EXERCISES IN PERPETUAL COMPANY

Authors

  • Wait and Hear Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37522/64dk9t42

Keywords:

Kilpisjärvi Biological Station, Field Laboratory, Bioart Society, Ecological listening, moss breathing, glacier breathing, glacier diving, wind listening, barefoot boulder meditation, instructional artworks

Abstract

Moving beyond medium-specificity, the collective Wait and Hear invites us to follow instructions for engaging subtly with the glacier as an entity.

Author Biography

  • Wait and Hear

    Wait and Hear is an international and interdisciplinary group of artists and researchers exploring ecological listening. Our fieldwork explores relations between sound and environment, emphasising multispecies ethics, ecological listening practices, and human/other-than-human tensions. Our group formed in 2023 as part of Field Notes: The North Escaping in Kilpisjärvi, Finland, where we investigated connections between sound and climate change in the subarctic region. Wait and Hear comprises anthropologist Alicja Staniszewska, artist-researcher Bartaku, social designer and researcher Jan Christian Schulz, artist Joshua Le Gallienne, multidisciplinary artist Mari Mäkiö and artist, researcher and educator Till Bovermann.

    Jan Christian Schulz is a designer and interdisciplinary researcher based in Germany and The Netherlands. Graduated from the Social Design Master at Design Academy Eindhoven, his ongoing research investigates environmental processes and the emergence of ecosystemic relationships through the interaction with natural and technological materials. Especially focusing on embodied perceptions of environmental phenomena, senses and sensors are his medium to understand, process, and communicate different ways of engaging and attuning with lively ecosystems

    Joshua Le Gallienne is a non-binary British artist whose work explores the material and energetic qualities of sound. Through sculpture, installation, and performance, the artist stages intimate experiences that focus on the relationships between sound, physical materials and environmental phenomena. Le Gallienne’s work attempts to challenge expectations of what sound is, how it is experienced, and examine the methods and politics of its production. Their work is unmediated and mostly undocumented in order to place emphasis on experiencing sound in the present moment. In line with this the artist has no website or online presence. Their current research adopts a non-binary trans perspective of listening in relation to ecology. 

    Alicja Staniszewska (she/her) is an anthropologist and a doctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She works with multi-species ethnographies and inclusive encounters in motion focusing on migrations, climate and more-than-human socialities. She holds a master’s degree in Cultural Ethnology and Anthropology from the University of Warsaw, where she completed a project on embodied experiences in Finnish forests. In her current PhD research project "Forest Bites" funded by the Kone Foundation, she collects the perspectives of people of immigrant backgrounds on Finnish forests, ticks, and climate change. Staniszewska's research interests include environmental anthropology, migration, and the notions of imagination and disgust. She uses methods like sensory walks to explore relationships and interactions within multispecies worlds. She works in subarctic and Arctic regions, where the effects of climate change strongly manifest. 

    Bart H.M. Vandeput, artist name Bartaku, is a senior postdoctoral fellow in artistic research at the Centre for Bioethics, University of Antwerp. The artistic research practice is rooted in Social Sciences and principles of play and improvisation. It emphasizes collaborative and processual inquiry inspired by philosophy and serendipity. Currently, he leads a collective inquiry into the microbiomes in cooling towers of nuclear facilities and holds visiting researcher roles at Aalto, Ghent, and Hasselt Universities. 

    Till Bovermann aka LFSaw is a Berlin-based sound artist and scientist, working with field recording and interactive sound programming, creating sonic experiences and hypothetical islands of immersion and reflection. He has shown his work at international institutions, among others Ars Electonica Linz or ZKM Karlsruhe. He has worked as post-doctoral researcher at Aalto University, Helsinki, UdK Berlin and University for Applied Arts, Vienna.

    Mari Mäkiö (b.1982) is an artist based in Helsinki, Finland. She works mainly with installation, combining different media, from sound, video and text to ceramics and textile. Recently Mäkiö has studied encounters between humans and other animals, and the experiences of separateness, togetherness and empathy entwined within these encounters.

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Published

2025-02-21

Issue

No. 1 (2025): Edge of the Glacier

Section

Articles