FOSSIL – Interactive sound installation of limestone at Ölands Museum
The Installation was part of the exhibition Öland i världen, världen på Öland, 25 of June – 31 of August 2023.

Alexandra Nilsson – Installation, composition, sound, performance
Fredrik Olofsson – Programming and technical assistance

Öland rests on limestone, in many senses, and has shaped Öland´s entire existence – historically, culturally and economically. With this installation, I invite the visitor and listener to establish a broadened relationship with limestone – as a sounding carrier of Öland´s living history – with 500 million years of testimony. Can we hear Öland´s becoming through the limestone?

The artwork was composed by approximately 1 ton of limestone from Öland´s northwestern coast. The sound compositions were made of recordings of the stones in the installation, each station having its own sound work, reflecting the variety of the limestone shapes and sizes. The stations sound were triggered by the  movements of the audience in the installation, making them activating the compositions and creating the soundscape. All programming was made by composer and programmer Fredrik Olofsson who also designed and built the three custom made speakers. After the exhibition, the stones was returned to their places of origin.

Station 1 was composed by very smooth rocks, collected at Byrum beach, close to the water’s edge, being polished over millions of years by the sea.
Station 2 was composed by heavier, bigger and rough stones with lichens in black and white, collected at the coast of Torp, north of Byxelkrok.
Station 3 was made from a donation from Naturstenskompaniet of blocks, plates and gravels of various sizes from the limestone industry.

Concert and talk
During the exhibition I gave concerts in and with the installation, together with seminars on the geology and history of limestone on Öland by geologist Jan Mikaelsson.

PRESS
Three local newspapers, Kalmar läns tidning, Barometern and Ölandsbladet wrote about FOSSIL and the exhibition. Kalmar läns tidning and Barometern also did a special interview about my work as a composer working with stones. Read them online here:
Kalmar läns tidning
Barometern 

With support from
Ölandsklubben
Ölands Sparbanksstiftelse
Naturstenskompaniet

Thank you to
Magnus Wilhelmsson, Naturstenskompaniet
Torpsby Samfällighetsförening
Byrum Samfällighetsförening
Anna-Kajsa Alaoui