_{Templum Terrarium}
(re-adapting the spectacle in imperial debris)

2025 · moving image, sound and site-responsive installation · 16mm / 12-inch vinyl / 6.2-channel sound

  
Templum Terrarium (re-adapting the spectacle in imperial debris) forms part of the A Frontier in Depth trilogy.

Expanding outward into the atmosphere, the work uses sound and moving image to position the viewer within the ancient ruins of Caerleon Roman Amphitheatre (75 AD). Through a post-colonial lens, it reimagines the site of spectacle as a space in which past, present and future coexist.

Atmospheric recordings—including infrasonic frequencies, seismic vibrations, electromagnetic interference and radiation—combine with the contemporary acoustics of the site. Field recordings, reel-to-reel tape loops and reimagined ancient Roman instruments form a sonic landscape that moves between the film, a 12-inch vinyl record, and its site-specific iteration.

At Caerleon, the recorded composition is deconstructed and expanded into a 40-minute, 6.2-channel sound work, responding to the acoustics and spatial conditions of the amphitheatre.

Challenging archaeology's notion of the “silent” object, Templum Terrarium approaches sound as a speculative medium through which linear histories can be unsettled, allowing the ruins to resonate as a living archive of overlapping temporalities.