Soiva Tuleva sound installation asks what the Finnish forest will sound like in 2085.

What if the forest moved around the city? What if we could have conversations with the forest? What would the soundscape be like in the forest of the future?

On Wednesday, August 28, 2024, we kicked off in Yö Galleria, Helsinki, the two-year journey with my immersive sound installation, The Soiva Tuleva. During its first five days, the installation invited the audience to imagine the multiple potential futures of the Finnish forests. I curated and compiled the future prototype with the help of creative technologist Marko Tanninen, the BIODIFUL project, and other experts. The future prototype continues my long work combining art and futures research.

The project takes visitors on a journey to the future, and the storytelling medium is sound art. The future prototype is a combination of imagination and reality. In this prototype, research-based knowledge and nature recordings from the present meet imagined soundscapes from the future. Futures research helps us understand what might happen in the future, and future prototypes help us experiment and test these events in practice. We will assemble soundscapes with the exhibition visitors using different forest-related audio clips.

Soiva tuleva - Yö Galleria 2024, Photography by Saara Jäämies

The pilot of the Soiva Tuleva exhibition presents different elements related to climate change in Finland, such as the forest, the built environment, extreme weather phenomena, the edible frogs, the boreal owl, and the pollinators. Each element plays in its speaker, and the audience can influence the room's soundscape. The exhibition also features a "Black Swan" microphone, through which the public can participate in the work by leaving their message to the universe.

The black swan is an event that is impossible to predict, but it has a huge impact when it happens, for which we can develop an explanation afterward. I boldly invite the public to participate in future forest-related discussions through the audience microphone. This microphone—the Black Swan—is an answering machine. Please leave a message for the universe; it might ring back in an unforeseen situation.

Thank you to everyone who joined our first experiential week. I warmly welcome you to follow this journey of exploring our relationship with nature.

Workgroup:

The prototype's concept, sound design, and curation: Auri Annina Antinranta, Technology specialist Marko Tanninen, audio consulting: Mats Karlsson, content consulting Virpi Vaittinen and researchers Juulia Räikkönen (BIODIFUL/UTU), Ilari Sääksjärvi (BIODIFUL/UTU), Tommi Luoma (BIODIFUL/LUKE), Matti Salo (BIODIFUL/LUKE). The exhibition has also used material published by the Finnish Meteorological Institute and blog posts about the future of cities (e.g., Forum Virium Helsinki). The soundscapes of the exhibition have been recorded, e.g., In Heinola, one of the Cities in the network of National Urban Parks (NUP star cities). The prototype also uses recordings from various soundbanks. New Narratives oy produced the work.