Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts

In a two-week studio residency at BEK, Ingrid Bjørnaali, Fabian Lanzmaier and Maria Simmons have been working on “Land Bodies, Decomposing Mass” – an audiovisual project focusing on peatlands and their interpretation through various recording and 3D computing technologies. 

Using photogrammetry images, field recordings and synthesized sounds, the artists aim to create an immersive space, an environment with its own rules and behaviours, an ecosystem open to be entered and experienced by visitors.

By wandering through the virtual landscape, the viewer will become familiar with specific bogs in Norway, Finland and Canada, or rather, an abstracted version of these bogs, which are shaped through the interpretation by the camera, the process of photogrammetry and our own comprehension of the sound environment. 

The soundscape consists of transformed field recordings made in the physical peatlands as well as synthesized sounds, creating another layer of abstraction and a shifted perspective also within the audio domain. The sound is projected through a multichannel audio system.

The work will be shown as an audiovisual installation, first as part of the group exhibition “Splinten i øyet” at Nitja senter for samtidskunst 17 June–6 August 2023, and later as an interactive, online exhibition. 

During the studio residency at BEK, Bjørnaali, Lanzmaier and Simmons were editing sound and video materials, testing various setups for the installation and recording a voice-over for the video.

Ingrid Bjørnaali (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist from Kristiansand, based in Oslo. In her video practice, she explores specific biotopes with digital camera technologies, and proceed to work with these bits and pieces of nature based on their virtual outcomes. Bjørnaali is interested in various processes of learning from- and interpreting our surrounding nature and co-existing species through e.g. photogrammetry that relates to satellite mapping and mediation of anthropocentric spaces and monuments. She graduated with an MFA in 2021 from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, with parts of her studies spent in Helsinki at the Taideyliopiston Kuvataideakatemia’s “Time and Space Arts”. Works have been exhibited in Norway, Finland, Croatia, Canada, Malta and in international online biennials. https://www.ingridkbjornaali.com/

Fabian Lanzmaier (he/him) works with sound and music, as a solo artist as well as in several formations combining sound with installations, theatre, dance, moving image and live performances. In his work he uses audio synthesis to explore aspects of texture and structure of sound as well as its presence within space. He is experimenting with perception and ideas of natural/artificial sounds, fluid and ambiguous environments. A maze into surreal surroundings of organic structures in constant movement and disruption. https://www.fabianlanzmaier.com/

Maria Simmons (she/they) is a hybrid artist living in Guelph, ON (Canada). She investigates potentialized environments through the creation of hybrid sculpture and installation. Their work embraces contamination as an act of collaboration. She collects garbage, grows yeast, ferments plants, and nurtures fruit flies. She makes art that eats itself. They hold an MFA from the University of Waterloo and a BFA from McMaster University. They have recently exhibited with the Visual Art Centre of Clarington, Gallery Stratford, Trinity Square Video, and Centre3. She has completed residencies at Mustarinda (Finland), BioArt Society (Finland), Silent Barn (USA), and Factory Media Centre (Canada). https://maria-simmons.com/

Photos: Maria Simmons (1, 4–6), BEK (2–3).