Stoneheads 

This project aimed to transform a scientific concept into a theatrical experience, and our focus was on exploring the concept of "deep time."

As part of the process, we visited the geology department at the University of Amsterdam and and got lessons on Earth's geological history. These sessions became the foundation for our creative exploration. 

In our collaborative team, I worked alongside a light designer, a sound designer, and two scenographers. Together, we became fascinated by humanity's tendency to personify nature as a way to connect with and care for it. This led us to create eight "living" and "talking" stones. These stones invited interaction: you could hug them, lie on the grass beside them, or even rest your head against them to hear their voices. 

The stones communicated through contact microphones and each had its own story. Our room transformed into a living gallery — a space filled with artificial yet "alive" stones, challenging the concept between reality and constructed connection. This juxtaposition played with the human desire to find meaning or relationships in the inanimate. 

The central concept revolved around the contrast between the stones' own "voices" and the characters we projected onto them. We asked ourselves: How would a stone actually speak? What might it sound like? 

When visitors placed their heads INTO  the stones and listened(headphones), they were met with voices that were distinctly non-human.

The experiment culminated in a gallery of voices — an experience that was playful, fun and even childlike, yet filled with melancholy. And we succeeded in finding a way to communicate geological history (different ways of how stones came to be) and a explorative and theatrical frame.

It invited participants to reflect on our relationship with nature and the often-overlooked presence of stones in our world. 

Scenography: Mickey Gantz and Emilie Jungersen

Lights and Tech: Anouk Maij

Sound and Tech: Kim De Pater

Direction and texts: Johanne Fridahl Willman