Vibrant Soils
exhibition, Spinderihallerne, 2024
A collaborative project with design researcher Louise Permiin, building on work presented in Jord/Luft.
Did you know that the earth is alive? Every day we walk on top of millions of small soil-dwellers who help to ensure that we can live and breathe on earth. In Vibrant Soils we combine biological research and artistic approaches to investigate the invisible worlds contained in our soil. This project is a collection of sound recordings, videos, images and sculptures that all mark the presence of a plethora of soil-dwellers within the Danish landscape.
What if you could hold a sound in your hands? Our set of clay objects featured in this exhibition are the experimental results of our explorations in translating vibrations from the soil’s ecosystem into sculptural forms. To make these works, sound recordings of tiny soil-dwellers like earthworms and mites are used in a custom-built system that generates sculptural 3D models from audio files. These 3D models were then 3D printed in wild clay that we harvested and processed, resulting in a series of unique clay soil-sound sculptures that are both from the landscape and of the landscape. These sculptures and the other works shown in Vibrant Soils serve as an invitation to dive underground, explore subterranean habitats and a deeper connection to the earth around us.
This project was supported in part by: Spinderihallerne, Vejle Kommune, ceramicist Anna Andersen, Senior Researcher Emeritus Paul Henning Krogh from the Aarhus University Dept. of Ecoscience and Sissel Fuglsang-Smidt, Jordens Hus.
Did you know that the earth is alive? Every day we walk on top of millions of small soil-dwellers who help to ensure that we can live and breathe on earth. In Vibrant Soils we combine biological research and artistic approaches to investigate the invisible worlds contained in our soil. This project is a collection of sound recordings, videos, images and sculptures that all mark the presence of a plethora of soil-dwellers within the Danish landscape.
What if you could hold a sound in your hands? Our set of clay objects featured in this exhibition are the experimental results of our explorations in translating vibrations from the soil’s ecosystem into sculptural forms. To make these works, sound recordings of tiny soil-dwellers like earthworms and mites are used in a custom-built system that generates sculptural 3D models from audio files. These 3D models were then 3D printed in wild clay that we harvested and processed, resulting in a series of unique clay soil-sound sculptures that are both from the landscape and of the landscape. These sculptures and the other works shown in Vibrant Soils serve as an invitation to dive underground, explore subterranean habitats and a deeper connection to the earth around us.
This project was supported in part by: Spinderihallerne, Vejle Kommune, ceramicist Anna Andersen, Senior Researcher Emeritus Paul Henning Krogh from the Aarhus University Dept. of Ecoscience and Sissel Fuglsang-Smidt, Jordens Hus.
Exhibition view.
Exhibition view.
Exhibition view, listening to soil sounds.
Soil sound sculptures, 2023. 3D printed wild clay, various dimensions. Signed, edition of 2.
Detail, soil sound sculpture.
Outdoor installation of soil sound sculptures, 2024.
Detail, outdoor installation.
Process video with our soil recordings as soundtrack, 2024.