Featured Artist
Nikki Lindt recording photo: Joe Klementovich
Artist Nikki Lindt created the interactive pubic artwork titled The Underground Sound Project in collaboration with NYC Parks, USDA Forest Service, the Nature of Cities, and Prospect Park Alliance. It explores the surprising and resonant world of sounds that can be heard underground in environments such as soils, streams, and trees, highlighting collaborations between art and science. The interactive project will be up in Prospect Park starting May14th for a year until May 14th 2023.
What is the genesis of this show and what will the visitor encounter?
In 2018, during a work trip to the Arctic to collaborate with scientists studying thawing permafrost, artist Nikki Lindt noticed sounds inside thermokarst failures, which are deep holes in the ground created by thawing permafrost. There she recorded her first underground sound. Ever since, she has continued recording underground acoustics wherever she can; from Alaskan Tundras, to the forests of the Northeast, all the way to the natural areas of New York City.
In New York City, Lindt discovered how human created sounds often affect this subterranean world in unexpected ways. The Underground Sound Project encourages exploration of this exciting and mysterious frontier but also asks people to slow down and listen deeply. And by doing so, gain a more intimate view and connection to the expansive and mysterious world right beneath our feet.
The Underground Sound Project Soundwalk installation opens May 14th 2-4pm and can be experienced in Prospect Park from May 14, 2022 to May 14, 2023. Using a posted QR code at designated locations along the walk, visitors will be able to experience the corresponding subsurface sounds. Stops along the walk have subsurface recordings from Prospect Park, other NYC parks and rural NY state, creating connection between these communities and ecosystems.
Nikki Lindt recording photo: Joe Klementovich
Nikki Lindt, The Underground Sound Project at Prospect Park, trailhead by Dog Beach, May 14 2022 through May 14th 2023, Please bring headphones and phone for best experience
Nikki Lindt is a New York City-based artist who grew up in the Netherlands and the United States. She works primarily in the mediums of painting, video and (underground) sound on longer term projects. She often collaborates with ecologists, philosophers, social scientists, sociologists and others to examine climate change and relationship to place. She has participated in many residencies at field stations including, the Toolik Field Station, in the Arctic (where she is project leader in an ongoing project), Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, and the Urban Field Station in New York City.