Murmuring Matter is an invitation into a practice of listening; to that which is quiet and enduring, other than human and shapes different narratives. The work unfolds in three interwoven parts: the document (Master Thesis), the livestreams, and the events. For this work an exhibition space was shaped to accommodate and give presence to the audio livestreams that connect it to the burial ground of Zoë’s grandfather.

He was a man who seemed to be spilling over with stories. In the forest, the natural burial site where he now rests, the boundary between what is human and what is land dissolves. An imagined elementary conversation with the soil begs the question whether his stories have continued spilling, now into the land. And if so, what can we do to make these elements audible? What can we gather from what the soil might be telling us? 

Throughout an exhibition at BaseCamp for tactical imaginaries Utrecht, formerly known as BAK, a series of events took place that were directly linked to the different acts written about in the research document. These moments of activation opened the research to the public – in a listening session, in a gathering to share stories of earthy connections, and during a guided/explorative walk in the forest.