Jon niCklas Lundberg
telephone +46734225099
Neurotic Network Training (2023)
Audiovisual performance including live camera/optics
20-30 minutes + projection
With the work Neurotic Network Training, I aim to explore self-optimization and stress, placing it in relation to our digital society. The intention is to continuously introduce new elements into the work, such as images, sounds, texts, and physical and digital tools to handle them, and then process this live in a performance. I experiment with dressing up, entangling myself in my interface – blurring the boundary between me and technology – and using my body as input in the system. The title of the work plays with the concept of artificial neural networks in computer technology. I try to find the simple and primitive solutions in the system I have created, updating and changing bit by bit what I feel is most critical. In the performances I have done so far with this work, I have used the visual poetry of concrete poet Jarl Hammarberg-Åkesson as visual raw material, as well as sound samples from musician Tommie Lundberg, individuals I am both related to and who have greatly influenced my artistic practice.
Fluidities – Water Is a Dancer (2023)
Interactive water-controlled sound sculpture, plastic pipes, wire, computer, sound synthesis
Ongoing (interactive). Sculpture: 2x3x1.5 meters (excluding trees)
Water is a Dancer (2023) was a temporary installation created in Großharthau Castle Park during a residency in Großharthau, Germany. The work consists of a structure over which water flows. By placing metal wire at different points in the water’s flow, I extract values that I convert into sound through software that I have programmed. I translate the rhythm of the water into sound. One interacts with the work by changing the flow of water with their hands, thus controlling the sound landscape. The technique I have developed, using the water’s electrical resistance to translate movements in water into sound, is also employed in a work that will be temporarily installed and prototyped in connection to a public indoor swimming pool. In that case, interaction will occur by raising and lowering the water level at various points in a sculpture. Using your hands in combination with water to control sound is a very interesting experience just in itself and I think there is much to explore here. I see significant potential in this setup, and I believe there are excellent opportunities to address themes related to the environment, climate, human, and technology in the upcoming works.
Video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxN3I82Mbw5/
Heat Sculpture (2023)
Interactive heat-sensitive sound sculpture, speakers, sensors, welded scrap metal, spheres made from hammered metal sheets from spray cans, computer, sound synthesis, artificial neural network (work in progress)
Ongoing (interactive). Sculpture 2 meters high
Sound Sculpture Lab created a site-specific sculptural interactive sound installation at Ishallen in Lund at the end of 2022/early 2024: “Perspectives of the Frozen Tree.”
The installation featured a heat-sensitive sculpture that visitors could interact with by generating various types of sounds through warming it. Accompanying this was text, conveying that the work was about empathy and climate, and providing information along with images suggesting different ways to interpret the piece. Visitors also had the opportunity to share their interpretations by scanning a QR code leading to a form.
The intention was to create a work that facilitated calm interaction, inspired reflection on empathy and climate, as well as allowed for free interpretation. The setup aimed to foster feedback between the artist, the artwork, the audience, and thoughts in multiple dimensions.
Bodies Commodities (2022)
Performance, Interactive installation, Game engine (Unity3d), sound synthesis, sampled voice, mouse/keypad
Ongoing (interactive), video projection. Podium for interface: 1.5 x 0.3 x 0.3 meters.
Bodies Commodities was created as a response to Russia’s invasion war in Ukraine, driven by my strong need to express my disgust. It exists as both a performance, where I am the interactor, as well as an installation where the visiting audience can freely explore the work.
I consider this work as a study where I experiment with several ideas: enticing the audience to participate in morally ambiguous acts to inspire reflection on their own role, incorporating elements of humor that gradually evolve to convey a more serious message over time, using spoken words and phrases, including my own voice, as a foundation for sound synthesis and performances, exploring live data extracted from Unity3D’s physics engine to control sound synthesis (with a particular focus on the virtual gravity engine and translating visual glitches into sound), and considering the effects of controlling sound by manipulating the limbs of 3D characters. I am also interested in exploring the use of an audio-visual narrative to explore a subject.
Previously exhibited at Galleri CC in Malmö Sweden and at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts, and Design in Stockholm Sweden.
Full Throttle! (2021)
Interactive sculptural sound installation
Sonification of space data, parabolic antenna, motion detection, computer, sound synthesis, scrap metal, speakers
Ongoing (interactive)
The installation “Full Throttle!” was a response and critique of humanity’s technological expansion into space and the inherent consequences for life on Earth. On a more fundamental level, it explored how unregulated capitalism enables a highly undemocratic exploitation of the world and its inhabitants.
The installation consisted of a found, sculptural object – parts of a 3-meter-long parabolic antenna, speakers, and a real-time sound landscape generated from space data. A sensor detected if a person moved in the room and randomly distorted and permanently altered the data before converting it into sound, representing how our interaction disrupts. If no one was in the room, the data was transformed into sound without distortion, but the parts that had changed remained permanently altered.
“Full Throttle!” was installed at Ireland’s National Space Center.
The work was created with support from Greywood Arts, Ireland National Space Center, Cork City Council, and the Arts Council of Ireland.
Video: https://www.facebook.com/greywoodartsireland/videos/589369922691032/
Ekerspelet (2020)
Interactive kinetic sound sculpture – wheels, scrap metal, computer, sound synthesis
Ongoing (interactive). 2 meters high sculpture.
Ekerspelet (english: The Spoke Chimes) is an interactive sound sculpture that has been exhibited in various locations, most recently during Lund Art Weekend 2023. By placing weights on the wheels and setting them in motion and adjusting objects on the spokes functioning as mutes, one can create different types of sonic gestures and textures, forming a soundscape. Great care has been taken to offer the person interacting with diverse means of sonic expression. The work is usually updated with new sounds and functions each time it is installed.
Pendulum Coils (2020)
Interactive kinetic sound sculpture – welded springs, scrap metal, computer, sound synthesis
Ongoing (interactive). 2×1.5×1 meters sculpture.
“Pendulum Coils” is an interactive sound installation that has been exhibited in various locations, including at Galleri Rostrum in Malmö (SE). The installation consists of a playable kinetic sculpture that, through pendulum movements, drives an electronic sonic landscape. An organic sonic landscape, guided by gravity, emerges and is shaped by visitors. The sounds generated by the parallel yet mutually independent pulses collaborate to create a soundscape that is both suggestively static and, at the same time, never the same.
Jon Nicklas Lundberg 