Wave | Exploring sound solastalgia

by Marie Koldkjær Højlund, Sandra Kopljar, 2021/2022 

Nature sounds are often seen as relaxing and understood as reconnecting our minds and bodies with something primeval.

Such sounds are used for stress recovery in the fields of medicine and psychology, as well as in our personal meditation app downloaded on our phone. At the same time, continuous climate anxiety has invaded many personal experiences in relation to nature environments and phenomena. An anxiety that seems impossible to escape. The piece “Wave—exploring sound solastalgia” pinpoints the listener’s internal conflict of something safe and calming, e.g. the sound of water, that at the same time may suggest something disastrous and dangerous—a raised sea level across the globe. In this sense, the piece also deals with fluctuating affects through the oscillation between scales—the local situation of sitting on a bench (remembering the sea), and a global climate crisis in the making, as well as a contrast between private and collective experience and responsibility. 

Marie Koldkjær Højlund is a Composer, Sound Artist, and Associate Professor of Sound Studies at Aarhus University. 

Sandra Kopljar is an Architect and Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment, LTH-Lund University. 

Information about the project you will find at Website Sound Environment Centre | Wave. 

The sound piece Wave was commissioned by the Sound Environment Centre in 2021. The sound is also played at the Sound Bench during this exhibition. Read more about the Sound Bench at Website Sound Environment Centre | Sound Bench.

Find your way to the Sound Bench | Google Maps.