Plastic Hypersea

Update: As of Thursday 10 June 2021, the custom boat sails and ceramic sculptures have been uninstalled. However the audio walk is still accessible via the Echoes app.

Plastic Hypersea is an interactive, site-specific work by artist Sissel Marie Tonn that can be experienced at the NDSM Wharf in Amsterdam.

Set in the year 2099, Plastic Hypersea offers a guided, spatial experience that speculates on a possible future for the field of immunology in which it has merged with the field of Environmental Health. As the listener explores the terrain they are invited to imagine the environment as an extension of their immune system and to contemplate the many ways in which their bodies are entangled with microplastics in the sediments of Amsterdam’s waterways. Ultimately, Plastic Hypersea asks listeners to abandon the war metaphors haunting immunology and to contemplate a more expanded sense of self.

Produced in collaboration with musician and composer Vincenzo AcquAria Castellana and sound and recording artist BJ Nilsen, the geolocated sound experience is augmented with custom boat sails and ceramic sculptures, created by Sissel, which act as ‘membranes’ encoded with material and immaterial data about the hydrophobic industrial waste flowing through the waters of the Netherlands.

Created by Sissel Marie Tonn

Narration: Sallie Harmsen

Music and composition: Vincenzo AcquAria Castellana

Sound recording and mixing: BJ Nilsen

Commissioned by Sonic Acts in collaboration with Paradiso as part of Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.