SADE ON TOISENLAISTA NYT (THE RAINS ARE DIFFERENT NOW), 2020
Three-channel sound installation
Directional speakers, profile lights, media players
Constantly changing loop
The sound installation Sade on toisenlaista nyt (The Rains Are Different Now), created in collaboration with cultural anthropologist Inkeri Aula, is a flow of sensory observations gathered from various locations. Constantly in flux, the work invites viewers to pause and perceive what the ghosts of our environment have to say. The piece consists of three simultaneous parts: no longer, now, and not yet.
The text of the sound installation is based on walking interviews conducted as part of the multinational SENSOTRA (Sensory Transformations and Transgenerational Environmental Relationships in Europe 1950-2020) research project. These interviews explore people of different ages and their experiences of changes in their living environments over the past decades. The work also incorporates local observations and memory material collected from the Kokemäenjoki River area using a sensory biographical method during the summer of 2020.
Through sensory memories, we can reach towards profound questions, such as how cultural history manifests in individual experiences and our relationship with the environment amidst the ecological crisis. The observer cannot remain an external spectator: we do not gain knowledge of the world by standing outside of it; we know because we are part of the world ourselves.
The concept of environmental “ghosts” serves as inspiration for the observations selected from the research material for the installation. These ghosts are omnipresent: in the life cycle of a grain of sand, the sediments at the bottom of the Kokemäenjoki River, and the traces of long-lost species, such as the fossil fuels powering even the sound beams of the installation. Ghosts remind us that the past remains ever-present and must not be forgotten.
Noticing the ghosts of our living environment challenges the perceived uniqueness of the human species in relation to other organisms. These observations reveal the interconnectedness of various entities, from photosynthesizing plants to the minerals in our phones and the soil bacteria affecting our health. At the same time, attuning to other sounds and temporalities reminds the observer that we, too, are the ghosts of the future.
The work was produced with the kind support the Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike) and Satakunta Regional Fund of the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Exhibition text (in Finnish) AulaNiskanenSalo_sadeontoisenlaistanyt.pdf (152kt) (in Finnish)