Remco de Kluizenaar next to the installation that allows you to dive into North Sea research. Photography Marieke Enter This Saturday (19 August), in Wageningen’s Grote Kerk, you can see, and even more importantly listen to two projects inspired by the work of WUR researchers by Wageningen sound artist Remco de Kluizenaar.
The first project is De Kluizenaar’s musical translation of the protein transition, the research theme on which he also did a campus audio tour in his role as WUR artist in residence. The second project is an audio impression of a performance he developed with Professor of Marine Animal Ecology Tinka Murk: ‘Voice of the North Sea’. At the Grote Kerk, you can listen to an intriguing chorus of underwater sounds combined with the voice of soprano Tineke Roseboom.
The North Sea sounds largely consist of research sound recordings from WUR’s fish sensing box, a device that collects underwater camera images, sounds, and DNA samples for analysis. Master’s student in Marine Animal Ecology Anna Berestova searched through hours and hours of audio data for the most unusual and most suitable sounds for this project.
Cross-links
De Kluizenaar also drew on other sources, he says. “When Tinka and I started this project, lines of communication soon developed with other researchers and artists working on similar material, such as Leiden acoustic ecologist Hans Slabbekoorn and German sound artist Ansgar Silies. This led to fun cross-links of Dutch, Belgian and German scientists providing artists with sounds, and vice versa. Not among themselves, though: researchers are weary of other researchers running off with their often laboriously collected sounds.” He smiles: “And the same goes for sound artists.”
Speaks to the imagination
The preview at the Grote Kerk gives an impression of the sound art component of ‘Voice of the North Sea’. But the show encompasses more than that. It combines a lecture by Murk on her research with scientific underwater recordings, live music and projections; it is a mix of art and imaginative science communication.
The show (in English) can be experienced in its entirety one more time. On the evening of 7 September, Murk and De Kluizenaar will perform ‘Voice of the North Sea’ for the third and final time, following two successful editions earlier this summer. The venue is the bblthk in Wageningen; admission is free.
