Song Circus is developing «UPSWEEP-WHISTLE-BLOOP» in collaboration with vocalist and composer Stine Janvin Motland (NO (www.stinejanvinmotland.com) and visual artist Jasmijn Visser (NL).
During the cold war, the United States Navy set up sound surveillannce system SOSUS, in order to detect the presence of Soviet Submarines in the Pacific Ocean. SOSUS used the SOFAR channel, a horizontal layer of water at which depth the speed of sound is at its minimum. After the cold war the hydrophones remained and were taken over by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. During the past decades the NOAA picked up many sounds with an unidentified source. These sounds, such Upsweep, Whistle and Bloop might originate from natural phenomena, such as icebergs, earthquakes or whale movements, but could also stem from other manmade vessels, such as submarines.
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.