To the Surface/Til overflaten – Maja S. K. Ratkje

To the Surface / Til overflaten is a site-specific sound work developed for Gruvene skulpturpark. The work is experienced from the platform at the innermost part of the open-pit mine, at a location where geologists and historians believe the extraction of iron ore originally began. Here, visitors stand surrounded by high rock walls and traces of several hundred years of human activity. The sound work takes these traces as its point of departure — from the mining that began in the late 16th century, through the period when the area was used as a waste dump, to the establishment of today’s footbridge and sculpture park.

In developing the work, Ratkje explored the mine through sound recordings. Using various tools, she struck, scraped and sonically examined rock walls, metal objects, water surfaces and other materials in the area. The result was a collection of more than 2,100 sound recordings made directly on site. The sounds were then organised into different groups and sequences, which serve as building blocks in the sound work’s constantly changing compositions.

The sound work is activated when visitors pass a sensor as they approach the platform. The work is controlled by an algorithm that continuously assembles new combinations of the sound material. On the roof corner of Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall, by the exit to the footbridge, a measuring station has been installed with sensors that register wind, temperature, humidity and time of day. These measurements are sent to a computer, which determines how the sound sequences are selected, processed, assembled and presented. Sometimes the soundscape is dense and intense; at other times, it is characterised by silence and long pauses. Since the weather conditions are constantly changing, the sound work does not repeat itself. Each playback is unique and shaped by the conditions on site in real time, when activated by the presence of visitors.

The six speakers mounted beneath the platform are directed towards the rock walls surrounding the open-pit mine. The sounds are therefore not sent directly towards the audience, but reflected back from the rock surfaces. In this way, the rock walls become an active part of the work’s acoustic design. The sound work does not appear isolated from its surroundings, but as part of a larger acoustic environment shaped by weather conditions, natural sounds and human activity nearby. The open-pit mine thus functions not only as the place where the work is presented, but as an active participant in the experience and formation of the work.

Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje (b. 1973, Trondheim) is a composer, vocalist and performer. She works at the intersection of contemporary music, improvisation, electronics and sound art, and is internationally known for her experimental and genre-crossing practice. Throughout her artistic career, Ratkje has explored the relationship between sound, technology, space and listening. In To the Surface / Til overflaten, these interests meet in a work where weather data, algorithms and sound recordings from the mine form the basis for continually new compositions.