Sonic Acts' Publication Living Earth – Field Notes from the Dark Ecology Project 2014–2016 Is Out

PRESS RELEASE | MAY 26, AMSTERDAM Sonic Acts’ publication Living Earth – Field Notes from the Dark Ecology Project 2014 – 2016 is out now Dark Ecology is an international art project exploring the relationship between humans, things and nature, as well as current ideas on ecology. Living Earth is a new book filled with ideas, conversations, lectures, and documentation relating to commissioned installations, soundwalks, concerts and performances made for and during the Dark Ecology project. This three-year project, a collaboration between Sonic Acts and the Norwegian curator Hilde Methi, was held from 2014 to 2016 in different places in Norway and Russia and included three curated ‘Journeys’. Living Earth is a recreation of these research trips to the Barents Region, from Kirkenes and Svanvik in Norway to Nikel, Zapolyarny and Murmansk in Russia. The publication Living Earth is available now at www.sonicacts.com. The project was inspired by Timothy Morton’s concept of ‘dark ecology’ and his philosophy of ‘ecology without Nature’. Morton offers a radical criticism of the modernist way of thinking about nature as something outside of us, and instead proposes an interconnected ‘mesh’ of all living and non-living objects. He ruminates on this idea in his essay for Living Earth entitled ‘What Is Dark Ecology’, stating at the outset that ecological awareness is ‘weird weirdness’. Living Earth is a 256-page trip with artists, thinkers, curators and other Dark Ecology participants into the dark space of rethinking nature and art, and it also contributes to the contemporary Anthropocene debate. The motivations behind the project and its impact are discussed in the interview with the curatorial team titled ‘Outside the Comfort Zone’, which opens the book. Besides Timothy Morton’s long essay the book contains contributions by Susan Schuppli (‘Dirty Pictures’), and Berit Kristofferson (‘The Workable Arctic of Ice and Oil’), which examine the consequences of the Anthropocene. There is an interview with Heather Davis (‘Queer Kinship’), and in her essay about Margrethe Pettersen’s soundwalk (Living Land – Below as Above), Britt Kramvig builds on the notion of ‘anthropo-not-seen’. Tatjana Gorbachewskaja and Katya Larina discuss their research into the interaction between the Arctic environment and the architecture of the Russian mining town Nikel (‘Nikel – The City as a Material’). Graham Harman embarks on an interesting rethinking of Jakob von Uexküll’s influential book A Foray Into the World of Animals and Humans and its notion of environment (‘Magic Uexküll’). “What an amazing journey it was, through the Arctic regions of Norway and Russia! Now everyone can live or relive it through this feast of a collection.” – Graham Harman Living Earth is a catalogue too, as it documents and presents in different formats the commissioned works created for Dark Ecology. There are works by HC Gilje (Barents – Mare Incognitum; The Crossing; Mikro with Justin Bennett), Joris Strijbos (‘Machine Synaesthetics’, an interview about his work IsoScope), Espen Sommer Eide (Material Vision – Silent Reading; ‘A Vertical Perspective’ – a text about his collaboration with Signe Lidén on Altitude and History). Some artists were already presented in more depth in a previous Sonic Acts book, The Geologic Imagination (2015), but are present in Living Earth as well: Raviv Ganchrow (Long Wave Synthesis), Karl Lemieux and BJ Nilsen (unearthed), Marijn de Jong (with a photo essay Grey Zone) and Femke Herregraven (Staring into the Ice). Other interesting commissions and chapters in Living Earth include: Signe Lidén (krysning/пересечение/conflux), Justin Bennett (Vilgiskoddeoayvinyarvi: Wolf Lake on the Mountains), Hilary Jeffery (Murmansk Spaceport), Cecilia Jonsson (Prospecting: a Geological Survey of Greys), Lucy Railton and Russell Haswell (Unknown) and the Secret Chambers I and II, two nights of live performances curated by Anya Kuts and Ivan Zoloto. “Participating in the Dark Ecology journey was an extraordinary opportunity to witness the dark matters of environmental change firsthand through direct contact with the landscapes in which we travelled. This book reflects upon these encounters, entangling our proximate and local experiences with the global processes of accelerated climate change.” – Susan Schuppli As a catalogue of texts and visual essays from the Dark Ecology project, Living Earth not only engages in a vibrant conversation with the previous Sonic Acts book The Geologic Imagination, but is also an introduction to the ongoing contemporary debates about the nature, ecology, art and ‘mesh’ that we live in. The third edition of the art, research and commissioning project Dark Ecology will take place between 8 and 12 June 2016 in the border zone between Norway and Russia, with events scheduled in the Pasvik Valley and Kirkenes (NO) as well as in the surroundings of Nikel (RU). Over the course of five days, a group of more than 50 artists, researchers, curators, writers and organisers, will travel from Northern Norway to North West Russia. While the previous Journey took place in the dark winter season, the third one will take place during the Arctic summer, with sunlight for most of the day and night. Living Earth – Field Notes from Dark Ecology Project 2014 – 2016 Edited by Mirna Belina Book, 256 pp., English text, illustrated Published by Sonic Acts Press Design by Arthur Roeloffzen Price: € 16,50 More information about the Dark Ecology project and the Living Earth publication can be found at www.darkecology.net or www.sonicacts.com ------- NOT FOR PUBLICATION ------- For further information please contact: Netherlands: Bas van den Broeke: [email protected] / +31 6 54907788 Norway: [email protected] / +47 41649181 Download press releases and hi-res images here Partners Arctic Encounters (University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett University, the University of Iceland, Roskilde University, and The Arctic University of Norway), Fridaymilk, PNEK, Roman Khoroshilov, Visitor Centre of Øvre Pasvik National Park, Childrens’ Art School Nikel, School No 20 Nikel, Barents Travel (Nikel), Full of Nothing, the municipalities of Nikel and Sør-Varanger, Sør-Varanger Filmklubb, Landmark/Kunsthall Bergen and Borealis Festival. Dark Ecology is part of Changing Weathers – networked responses to geophysical, geopolitical and technological culture-shifts across Europe. It is initiated by the Arctic Perspective Initiative (API) and coordinated by Zavod Projekt Atol (SI) in partnership with Sonic Acts (NL), RIXC (LV), Finnish Society of Bioart (FI), Hilde Methi (NO), Time’s Up (AT) and Ljudmila (SI). Changing Weathers is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Funders Dark Ecology is generously funded by BarentsKult, Public Art Norway (KORO/URO), Arts Council Norway, Creative Industries Fund NL, Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, PNEK (Production Network for Electronic Art, Norway), Mondriaan Fund, Paradiso, Finnmark County Municipality, Bergen Municipality, Norwegian Visual Artists Association (NBK), Nordland County Council and Troms County Council. .

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