The atmosphere is changing. Changing winds, rising temperatures and different particles, alter global patterns and local atmospheric circulation. Where healthy vegetation once kept our atmosphere breathable, industrial practices often result in the opposite.
The atmosphere is dynamic, but difficult to get to know, it has a visibility problem. Blue skies, white and grey cloudscapes quickly pass and change shape. How can we make sense of the interaction between the local and the global, embody knowledge beyond the visual. The changes in atmospheric movement that can be acoustically composed, can so be experienced by us, but also by the microbial communities in ripening cheeses.
The cheese is an artwork, a carefully curated interaction between the particle movements in the atmosphere and the relationship to local actors. The cheese is also a temporary archival object in which this interaction is manifested for a limited amount of time. During this window of time, change can be tasted, but it requires attention and somaesthetic* skill.
Watou live 15 juli- 30 Aug 18 juli: EatArt event Invitation only 19 juli: Poet on location Rozalie Hirs 15:00-17:00 Kasteeldomein De Lovie
The Sonic Cheese x Atmospheric Terroir (SCxAT) project, initiated by Judith van der Elst and Frouke Wiarda, brings together a hybrid collective of artists, researchers and creators to explore cheese as a living point of encounter between atmosphere and other elements of terroir, as a temporary archive that can be experienced in multiple ways.
The collective investigates how the atmosphere, the weather, sound, the soil, microbes and human practices leave their mark on living matter. Judith van der Elst develops her atmospheric research from an anthropological and embodied perspective, tracing how climate, landscape, cultivation and human practices become intertwined. Frouke Wiarda works with sound and listening as acts of connection and awareness, creating sensory portraits of atmospheric processes that normally lie beyond human perception. Through sonification, composition and vibration, these processes become part of the cheese-maturing environment. Guy van Belle contributes to the development of modular set-ups in which sound production is integrated into the cheese-maturing process.
Many thanks to Rozalie Hirs’s poetry gives voice to the living processes within the cheese, allowing language to move through milk, air, microbes, time and flavour; Stephan Balleux designed the sonic cheese-maturing tables Leen van Zelderen of De Marlannen Cheese Farm looks after the pasture and the cows that provide the milk for the cheeses; Rosie van der Elst documents the process through photography. Fien De Schacht of De Stoppel Cheese Farm is maturing a ‘silent’ cheese at her farm, which serves as a parallel point of reference within the project. To the staff of De Lovie, looking after the cheese, the Watou Festival team, the curators and Fryslân Cultural Fund.
Bart Motsaert from De Goeste Restaurant & Tearoom will be delighted to prepare a festive Sonic Cheese dish for you at the festival site, using fresh ingredients and cheese from Fien’s local produce shop!
Frouke Wiarda (froukewiarda@gmail.com) Judith van der Elst
*somaesthetics seeks to “redirect aesthetics back to the core issue of perception, consciousness and feeling, advocating an aesthetics of active, creative engagement.”
July 18, 2026
EatArt event I Invitation only
During the Eat Art Event we will explore and exchange thoughts on how eating as art can be cultivated as a means to make sense of the changes in our surroundings and appreciate its complexity in an expanded aesthetic.
