Living Matters - A Soundwalk Meandering Through Refshaleøen
Notice: Temporary Technical Issues
Due to a major update to the Echoes app, Living Matters is currently not working properly. You may experience app crashes, and sounds may play incorrectly, or not at all.
We advise against doing the soundwalk at this time, as we cannot guarantee a good experience — the technical issues may result in a frustrating experience rather than the intended one. We recommend waiting until we've resolved these issues before starting the walk.
If you've already done the soundwalk during this period and experienced these issues, we sincerely apologize — this isn't the experience we intended for you. Please feel free to contact us at info@kit.dk, once the technical issues are resolved, we'll make sure you get the opportunity to have the intended experience.
Thank you for your patience — please check back soon, or feel free to reach out with any questions. \*
Please download the walk with the arrow button above. This walk cannot be streamed.\*
Living Matters is a soundwalk through the harbour area Refshaleøen in Copenhagen — revealing hidden worlds beneath your feet and around you. Follow a trail of voices through trees, water, radio waves, forgotten histories and unexpected encounters. As you walk, Refshaleøen unfolds as a place where nature, industry, culture and countless forms of life are deeply intertwined.
Rather than explaining the world, Living Matters invites you to experience it differently — through listening, moving and imagining. Deep tourism.
While you drift through this area, sounds and words will float through your ears and mind — inspired by writers such as Rachel Carson, Emanuele Coccia, Donna Haraway, Andreas Malm, Ed Yong and countless others whose thinking has seeped into this work in ways not always traceable.
"Innumerable dancing microbes, digesting and transforming our waste. Birds flitting and fluttering, restless with the itch to fly south, to Spain. Sea turtles navigating by sensing Earth's magnetic field, while the echo of the Big Bang still buzzes throughout the universe."
Living Matters will be permanently available inside the Echoes app from August 8th onward. The soundwalk is in English and can be done anytime — it takes approximately 2 hours.
INSTRUCTIONS
• Make sure your phone and headphones are fully charged.
• Put on your headphones and turn off noise cancellation.
• Switch to flight mode once the walk has downloaded.
• Avoid using your phone during the walk.
The soundwalk works best in small groups of one or two people — try to stay immersed in the sound while remaining mindful of your surroundings. If you're in a larger group, please leave about 3 minutes between each pair's departure.
The soundwalk is GPS-triggered: sounds and stories appear automatically as you move through the landscape at your own pace. The map shows the route, but once you begin, you can put your phone away and let the experience unfold around you.
On 15-16 August, there will be a first 'Meet the Artist' with Johannes. He will introduce you to the experience before you set off on the walk and invite you to stay afterwards for a cup of coffee and a conversation about what you've experienced. I will be hosting a similar session later this year.
CREDITS
Concept, sound composition and writing — Sjoerd Leijten
Concept and routing — Johannes Bellinkx
Artistic advice and writing — Dennis Gaens
Voices — Sjoerd Leijten, Dennis Gaens, Eva Kijlstra, Inne Eysermans & Johannes Bellinkx
Bass Clarinet — Fie Schouten
Produced by — Metropolis – Københavns Internationale Teater, SoAP Maastricht, C-Takt / Dommelhof Neerpelt
Thanks to — Metropolis, Oleg Koefoed, By & Havn, Refshaleøens Ejendomsselskab, In Situ / Creative Europe, The Dutch Performing Arts Fund
References and inspiration — Rachel Carson, Andreas Malm, Ed Yong, T.S. Eliot, Donna Haraway, Emanuele Coccia, James Joyce and many more…
"Not to make things quieter, but to make them noisier. To jam the signal. To become disoriented. To circulate from Umwelt to Umwelt, from body to body, from sphere to sphere. To let millions of other bodies sprawl through our own and crawl back out again. To become termites in their organic skyscrapers."
