OWLA

Immersive 20-channel sound installation
Oulu Art Museum, 24 August – 26 November 2023

Tiivistelmä (suomeksi)

OWLA oli 20-kanavainen ääni-installaatio Oulun taidemuseossa syksyllä 2023. Teos toteutettiin yhteistyössä kolmen pohjoispohjalaisen kuoron ja 56 laulajan kanssa. Installaatio rakensi tilallisen äänikentän, jossa laulu ja puhe eivät esittäneet tunteita vaan organisoivat tilaa. OWLA merkitsi siirtymää yhteisöjen dokumentoinnista kohti kuuntelua tilallisena rakenteena.

Description

OWLA is a large-scale spatial sound installation developed in collaboration with 56 singers from Northern Ostrobothnia.

The title derives from an archaic Finnish word meaning flood. Oulu itself takes its name from the flooding Oulujoki river. In the installation, flood operates as a spatial metaphor: voices accumulate, disperse and reconfigure across the room.

Installed in the darkened Tasku space of Oulu Art Museum, OWLA unfolds through a custom-built 20-channel loudspeaker system. Approximately 240 hours of recorded speech and singing circulate in continuously shifting constellations. A generative system selects and recombines fragments in real time, ensuring that the work never repeats identically.

At the centre, a shallow water basin anchors the space physically while subtly destabilising orientation.

The work does not narrate emotion.
It spatialises it.

AFTER OWLA

OWLA marked the culmination of a period in my practice centred on recording communities.

For years, I worked with collective voice as documentation and shared expression. In OWLA, that material no longer functioned as representation.

Voice was no longer documented or presented. It became structure.

The work shifted attention from identity to spatial relation — from who is speaking to how listening organises space.

This transition closed one trajectory and opened another. Sound was no longer treated as content carried through space. It began to define the conditions of the space itself.

Subsequent works emerged from this recalibration. The focus moved toward listening as a field condition: a situation shaped by presence, proximity and duration.

This orientation continues to inform my current practice.

OWLA remains a foundation, but not a destination.

Architecture of Collective Voice

The vocal material was composed in spring 2023 and recorded in Oulu in August 2023. Three choirs from Northern Ostrobothnia participated in the process. Interviews and sung material were integrated into a spatial composition designed specifically for the museum’s Tasku space.

Visitors were invited to sit or change position to encounter different sonic perspectives. Listening became architectural. Scale became perceptible through stillness.

A single listener does not stand outside the work but completes it. Distance and proximity determine what emerges.

Listening reorganises space.

A single listener does not stand outside the work but completes it. Distance and proximity determine what emerges.

Water as Resonator

Touch completes the field.

At the centre of the space lies a shallow water basin functioning as both acoustic and perceptual interface. The water surface registers minimal movement. Visitors approach it slowly. Some touch it gently.

The field remains stable yet continuously reforming.

Sound is not illustrated. It is sensed.

Collective Presence

A temporary community formed through sound.

Although the work can be experienced individually, it generated a shared temporal situation. During the exhibition period, many visitors remained in the space for extended durations. Some returned multiple times.

OWLA situates listening as a shared, embodied condition.

Documentation

Documentation includes the official museum film, an interview recorded during installation, and an improvised opening speech delivered at the exhibition launch.

Official exhibition film by Oulu Art Museum

Interview at Oulu Art Museum (Finnish)

Opening speech (Finnish)

Full Credits

Sound Artist and Convener: Jaakko Autio
Composition: Anna Voutilainen

Cassiopeia

Anna-Maija Multas, Eeli Antikainen, Henri Salin, Heikki Kuoppala, Jonna Nyrhinen, Katri Leppälä, Kirsi Valtiala, Lauri Tovinen, Laura Metsävainio, Linda Pyykkönen, Malla Säkkinen, Maija Huhtinen, Moona Hakkarainen, Oona Sakko, Peppi Virtanen, Sakaria Pouke, Sohvi Nopanen

Cantio Laudis

Olli Heikkilä (Conductor), Aino Puroila, Alisa Tervaniemi, Anna Joensuu, Emma Raappana, Henna Pärkkä, Helena Savolainen, Johanna Jaakkola, Katrina Jämsä, Lotta Heikkilä, Lotta Sippola, Meira Maaninka, Mette Hintsala, Pirta Pentikäinen, Saara Kolehmainen, Sanna Hautala, Sanni Myllyneva, Venla Katajala

Tuiran Chamber Choir

Satu Korpi (Conductor), Anu Kalliopuska, Pirjo-Riitta Silven, Ella Suvanto, Vuokko Annala, Ulla Savolainen, Maarit Nurmela, Päivi-Ilona Airisniemi, Kaisa-Mari Paananen, Marjo Okkonen, Harriet Tervonen, Jonna Pienihäkkinen, Tula Kleemola-Laakso, Terttu Kortelainen, Juhani Miettunen, Antti Auer, Jyrki Okkonen, Jorma Pulkkinen, Antti Perttunen

Oulu Art Museum Team

Curator Selina Väliheikki; Exhibition Builders Mirva Ahmakallio, Mika Siekkinen, Mikko Vähä; Conservator Kirsi Hyvärinen; Curators of Education Satu Larivaara-Heikkilä, Hanna-Leena Ruottinen; Researcher–Photographer Mika Friman; Customer Service Manager Tuija Ontero; Museum Assistants Julia Pääkkönen, Valtteri Moilanen; Digital Media Specialist Riikka Harjula; Communications Assistant Lotta Sorvoja; Graphic Design Anne Vähäsalo; Café Manager Piia Niemelä; Administration and Finance Secretary Saila Tönkyrä; Human Resources Secretaries Riikka Pitkäaho, Amanda Varpu; Services Secretary Päivi Lämsä; Translations Antti Autio; Printing Monetra Oulu Oy Print Services, Grano, Tarratalli

Supported by Taike and The Regional Fund of Northern Ostrobothnia

Special thanks to Hilla Väyrynen, Maija Väyrynen, Seppo Väyrynen and Pasi Pehkonen