Jana Winderen’s performances and sound installations focus on audio topographies and ecosystems that are difficult for humans to reach, both physically and aurally. Working in diverse locations, the Norwegian artist searches for sounds from hidden sources, frequencies that aren’t usually possible for us to perceive, or places that are hard to access.

She has made recordings of sea ice at the North Pole, rivers and oceans throughout the world, and glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. Embracing the sensory possibilities of sound and the immateriality of her medium, her work generates compelling new experiences of these places while taking us beyond the normal bounds of the human senses.

Here, Winderen presents Spring Bloom in the Marginal Ice Zone—a new, live eight-channel mix of underwater sounds recorded in the marginal ice zone, or the transition between open sea and sea ice, in the Barents Sea between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.

Jana Winderen (b.1965, Bodø, Norway) is an artist educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London with a background in mathematics, chemistry and fish ecology from the University of Oslo. Based in Oslo, Winderen has exhibited and performed internationally at major institutions in the United States, Europe and Asia. In 2011 she won the Golden Nica, Ars Electronica, for Digital Musics & Sound Art. She has recently presented a multi-channel installation in Vienna, commissioned by TBA21 Academy, and another work created for Munchmuseet on the Move, a collaboration between the Munch Museum and nyMusikk in Oslo. Other recent works have been presented by the V-A-C foundation for Geometry of Now, Moscow; the Sonic Acts festival, Amsterdam; the New York Department of Transportation at the Park Avenue Tunnel; the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Guggenheim Museum/Unsound Festival.

Presented with the Renaissance Society; organized in partnership with STAGE (Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration) at the University of Chicago; support provided by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway

Artist Talk: Jana Winderen discusses her trips in the field, how she works with sound, and the ecological and political issues concerning the Barents Sea, in conversation with Karsten Lund. Lampo Annex, Monadnock Building, 53 W. Jackson Blvd. #1656. Friday, April 6, 6 p.m.