Subterranean Voice: The Far North

Opening in spring 2027, Subterranean Voice: The Far North is a new indoor exhibition and outdoor soundwalk at the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

The project brings listeners into contact with the Arctic from beneath its surface through recordings made within thawing permafrost, groundwater, soils, tree roots, lake ice, and shifting river ice. Paintings, film, participatory drawing, and recorded voices extend these sounds into visual and collective forms.

Short conversations with Alaska Native Elders, local residents, scientists, miners, artists, and others who live and work in these environments situate the recordings within lived experience. Together, the sounds and voices reveal a changing landscape as it is lived, heard, remembered, studied, and felt.

The project has developed through fieldwork and collaboration across Alaska and Arctic Sweden, including work with the University of Alaska Museum of the North, Toolik Field Station, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Denakkanaaga, Abisko Scientific Research Station, and numerous individual collaborators.

Executive Producer: Mary Beth Leigh