Stairway to Helheim, 2021 by PerMagnus Lindborg

Experience this site-specific sound installation, compellingly sculpted along a stairwell, that examines how architecture and sound overlap in liminal spaces.

As visitors tread the 36 steps from level three to level four of ArtScience Museum, they are met with sonic objects falling onto them, running down the steps of the staircase, cascading forward like a river, moving stealthily in the opposite direction like a Slinky, or bouncing down like yoga balls, a hundred tennis balls, a thousand ping pong balls, or more. The stream of objects never-ending, visitors nevertheless eventually reach the fourth floor. Released from the struggle, they drift into the calm of the top level and are left wondering – is it Parnassum, Helheim or purgatory? Is it another test altogether?


Project Assistant: rongzhao

About PerMagnus Lindborg

PerMagnus Lindborg is a composer whose research in sound perception and design is anchored in computer music. He explores cross-modal correspondences to enrich the science-art bond by applying empirical results in the design of artwork as well as extracting analytic data from sensory experiences. Significant output includes the Locust Wrath series of climate data sonification installations, and the surround sound design for Axis, the world’s first dome-projected dance film.

He holds a PhD from KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm 2015) and has published in PLoS One, Leonardo, Applied Acoustics, Frontiers, Applied Sciences, IRCAM-Delatour, Springer-LNCS, and conference proceedings such as SMC, ICMC, ICMPC, and ICAD. Starting out as a pianist and composer (BMus Oslo 1995), he was an independent artist for ten years, while simultaneously pursuing studies in music computing (IRCAM Paris 1999) and contemporary musicology (DEA Paris 2003). From 2005 he has taught in higher education in France (École nationale de musique de CAPM), Singapore (Nanyang Technological University) and Korea (Seoul National University).

He founded the Soundislands Festival (2013–17) and serves on the board of International Computer Music Association, as Music Coordinator and Regional Director for Asia-Oceania. He is currently a Research Topic Editor for Frontiers Journal of Psychology on ‘human perception of environmental sound’ and Associate Professor, School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong.