One More Billion Problems? ø Music Autumn 2024

The recipients of the Government’s Cultural and Art Prize, the string quartet "Chordos," present a unique creative project—an immersive piece, "One More Billion Problems?" by composer Matas Drukteinis, combining sound and visual media, which will unfold in the uniquely acoustic Liepkalnis Water Reservoir.

The piece "One More Billion Problems?" invites the listener to journey through the history of modern humans (Homo Sapiens Sapiens) from millennia before our era to the near future, observing the changes in the Earth's population. At the end of 2022, the world's population exceeded 8 billion. Exploring the constant growth of the human population, the composer sonifies the historical, present, and potential future processes influencing these trends, revealing the changing environment, societal structures, technological, and other factors.

The work also draws attention to and highlights today’s challenges directly linked to the large human population: food and water resource supply, balanced economic and social development, ecosystem stability, and more. However, as the composer notes, the artistic research has revealed an unexpected perspective. According to one of the most realistic United Nations projections, for the first time in history, the human population will begin to decrease at the end of this century, posing entirely new challenges for societies.