Sounds of Life: Jana Winderen and the Art of Listening
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
On her field trips around the world, sound artist Jana Winderen pays particular attention to audio environments and to creatures which are hard for humans to access, both physically and aurally–deep under water, inside ice, or in frequency ranges inaudible to the human ear.
She describes her work as looking at and listening to “how humans have been treating the planet and the creatures and animals we share the planet with.”
Listening can tell you about the health of an environment. Fresh water biologists count and identify the species of underwater insects to determine the health of a body of fresh water which, Winderen says, can also be measured by listening to the sound of the insects present. In a similar way she is also listening to the health of a coral reef and other underwater environments.
Winderen’s background in biochemistry, mathematics, and fish ecology, gives her a scientific basis from which to analyze her explorations and share findings with scientists. She further hopes to broaden people’s awareness beyond an anthropocentric frame of mind. Tuning in to plants, insects and animals, is a means of gleaning their experiences and realizing how all life is interconnected. This in turn can be a basis for environmental problem-solving.
Human generated sounds cause stress and damage to wildlife both above and under-water. Listening to Jana Winderen’s sound art of sea ice in the Barents Sea and around the North Pole is a beautiful and intensely moving sonic experience, communicating the nature of the ice—its drift and movement—and the life on, inside and underneath it. With current plans for oil drilling along the edge of the sea ice and the opening up of the Northeast Passage, what might the implications be for the ecosystems in the area?
Politicians and corporations must learn to listen… to what scientists advise, to local populations who have witnessed environmental changes over generations, and to the environment itself.
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Listen to Surge (2020) and Out of Range (2014) featured in Art’s New Natures: Digital Dynamics in Contemporary Nordic Art. The program was made possible by Nordisk Kulturfond and Nordic Council of Ministers
Jana Winderen’s site-specific and spatial audio installations and concerts have been exhibited and performed internationally in major institutions and public spaces.
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Sounds of Life: Jana Winderen and the Art of Listening was originally published in the UN 75th anniversary issue of CENTERPOINT NOW "Are we there yet?", the publication and ©2020 of World Council of Peoples for the United Nations, co-produced with Streaming Museum.