The Underground Sound Project is a collection of recordings made in natural areas and parks around NYC, Upstate NY and the Arctic during Artist Nikki Lindts’ residency at NYCs’ Urban Field Station Collaborative Arts Program. The recordings are made by placing microphones underground, underwater and even inside trees revealing a mysterious, resonant, and often dramatic world of sounds normally hidden to our ears. Approximately thirty 1minute underground sound recordings coupled with video work as plug-ins to this project. The culmination is a soundwalk (May 2022-May 2023) experienced along a woody trail around the ravine in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Along this trail, via QR code, visitors will encounter events, such as a stream, a pond, an old growth tree, the forest floor, plants, snow landing on the ground, and many others. Visitors will be able to experience the underground sounds of those features using their personal device and headphones. The project aims to bring people into the parks, instill a sense of wonder about the natural world and through this process create a feeling of empathy and respect towards the trees, plants and broader ecosystem.

Photo by Joe Klementovich, 2019.