Sabishii

Sabishii – A Timeless Love Song at 52Hz

In a far away kingdom of blue, beyond the seven mountains, beyond the seven seas, lives the world’s loneliest princess – Sabishii.

The “52Hz whale“ is the only whale of this unidentified species, whose voice is on a frequency of 52Hz. This kind of frequency is much higher than the one that other whales use to communicate and which have the same migration patter as the 52Hz whale. Most of the whales have a voice that ranges from 10 to 40Hz.

The “52Hz whale“ popularly known as Sabishii (Japanese 寂しい translate “loneliness“) is regularly heard in several locations since the 80s, and seems to be the only one that transmits this unique frequency. The public is calling it “the world's loneliest whale“. Because of its voice it is not in a school of whale nor does it have a partner.

It was first discovered by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in 1989. and was heard again the following two years. The scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute could not identify the species of this whale, but suspect that it was either born with a speech flaw or that it is a hybrid of two different species of whales.

Sabishii can be heard in the waters of the Pacific Ocean from the start of August until the end of December when she leaves the range of the hydrophone and vanishes back into her loneliness.

Oikos Imagina is a project created by Professor Natasa Petrovic and Jelena Andreja Radakovic, founders of a students' environmental group – EkoFON, from the University of Belgrade - Faculty of Organizational Sciences, and two music producers – Ivan Ilic and Ivan Mitic, while its visual identity was done by Design studio Shonski.

Together, we tried to create a whole story dedicated to the lonely whale called Sabishii and through a connection of science and art, through performance art, raise awareness of problems such as the extinction of species, as well as give attention to a timeless subject – unrequited love. By doing this, we want to give Sabishii new friends and let her voice be finally heard and have her love song finally be returned so that she can live happily ever after.