By and with Stine Janvin Motland (NO), visual artist Jasmijn Visser (NL) and Song Circus (NO)

The project’s thematic focus is a phenomenon that arose in the 1960s at the American research centre NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). In 1961, the U.S. activated SOSUS, a system for monitoring underwater sounds. The main goal of the operations was to detect and record the presence of Russian submarines. After the Cold War, the operation was shut down, and the system was made available to organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which in 1991 registered ‘Upsweep,’ the first of a series of unidentified sounds discovered during the 1990s. The sounds had qualities similar to icebergs, whales, or submarines. The sonar could not determine whether the sounds originated from organic or mechanical sources, and to this day, no one has succeeded in identifying them.

Using the ambiguous nature of the sounds, Visser and Motland creates a visual and auditive ecosystem. Vissers monumental drawing functions as a vessel on it’s own. In it, the balance between the machinelike, structural intervals and the organic movements are always at play; sometimes merging, collaborating, only to then to destruct again.

Concept: Stine Janvin Motland & Jasmijn Visser
Visuals: Jasmijn Visser
Composition: Stine Janvin Motland
Created with and performed by Song Circus: Liv Runesdatter, Signe-Irene Stangborli Time, Stine Janvin Motland, Eva Bjerga Haugen, Anita Kaasbøll
Costume design: Altinstark

Supported by Komponistenes Vederlagsfond, Stavanger Municipality, and Arts Council Norway