ONDERLAND

Onderland is an interactive video about the invisible underground of a fascinating piece of nature which hardly anyone knows about. It breathes entirely new life into the Peel Boundary Fault, the vegetation, the characteristic wijst streams, and all that happens underground.

The invisible becomes more visible

The impetus for this interactive video project stens from the work of eco-hydrologist Jon Mensink. He researches all ‘invisible’ things beneath the earth’s surface on a daily basis together with his environmental advisory bureau. The tremendous volumes of data produced by this research would normally not be visible. But it’s certainly essential for the development of all things on the earth’s surface, from architecture to ecological conservation.

Visual artist Michiel van Bakel came upon the idea to visualise this normally invisible world below the surface. The slowness of geological processes is contrasted against the breakneck pace of the man-made digital infosphere.

A different way to experience of the Peel Boundary Fault

Michiel made a pinhole-scanner camera and combined it with pointclouds. The estranging recordings portray the cultural and natural landscapes in a different way. The interactive video combines the recordings of the pinhole-scanner camera with pointclouds. These surreal recordings enable the viewer to perceive the natural landscape in a different way.

As soon as someone walks past (sonar), the artwork begins to play. The logical build-up in the video is tied to the distance of the viewer to the screen. From forests and swamps above ground, the viewer travels down via the groundwater (wijst stream), coloured orange by iron, into deeper layers of the earth. Experience the free artworks there, that which were not made by human hands.

5 stages

In the interactive video installation present during the Dutch Design Week 2019 (DDW) visitors will visually and acoustically experience the 5 stages of the Peel Boundary Fault. The closer you come, the deeper underground you will go. You will start off in the Sint Anna forest in Uden, amidst the life above ground. Subsequently, you will then crawl deeper and deeper into the earth, through the wijst streams, and into the ground. Through the root systems, in search of life underground.

For this video, recordings were made during the trench work undertaken to investigate the Peel Boundary Fault in Bakel and Uden. One of the measurement tubes had a microphone suspended in it that recorded the sound coming from the Peel bottom. The end result was an interactive video that takes the visitor deeper and deeper via sights and sounds, making them ever more familiar with the underground.

the video

Visual artist Michiel van Bakel came upon the idea to visualise this normally invisible world below the surface. The slowness of geological processes is contrasted against the breakneck pace of the man-made digital infosphere.

Contact

Jon Mensink

E info@avallo.nl
T +31620267407

Michiel van Bakel

info@michielvanbakel.nl
T +31628724262

michiel van bakel