Broken Spectre

Broken Spectre, made between 2018 and 2022, is a collaboration between photographer Richard Mosse, cinematographer Trevor Tweeten, and composer Ben Frost. The project was co-commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, VIA Art Fund and the Westridge Foundation, and by Serpentine Galleries. Additional support provided by Collection SVPL and Jack Shainman Gallery. Broken Spectre was recorded on location in remote parts of the Amazon Basin along the BR-230 Trans-Amazonian Highway in the Brazilian states of Rondônia, Amazonas and Pará, as well as along the BR-163 (the 'soybean highway') in Mato Grosso. Further recordings originate from Yanomami Territory and Munduruku Territory; on the Amazon, Crepori, Madeira, Pastaza, São Lourenço, Tapajos, Uraricoera, and Xingu rivers; as well as in the Pantanal wetlands, the capital city Brasilia, and the Llanganates–Sangay Ecological Corridor in Ecuador. Audio was captured using a combination of a quarter inch analogue tape and an ultrasonic recording system designed to capture ultra-high frequency sound, undetectable by the human ear. This frequency spectrum, repitched several octaves lower so as to be audible, reveals the hidden communications of bats, birds and insects. Over 90% of the animal biomass in the rainforest communicates at wavelengths beyond the range of human hearing.