Another Deep
(2024)

Another Deep is an A/V live performance in collaboration with Sébastien Robert exploring the impending deep-sea mining in the Svalbard region (NO) and its inherent implications on our environment, geopolitics, and indigenous ecosystems. The project seeks to facilitate a more informed and nuanced discussion of a hidden process that is out of sight but whose full impact is not yet clear, while highlighting the stark contrast and inherent tensions in the region, reflecting on climate change, industrialisation and resource exploitation. Development of Another Deep is currently in progress.

Another Deep started during the Arctic Circle Residency program, where Sébastien Robert and Mark IJzerman collected a range of audio and visual material. Sonically, both artists collected recordings of other- than-human such as cetaceans (belugas, minke whales, sperm whales), as well as melting glaciers (under, on and above water) with the help of dedicated hydrophones and ultrasensitive microphones. Underwater, they gathered visual footage from a surprisingly rich ocean floor down to -100m with a drone combined with a digital microscope. This footage includes other-than-human beings invisible to the human eye, kelp forest ecosystems and intriguing cavities. On land, they used medium-format analogue photographs and 3D LIDAR scans to capture various textures (rock formations, glaciers, whale bones) and abandoned mining sites.

Live A/V performance. Laptop with custom video software, modular synthesizer, controllers.

In collaboration with Sébastien Robert. Co-produced by BEK - Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts), V2_, Lab for the Unstable Media, Chroniques, Biennale des Imaginaires Numériques, the GMEM - Centre national de création musicale, Multiplica / Rotondes. Part of the CHRONIQUES CREATIONS Platform, supported by the DRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the Région Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and the city of Marseille. With the financial support of Mondriaan Fund, Stroom Den Haag, French Institute Norway and Culture Moves Europe. With the technical help of Michelle Barker (underwater drone), Diane Willow (microscopy), the EYE Museum, the National Library of Norway and the University of Edinburgh (archives). Initiated during the Arctic Circle Residency (Svalbard, NO). Documentation photos by Pieter Kers during Sonic Acts 2024 and during the V2_ TRYDAY by Fenna de Jong.

With thorough research dedicated to collecting audiovisual materials, the A/V performance provides a distinctive view of the textures, entities, and elements in the Svalbard region. Using audiovisual composition, it seeks to translate an ambiguous and uncertain future into a concrete and unsettling present. This approach invites the audience to reflect on the repercussions of anthropogenic activities that often go unseen.

Mark IJzerman

Another Deep (2024)

Another Deep
(2024)