MARITIME DEEP RESONANCES

Soundwalk performance
By Melanie Garland and Melcher Ruhkopf

The performative sonic walk “Maritime Deep Resonances,” on July 12th at the Hafen Museum in Hamburg, brought the Atacama Desert aboard the historic Peking. Participants journeyed through the ship’s complex and sometimes uncomfortable histories, tracing early 20th-century connections between its saltpeter mineral cargoes from the Atacama Desert to Hamburg, where the mineral was processed into fertilizer and explosives. Drawing a parallel to the present, the performance also explored contemporary lithium extraction in the same landscape. Through deep listening, storytelling, and movement, “Maritime Deep Resonances” highlighted the Atacama as a witness to cycles of transformation and the exhaustion of its landscape.

Listening to human and more-than-human voices—birds, winds, minerals—participants were invited to reflect on the ship’s role in maritime connectivity and resource extraction, and on the possibilities for care and renewal across oceans, deserts, and generations. “Maritime Deep Resonances” transformed the Peking into a resonant and dissonant space for collective listening and reimagination, bridging past and present, and inviting new forms of connection through the echoes of the Atacama.

Credits / Acknowledgements