Sissel Marie Tonn in residency with Fermenting Data

Sissel Marie Tonn is a Danish artist based in the Netherlands who explores the complex ways humans percieve, act upon and are entangled with their environments. The leading question in her work asks: Where do we perceive our bodies to end, and the environment to begin?

Sissel is one of the two artists commissioned to develop an artwork in response to the project Fermenting Data. The starting point is the invitation to contribute artistic interpretation of fermenting data. Building on her practice and expanding this to include situations, data, objects and other elements that can offer another understanding of fermenting data, Sissel develops Spagnum Time. This audio visual work is a speculative narrative that is told by three bog bodies, which, unlike the Graubale Man, have not been found.

The residency included a visit to the Mausgaard Museum and conversations with Pauline Asingh who is the curator of the Graubale Man. Much of the information from the conversation influenced the development of the work.

Sissel was also part of the Fermenting Data symposium organised in collaboration with Study of Technological, Ethical and Emerging Methodologies, a research group at Aarhus University https://cc.au.dk/en/steem/.

While in Aarhus, Sissel visited the many areas of the city, which are currently beeing developed, from Gellerup in the western parts to Godsbanen and the areas near Sydhaven in Aarhus C. Predicting the possibility of Spanien19C (the gallery which is to host Sissel's instalation in September) not being yet open to the public due to continued redevelopment of the area, we started to think about how and where the project can be shown. One of the possibilities that is being discussed is to show the work in a ship-container, and to look for a location for the container.

Curators of the project want to thank the following organisations Sigrids Stue, Study of Technological, Ethical and Emerging Methodologies research group and Humans and IT Research Centre, both at Aarhus University, School of Communication and Culture, for supporting this visit.

Tags: blog, exhibition