language that belongs to no one, yet resonates in everyone. Visually, these creatures were generated using AI tools such as Stable Diffusion and Runway (Gen-2/3), combining post-industrial archaeology, liquid zoology, and speculative biology. Their forms are inspired by organisms such as Aspergillus tubingensis (a plastic-digesting fungus), Deepstaria enigmatica (a membranous jellyfish resembling plastic bags), and Pestalotiopsis microspora, an endophytic fungus capable of digesting polyurethane under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, combined with synthetic waste fragments. The sound design and music were developed using live coding, real-time algorithmic synthesis, and AI-generated vocals. Performed in spatial formats (octophonic and ambisonic), each performance becomes a ritual of listening and solace.