Wait and Hear
2023 — Till Bovermann, Alicja Staniszewska, Bart HM Vandeput, Jan Christian Schulz, Joshua Le Gallienne, Mari Mäkiö
Wait and Hear is a group of artists, researchers, and practitioners that came together during Field_Notes the North Escaping in Kilpisjärvi, Finland, in 2023. Over the course of two weeks, we worked and lived together in the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station, exploring the region and its surroundings through listening, somatic experience, and other practices.
Context Link to heading
How do we deal with the retreat of the North as we know it? How do we navigate the ever-approaching uncertainty and wickedness of change? The Wait and Hear group proposes an open exploration based on listening. It extends an invitation to encounter, experience and comment on Kilpisjärvi — the region, the lake, the settlement, the living — as what we will refer to as Organism(s), through which a manifold of consequences and influences of human intervention, their diffusion, and their interrelations are starkly noticeable. While we spend time in the field and critically analyze our surroundings, ourselves, and our interrelation to the different forms our surrounding presents itself, we try to resist the urge to immediately engage for as long as possible.
Instead, we gather on fells listening to wind, stones and water. We observe the hustle and bustle of the border town with all its social and cultural clashes. We engage with various stakeholders that are entangled within the Organism(s) themselves.
Our gathered insights unfold into collaborative experiments and in-situ interventions, offering possibilities to encounter, provoke, comment, and interact with our environment.
Sometimes listening means shouting. The wait and Hear group at the Malla waterfall in 2023.
Practices Link to heading
Our practices are mostly based on listening and other somatic experience that allow us to engage with our environment in a non-invasive way. Additionally, we use field recordings, environmental sensors, and other technologies to collect and analyse sounds and other vibrations of our surroundings.
Over the course of our activities, we developed a series of interventions and experiments that we shared with others in the form of performances and installations.
Activities Link to heading
- 2023-09-17 to 2023-10-01 — Field_Notes the North Escaping in Kilpisjärvi, Finland.
- 2024-03-27 — Blog post on our activities in Kilpisjärvi published at the Bioart society’s website.
- Affiliation:
- Field_Notes the north escaping, 2023