Singing Soil is a large-scale sound and light installation about the living world beneath the ground. Underground recordings make soil activity audible through spatial sound.
Singing Soil was originally commissioned by Schemerlicht Festival // Year 2023
Singing Soil reveals the hidden ecosystem beneath our feet. In collaboration with Bodemzicht farm, we used specialized underground microphones to capture sounds from living soil and make microbial activity audible.
The installation combines multichannel soil soundscapes with Singing Bowl Light Sculptures. The singing bowls operate within a stochastic system, influencing and responding to the soil's sonic landscape.
The work reflects the balance between living soil and human intervention: when interference becomes too strong, the world beneath the surface fades into silence.
The installation merges multi-channel soil soundscapes with a series of Singing Bowl Light Sculptures, forming a dialogue between organic life and human intervention. The singing bowls operate within a complex stochastic system, influencing and responding to the soil’s sonic landscape. In a state of balance, natural and human-made elements enrich one another—but when interference grows too strong, the world beneath us fades into silence. Singing Soil challenges us to reconsider how little we truly perceive: by actively listening, we can restore our connection to the life hidden below and deepen our understanding of the world we stand on.
