PRESS RELEASE | MAY 26, AMSTERDAM 
          Sonic Acts’ publication Living Earth – Field Notes 
          from the Dark Ecology Project 2014 – 2016 is out now 
          Dark Ecology is an international art project exploring the relationship 
          between humans, things and nature, as well as current ideas on 
          ecology. 
          Living Earth is a new book filled with ideas, conversations, lectures, and 
          documentation relating to commissioned installations, soundwalks, concerts and 
          performances made for and during the Dark Ecology project. This three-year 
          project, a collaboration between Sonic Acts and the Norwegian curator Hilde 
          Methi, was held from 2014 to 2016 in different places in Norway and Russia and 
          included three curated ‘Journeys’. Living Earth is a recreation of these research 
          trips to the Barents Region, from Kirkenes and Svanvik in Norway to Nikel, 
          Zapolyarny and Murmansk in Russia. The publication Living Earth is available 
          now at www.sonicacts.com. 
                                                                 
          The project was inspired by Timothy Morton’s concept of ‘dark ecology’ and his philosophy of 
          ‘ecology without Nature’. Morton offers a radical criticism of the modernist way of thinking about 
          nature as something outside of us, and instead proposes an interconnected ‘mesh’ of all living 
          and non-living objects. He ruminates on this idea in his essay for Living Earth entitled ‘What Is 
          Dark Ecology’, stating at the outset that ecological awareness is ‘weird weirdness’. 
          Living Earth is a 256-page trip with artists, thinkers, curators and other Dark Ecology participants 
          into the dark space of rethinking nature and art, and it also contributes to the contemporary 
          Anthropocene debate. The motivations behind the project and its impact are discussed in the 
          interview with the curatorial team titled ‘Outside the Comfort Zone’, which opens the book. 
          Besides Timothy Morton’s long essay the book contains contributions by Susan Schuppli (‘Dirty 
          Pictures’), and Berit Kristofferson (‘The Workable Arctic of Ice and Oil’), which examine the 
          consequences of the Anthropocene. There is an interview with Heather Davis (‘Queer Kinship’), 
        and in her essay about Margrethe Pettersen’s soundwalk (Living Land – Below as Above), Britt 
        Kramvig builds on the notion of ‘anthropo-not-seen’. Tatjana Gorbachewskaja and Katya 
        Larina discuss their research into the interaction between the Arctic environment and the 
        architecture of the Russian mining town Nikel (‘Nikel – The City as a Material’). Graham Harman 
        embarks on an interesting rethinking of Jakob von Uexküll’s influential book A Foray Into the 
        World of Animals and Humans and its notion of environment (‘Magic Uexküll’). 
          
        “What an amazing journey it was, through the 
        Arctic regions of Norway and Russia! Now 
        everyone can live or relive it through this feast of a 
        collection.” – Graham Harman 
          
        Living Earth is a catalogue too, as it documents and presents in different formats the 
        commissioned works created for Dark Ecology. There are works by HC Gilje (Barents – Mare 
        Incognitum; The Crossing; Mikro with Justin Bennett), Joris Strijbos (‘Machine Synaesthetics’, 
        an interview about his work IsoScope), Espen Sommer Eide (Material Vision – Silent Reading; 
        ‘A Vertical Perspective’ – a text about his collaboration with Signe Lidén on Altitude and History). 
        Some artists were already presented in more depth in a previous Sonic Acts book, The Geologic 
        Imagination (2015), but are present in Living Earth as well: Raviv Ganchrow (Long Wave 
        Synthesis), Karl Lemieux and BJ Nilsen (unearthed), Marijn de Jong (with a photo essay Grey 
        Zone) and Femke Herregraven (Staring into the Ice). 
         
        Other interesting commissions and chapters in Living Earth include: Signe Lidén 
        (krysning/пересечение/conflux), Justin Bennett (Vilgiskoddeoayvinyarvi: Wolf Lake on the 
        Mountains), Hilary Jeffery (Murmansk Spaceport), Cecilia Jonsson (Prospecting: a Geological 
        Survey of Greys), Lucy Railton and Russell Haswell (Unknown) and the Secret Chambers I and 
        II, two nights of live performances curated by Anya Kuts and Ivan Zoloto. 
         
        “Participating in the Dark Ecology journey was an 
        extraordinary opportunity to witness the dark 
        matters of environmental change firsthand through 
        direct contact with the landscapes in which we 
        travelled. This book reflects upon these 
        encounters, entangling our proximate and local 
        experiences with the global processes of 
        accelerated climate change.” – Susan Schuppli 
         
        As a catalogue of texts and visual essays from the Dark Ecology project, Living Earth not only 
        engages in a vibrant conversation with the previous Sonic Acts book The Geologic Imagination, 
        but is also an introduction to the ongoing contemporary debates about the nature, ecology, art 
        and ‘mesh’ that we live in.  
         
        The third edition of the art, research and commissioning project Dark Ecology will take place 
        between 8 and 12 June 2016 in the border zone between Norway and Russia, with events 
        scheduled in the Pasvik Valley and Kirkenes (NO) as well as in the surroundings of Nikel (RU). 
        Over the course of five days, a group of more than 50 artists, researchers, curators, writers and 
        organisers, will travel from Northern Norway to North West Russia. While the previous Journey 
         took place in the dark winter season, the third one will take place during the Arctic summer, with 
         sunlight for most of the day and night. 
          
         Living Earth – Field Notes from Dark Ecology Project 2014 – 2016 
         Edited by Mirna Belina 
         Book, 256 pp., English text, illustrated 
         Published by Sonic Acts Press 
         Design by Arthur Roeloffzen 
         Price: € 16,50 
          
         More information about the Dark Ecology project and the Living Earth publication can be found at 
         www.darkecology.net or www.sonicacts.com  
          
         ------- NOT FOR PUBLICATION -------  
          
         For further information please contact: 
         Netherlands: Bas van den Broeke: bas@sonicacts.com / +31 6 54907788 
         Norway: irem.muftu@gmail.com / +47 41649181 
          
         Download press releases and hi-res images here 
          
         Partners  
         Arctic Encounters (University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett University, the University of Iceland, Roskilde 
         University, and The Arctic University of Norway), Fridaymilk, PNEK, Roman Khoroshilov, Visitor Centre of 
         Øvre Pasvik National Park, Childrens’ Art School Nikel, School No 20 Nikel, Barents Travel (Nikel), Full of 
         Nothing, the municipalities of Nikel and Sør-Varanger, Sør-Varanger Filmklubb, Landmark/Kunsthall Bergen 
         and Borealis Festival. 
          
         Dark Ecology is part of Changing Weathers – networked responses to geophysical, geopolitical and 
         technological culture-shifts across Europe. It is initiated by the Arctic Perspective Initiative (API) and 
         coordinated by Zavod Projekt Atol (SI) in partnership with Sonic Acts (NL), RIXC (LV), Finnish Society of 
         Bioart (FI), Hilde Methi (NO), Time’s Up (AT) and Ljudmila (SI). Changing Weathers is co-funded by the 
         Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. 
           
         Funders  
         Dark Ecology is generously funded by BarentsKult, Public Art Norway (KORO/URO), Arts Council Norway, 
         Creative Industries Fund NL, Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, PNEK (Production 
         Network for Electronic Art, Norway), Mondriaan Fund, Paradiso, Finnmark County Municipality, Bergen 
         Municipality, Norwegian Visual Artists Association (NBK), Nordland County Council and Troms County 
         Council.