Jana Winderen by Julia Morrissey

Jana Winderen

Jana Winderen is an artist focussing on audio environments and ecology. She was educated in fine art at Goldsmiths in London, and has a background in mathematics, chemistry and fish ecology from the University of Oslo. She has been working with sound since the early 90s as a student.

She records sounds with a variety of equipment, focussing on sounds that are hidden or difficult for humans to access, especially underwater. These sounds are used for compositions in live environments, to create installations for film, dance, radio, CD, cassette and vinyl productions.

Chosen Works

Spring Bloom in the Marginal Ice Zone

Album released in 2018, based on recordings taken in the Barents sea near Spitsbergen. The marginal ice zone is the area of ice that grows and shrinks into the open sea from winter to summer. The sounds on the album were recorded during the spring algae bloom, when the sun returns over the horizon in the arctic. Sea plants then can begin to photosysnthesize, and provide food for the ecosystem for the entire year. It is also the largest carbon sink on the planet.

The sound of ice melting and cracking can be heard, and a variety of sea life underwater including bearded seals, migrating species such as humpbacks and orcas, and the sound of hunting seithe and spawning cod. All of these species depend on the spring bloom event.

Sounds are recorded underwater using hydrophones and also above water using a variety of field recording techniques, and then mixed together into a composition. The album also features an interview with biologist Carlos Duerte as the first track who explains the spring bloom phenomenon in detail. Then follows two recordings of the same track mixed differently for playing on headphones and playing on speakers. The track is ambiguous in terms of time, it is left open to imagination Spring Bloom in the Marginal Ice Zone is the latest release of Winderen, and one of a series of album releases exploring underwater sounds. In addition to the album released digitally and on cd, the piece has also been played in a series of locations on outdoor speakers. Pictured below the work being played outdoors in Amsterdam.

Scientific background

Winderen’s work explores sound in the ocean, and gives access to soundscapes otherwise impossible to hear. Her work illuminates the delicacy of the soundscapes in the ocean that allow for the communication of other species, and gives perspective and intimacy to the problem of ocean noise created by human action. It is also concerned with climate change, most notably in Spring Bloom in the Marginal Ice Zone.

Winderen made a conscious choice to work with sound instead of objects during the 90s, in order to not create things that “tend to become garbage.” She sees sound as a physical medium despite being immaterial.

SOUND IN THE OCEAN

Sound travels almost five time faster in water than in air. The speed that sound travels in water depends on temperature, pressure and salinity, making a complicated kind of landscape in the ocean of different areas of sound. The layer where the surface ocean meets the deep ocean, a place of rapid temperature change, acts as a channel for sound. Here, sounds can travel very far, and some animals use this channel for long distance navigation. Above this layer, sound tends to bounce back up to the surface, and below, sound bounces back down into the deep.

THE HEARD ISLAND FEASIBILITY TEST

In January-February 1991 an acoustic source lowered from a ship near Heard Island in the southern Indian Ocean was used to transmit coded signals that were detected throughout the world’s oceans.

SOUND AND MARINE LIFE

Animals in the ocean navigate this landscape using sound. Sound is the primary language of the ocean, as light is limited and many animals in the ocean have much more sensitive hearing organs than seeing. Fish for example have a swim bladder organ connected to the inner ear which regulates their depth but also senses vibrations and pressure (pictured below). Marine animals use sound passively for detection of predators and prey, navigation, proximity perception of co-species in school raft or colony, to perceive changes in their environment such as tides, currents, and seismic movement. The term “acoustic illumination” is used to describe the way marine animals use sound much like daylight vision. Many marine animals also use sound actively, creating sound for communication and guidance of others in their species, for territorial and social relations, echolocation, stunning and apprehending prey, and long distance navigation.

HUMAN SOUND IN THE OCEAN

Human sound in the ocean comes from a variety of sources, including explosions, seismic exploration in the oil and gas industry, sonar, and acoustic deterrent devices (which keep animals away from a chosen area). It is also a byproduct of shipping and industrial activities. Shipping and seismic exploration contribute the most to noise pollution in the ocean. Over the past few decades the shipping contribution to ambient noise has increased by as much as 12 dB, coincident with a significant increase in the number and size of vessels comprising the world’s commercial shipping fleet. During this time, oil exploration and construction activities along continental margins have moved into deeper water.

Noises in the ocean. The graphic above shows how noise in the ocean relates, and how loud noises from human activity like ship- ping and seismic exploration can be compared to the sound of animals. This can prevent them from communicating, navigating and finding sources of food.

point of transmission and where it was received

the “acoustic source”

Methods

“I am concerned with finding unknown sources of sound, sound we do not know is there, or cannot reach with our senses. It is a very concentrated listening process, something which is unknown, unseen, not obvious what it is, like a search through sound, and not through looking at and then listening to. Close your eyes while recording, then follow the sound, and investigate the audible and not the first seen or heard.”

Winderen has a multi step process consisting of research, recording and composing. The research includes reading, talking to local people and scientists, and studying maps. And returning to the same place at different times. Recording can be done in one day or over several weeks depending on the nature of the project. Winderen records underwater with hydrophones and also above water sometimes simultaneously with a variety of field recording microphones. In some cases the work becomes also a balance between keeping the equipment and the body functioning while recording for long periods outside (eg in extreme cold). She describes having memories of recordings to draw from when putting a composition together.