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 tiny soil-dwellers who help ensure we can live and breathe on this planet. In Vibrant Soils, we combine biological research and artistic approaches to investigate the invisible worlds beneath our feet.This project brings together sound recordings, videos, images and sculptures that all celebrate the countless earthlings living within the Danish landscape.
What if you could hold a sound in your hands? Our clay objects featured in this exhibition are the experimental results of our explorations in translating vibrations from underground ecosystems into sculptural forms. To create these pieces, we recorded the sounds of tiny creatures like earthworms and mites, then used a custom-built system to generate 3D models from these audio files. We 3D-printed these models in wild clay that we harvested and processed ourselves, creating unique sculptures that are both made from the landscape and inspired by it.
These works, along with the other pieces in Vibrant Soils, invite you to dive underground, explore hidden habitats, and forge a deeper connection to the living 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 tiny soil-dwellers who help ensure we can live and breathe on this planet. In Vibrant Soils, we combine biological research and artistic approaches to investigate the invisible worlds beneath our feet.This project brings together sound recordings, videos, images and sculptures that all celebrate the countless earthlings living within the Danish landscape.
What if you could hold a sound in your hands? Our clay objects featured in this exhibition are the experimental results of our explorations in translating vibrations from underground ecosystems into sculptural forms. To create these pieces, we recorded the sounds of tiny creatures like earthworms and mites, then used a custom-built system to generate 3D models from these audio files. We 3D-printed these models in wild clay that we harvested and processed ourselves, creating unique sculptures that are both made from the landscape and inspired by it.
These works, along with the other pieces in Vibrant Soils, invite you to dive underground, explore hidden habitats, and forge a deeper connection to the living 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.


Detail, soil sound sculpture.

Outdoor installation of soil sound sculptures, 2024.

Detail, outdoor installation.
Process video with our soil recordings as soundtrack, 2024.