An ongoing sound art research project – in collaboration with theologian and dance researcher Laura Hellsten – exploring the acoustic, mythological, and ecological dimensions of dunderflisan—thunder-stones found along the Åland archipelago, with a primary focus on the remote site of Östra Mörskär. Historically believed to emit sound and act as fog beacons, these stones occupy a liminal position in Ålandic life, where navigation, weather lore, and cosmology converge. The project investigates how these stones resonate—materially, culturally, and imaginatively—within the island landscape.

Through field recordings, interviews with local inhabitants, and archival research, the work traces how dunderflisan have functioned as both practical markers and mythic agents. In oral traditions, the stones are said to “speak” during fog or atmospheric shifts, guiding seafarers and signalling unseen forces. This blend of sensory perception and folklore forms the project’s core inquiry: how sound mediates human–environment relations, and how mythic structures persist within contemporary ecological awareness.

The artistic component unfolds as a site-responsive sound installation developed in dialogue with the landscape itself. Using low-frequency transducers, resonant materials, and processed field recordings, the installation seeks to transpose the imagined and remembered sonic presence of dunderflisan into a sculptural acoustic form. Rather than a single fixed presentation, the installation evolves through iterative experiments in situ—on coastal rocks, in abandoned structures, or within boats on land—allowing the environment to shape its tonal and spatial qualities.

By reactivating the sonic imagination surrounding dunderflisan, the project invites new forms of listening to the Åland landscape, foregrounding the entanglement of myth, memory, and ecological perception.