Background Info
In recent years, my ongoing research interests and working materials have primarily focused on stone—mainly in a sculptural sense, involving form, composition, and materiality. Since the end of 2023, I have also begun to work with sound through a specific sonic-spatial approach. This involves recording and processing soundscapes I create and interpreting them as part of an evolving atlas. Although I work with stone and sound at the same time, I didn't intend to do a project like 'the sound of stone' :) Up to this moment, sometimes there was a connection between stone and sound, but if not, not necessarily to force it to be connected and presentable. Thus, With this BIP project, I aim to continue both my sonic and material-based practices while exploring them through new perspectives and methods.
Project description
As an Asian, my life in Europe has often been nomadic. These years of experience have led me to explore the oscillation and tension between massiveness (e.g. architecture, landscape) and ephemerality (e.g. sound) - a metaphorical approach to reflect my nomadic life. Continuing this interest, the fieldwork in Narva will be based on a reflection on how geological analysis and sonic approaches - such as mineral classification, cross-sectional landscape mapping and field recording - can be reinterpreted as metaphorical fragments of individual existence and ways of life. These fragments, like scientific samples or sound data, open up non-linear readings of space, time and lived experience - resonating with the nomadic rhythms and discontinuities of everyday life. The interrelationship between layered matter and perceptual experience becomes central. Rather than forcing a literal connection between sound and stone, I focus on how both can serve as tools for observing the interstices of a place or a self - without narrative closure, but with open-ended resonance. Although the starting point is rooted in personal experience, I believe it also speaks to broader shared conditions within post-industrial landscapes/scenes - where fragmentation, displacement and perceptual layering have become common modes of existence.
In addition to the online archive, the expected results could become a part of my ongoing project 'Atlas' as an installation with an accompanying booklet.
Technical Description
1. Field recording and related sonic methods
- Sound collection using ambisonic or binaural microphones (still undecided, currently testing both)
- Preparing and experimenting with additional devices such as a DIY hydrophone and a contact microphone
2. Limestone: sample collecting and documentation (photography/video)
Although oil shale is the central focus of the BIP project, I am particularly interested in limestone. I am currently working with limestones from two other countries and would like to collect local limestone samples for further analysis and comparison. I am also intrigued by the spatial distribution and cross-sectional view between oil shale and limestone layers. If there are accessible sites or samples where these transitions are visible, it would be extremely valuable for my research.
References
- Augoyard, Jean-François & Torgue, Henry. (2006). Sonic Experience: A Guide to Everyday Sounds. McGill-Queen's University Press.
- Cardiff, Janet & Miller, Georges Bures. (2005). The Walk Book. Edited by Mirjam Schaub. Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König.
- Cox, Christoph. (2017). “Sonic Thought.” In Bernd Herzogenrath (Ed.), Sonic Thinking: A Media Philosophical Approach (pp. 99–110). Bloomsbury Academic.
- Pasolini, Pier Paolo. (1976). “The Cinema of Poetry.” In Bill Nichols (Ed.), Movies and Methods, Vol. 1, pp. 542–558. University of California Press.
- Schulze, Holger. (2020). Sonic Fiction. Bloomsbury Academic.
- Warburg, Aby. (1938/1939). “A Lecture on Serpent Ritual.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 2, pp. 277–292.
- Wulf, Andrea. (2015). The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt. John Murray.