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Sophie Allerding

performance , Gender , Geluid , fotografie , Educatie , Ecologie , cross-over , Community , Audiovisueel , Artistiek onderzoek

Sophie Allerding (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist focused on storytelling and how it shapes the world around us. Sophie’s work spans visual art and social practice employing media such as photography, role-play, installations and radio.

Central to Sophie’s practice is crafting alternative worlds and futures and engaging in collaborative storytelling to challenge dominant narratives, including human dominance over the natural world, gender-based power imbalances, and the hegemony of Western knowledge systems.

Through world-building and speculative fiction Sophie’s work offers a platform for re-imagining and re-shaping dominant narratives and imagining futures for a desirable world.
Sophie is an active member of the feminist collectives POSSY and Radio Echo Collective and is part of .zip, an artist-run interdisciplinary project space in Rotterdam.

Sophie's work was presented among other sites in the Deichtorhallen Museum for Photography (DE), Landesmuseum Koblenz (DE) Hallo: Radiofestival X-Kanal (DE), the Climate Utopias Festival (FI), Nederlands Fotomuseum (NL) Goethe Institut Vietnam (VNM) Transmission Radio Art festival (DE) and Climate Art Fest (DE) and Centro de la Imagen (MX), Staatliche Galerie Karlsruhe (DE) and Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam (NL).

Songs for the Renewal
Songs for the Renewal - Songs for the Renewal is a ritualistic site consisting of six indoor fountains, each displaying a urinating female human-like figure and a set of whistles, water whistles, and other ritualistic instruments. The fountains are interactive and sound-triggered, each attuned and activated by a different whistle. The ritual surrounding these objects is known to have been performed for renewals. However, the exact nature of the ritual remains unclear, inviting the audience to speculate and participate by playing with the instruments. Songs for the Renewal is the culmination of my long-term research on the representation and taboos surrounding female bodies in Western art history, as well as the intersection of the exploitation of nature and women's rights. My interest in gender and urination also considers the ecological impact, from harvesting hormones through farming pregnant mares to environmental hormonal pollution (so-called feminization of the environment), which leads to fertility issues in many species and contributes to a broader alienation from natural bodily functions and the environment. To address the various stories, concerns, and facts gathered in my theoretical research, I have crafted a speculative fiction: a future where hormonal pollution has reached such extremes that an overload of estrogen has dissolved traditional genders, making all species rather feminine. Human societies remaining in this world have evolved distinct cultures, technologies, and beliefs from our own. In their cosmology, the world was created by seven sisters who sat to relieve themselves, and from their streams of urine, their world emerged. The six fountains in Songs for the Renewal depict the seven sisters, and the ritualistic site serves as a sanctuary for performing rituals such as renewing relationships and reciprocity with the cosmos. Drawing from today's world as a starting point, this future reimagines gender roles and bodily fluids, turning the artifacts of Songs for the Renewal into souvenirs of a possible alternative reality. This work was created at the European Ceramic Workcentre (EKWC).
Trümmer Träume (Debris Dreams)
Trümmer Träume (Debris Dreams) - 2024, Live-action role play scenario, duration: 4-5 hours. In collaboration with Ari Adamski This scenario is about two groups who care for the same place in different ways and inevitably get in each other’s way. One group is the ghosts. They have been at this place for a long time and live in the remnants of the past. They maintain their memories of this place through their haunting. Then there are the humans. They have come to this place because they see great potential in it—potential to become something new and beautiful, something they can enjoy. They have come to the place to build something. These two forces—preserving the old and creating something new—manifest in two different activities. The ghosts wander through the space to hold on to their memories. In doing so, they want to occupy and traverse the entire space. The humans focus on a strip that crosses the room where they build. The humans’ construction disturbs the ghosts in their wandering, and the ghosts’ wandering disrupts the humans in their building. Debris Dreams is a non-verbal LARP which offers an experienced based exploration of the figure of the Parasite. This work was created site-specific based on a conflict surrounding the vacant building “Gelbklinker” at Bullerdeich 6, which has been marked for demolition.
The Magic Mirror - When I look into the mirror I see you
The Magic Mirror - When I look into the mirror I see you - Interactive Installation, a collaboration between Noemi Biro, Pleun Gremmen and Sophie Allerding This magic mirror is a window to another world—the secret world of myths and fairy tales. It shows us what escapes our eyes in everyday life and reminds us of the magic of nature, which we can also learn about through the Twente myths. What you see before you is not an ordinary mirror, as this mirror doesn’t just reflect you; it takes your reflection and blends it with other images. This mirror works with artificial intelligence that generates images. A camera captures your movements and sends the information to the AI, which uses it to influence the generation of its images. The AI-generated images are based on prompts inspired by the Twente myths. With AI, we aim to tell old stories using new technology, allowing people to reconnect with their environment in a contemporary way. Sound design: Lars Bloom Voice actor: Irma Bijkerk Interactive mentoring: Gertjan Biasino Thanks to Cross-Tic and Tetem for mentoring and financing the process and creation of this work. This work was exhibited at Cinekid Festival 2024 and in Tetem March 2025.
A Shimmer in the Dark
A Shimmer in the Dark - A Shimmer in the Dark is a speculative climate fiction role-play game. Participants imagine a world at the end of extraction, petroleum, and human labour, exloring our relationship with the unknown.In A Shimmer in the Dark participants become a group of workers on an oil rig in the North Sea. Under pressure from environmental activists and facing the depletion of fossil fuel resources on Earth, deep-sea drilling is coming to an end. The workers are having their final shift on the oil rig and made an extraordinary discovery from the ocean’s depths. In their remaining hours, till they get picked up from their shift, they discuss what to do with their finding and their uncertain future; In a more and more automated world, the need for human labour is diminishing. The game accommodates 6-10 players and has a total duration of approximately 4 hours. It includes a 1.5-hour workshop for preparations, a 1-hour gameplay session, and a 1-hour debrief during which players share their experiences and engage in follow-up discussions on the game’s themes.
The Anatomical Theater
The Anatomical Theater - 2023, photograms, wax sculptures, mixed-media installation. It is no coincidence that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was written during the beginning of modern anatomical science. An emerging medical gaze transformed the perception of bodies in Western societies from holistic entities into assemblages of isolated organs, flesh, and tissues. The new image of the body was solely created by men. Frankenstein refused to create a wife for his monster; he feared they would reproduce and give birth to a brood of monstrous anatomy. He also did not want to relinqish his newly gained power of reproduction without a womb. Organs without a body, science generating magic, a darkroom instead of a womb. A monstrous anatomy is a speculative exploration of female anatomy, created with the tools available to us. This work is part of the work The Anatomical Theater collectively created with Ana Garcia Jacome.
Eixogen - 2023, urban-role-play game Duration: 6 weeks, including 4 3 hours long role-play sessions A collaboration with Louisa Teichmann Eixogen is an urban role-playing game that unfolds online through the Eixogen travel app and within the urban space of Rotterdam. Over the course of six weeks, a speculative future story addresses social and ethical questions arising from the development of smart cities. Eixogen uses elements of LARP (life action role play) Geo-caching and psychogeography. The game aims to simulate the use of smart city travel apps within urban spaces while encouraging subversive ways of engaging with the technology.
The Moritat of the Shark - Public Intervention and Participatory Performance at the Hallo Festspiele 2022 Collaboration with the choreographer Ari Adamski and the Hallo e.V. The Hallo e.V. is a cultural association and network that creates welfare-oriented urban spaces and cultural productions. It has provided me with a space for experimentation, culture creation, and networking for many years. However, after seven years, Hallo had to leave its place of residence, the Schaltzentrale, because the owners decided to sell the site located in a flourishing neighbourhood in Hamburg to investors. 'Das Moritat vom Haifisch' was a participatory performance and public intervention in which the funeral of the Schaltzentrale was enacted. This served, on one hand, to provide the network of audiences and cultural workers a platform to mourn and, on the other hand, to draw attention to the displacement of culture by profit-oriented investors and gentrification.
The Last Submarine - In a future where sea levels have risen, and planet Earth is mostly covered by water, humanity seeks refuge in floating cities composed of drifting remnants of the world we once knew. One of the most significant challenges people face is the scarcity of fresh water. Suddenly, however, there appears to be hope for the weary and thirsty society: a researcher has seemingly discovered a strange creature in the depths of the sea, with the apparent ability to transform seawater into drinking water. With humanity's last remaining resources, a submarine crew is dispatched to investigate this suspicion. 'The Last Submarine' is a climate fiction role-play in which participants assume the roles of the submarine crew on its final mission. The mission spans four days and nights, guided by a soundtrack, taking participants deeper into the sea and the confrontation with a conflict over ownership of natural resources and their scarcity. 2023, participatory storytelling experience/LARP (Life action role play) Duration: 4 hours In collaboration with Jana Romanova
The Webconferene Imagining The Arachnopocene - 2022, Online workshop and role-play-experience,120 min. Includes: audio visual stories, AR facefilter. The web conference, 'Imagining the Arachnopocene,' is an audio-visual story in three acts, forming the playground for an online role-play and collaborative world-building experience. The fictional conference takes place on a video call and is the result of artistic research on questions related to human-nature relationships, alienation, knowledge creation, and power structures, using the spider as a carrier of stories.
The Webconference Imagining the Arachnopocene - Installation view at KABK graduation show, 2022.
Waterland – On How to become a Body of Water - Waterland – On how to become a body of water - 2021 - ongoing. Installation consisting photographs, photo montage, news paper clipping, archive material. In the 15th century, a flood breached the Markermeer dykes in the Netherlands and washed an unknown body ashore. The creature appeared like a woman but couldn't speak nor behave like a human being. Experts declared: It must be a mermaid. Waterland is a speculative climate fiction on rising sea levels examining our relationship with the ocean from the hydro feminist perspective of a mermaid. The rise in sea levels is a well-known consequence of climate change and one of the biggest struggles in the Netherlands.The question is no longer if the country will sink but when. How does a sinking country dream, imagine and design a future? How can we coexist with the sea? The mermaid, embodying both human and water life, enriches humanity's cultural imagination across diverse historical contexts. My work explores the mermaid's contemporary relevance, offering perspectives on urgent issues like rising sea levels.
Radio Echo Collective - In 2022, I co-founded the feminist radio collective Radio Echo. We are a location-independent radio collective dedicated to amplifying stories overshadowed by long-unexamined and unrevised worldviews. Taking an intersectional feminist standpoint, we echo stories through our own voices and experiences, cultivating a landscape for multiple voices to thrive and create vibrations that subvert mainstream narratives. Radio Echo members include Sophie Allerding, Beatrice Cera, Lina von Jaruntowski, Lea Novi, Emilia Martin, and Renata Mirón. www.radioecho.net

EKWC Residency

Datum:
Locatie: EKWC
In samenwerking met: EKWC, PPO

During my residency at the EKWC I am producing a new body of work titled 'Songs for the Renewal'. This work is the outcome of my long-term research on the figure of the urinating woman and speculative archeology.
I am exploring the sculptural connection between urinating female bodies and fountains, and experimenting with sound-triggered interactive fountains. Furthermore I am creating different forms of whistles to trigger the fountains.

ULTRA VIOLET

Datum:
Locatie: Rietveld Art Academy
In samenwerking met: Lucila Pacheco Dehne

How does resistance taste? What would the world after patriarchy look like? How do we foster sisterhood? Ultra Violet is a role-playing game centered on cooking, feminist alliances, and envisioning a world beyond patriarchy

Connecting Lines Conference - tracing care on the intersection of ecology and Feminism

Datum:
Locatie: Museum of Modern Art Ljubjana
In samenwerking met: City of Women, Museum of Modern Art Ljubjana, TRACKS

I am giving a small demonstration on story weaving through role play in the panel for alternative futures

https://mestozensk.org/en/group/connecting-lines-conference

A Mounstrous Anatomy

Datum:
Locatie: Centro de la imagen
In samenwerking met: Centro de la imagen, gute aussichten GmbH

A Mounstrous bread is a photo series

https://ci.cultura.gob.mx/exposiciones/por-que-no-jugamos-a-why-dont-we-play/

EIXOGEN

Datum:
Locatie: Rib Gallery, MaMa Gallery, Het Nieuwe Institut
In samenwerking met: Luisa Teichmann, MaMa Gallery

Eixogen is an urban role-playing game that unfolds online through the Eixogen travel app and within the urban space of Rotterdam. Over the course of six weeks, a speculative future story addresses social and ethical questions arising from the development of smart cities. Eixogen uses elements of LARP (life action role play) Geo-caching and Psychogeography. The game aims to simulate the use of smart city travel apps within urban spaces while encouraging subversive ways of engaging with the techno

https://thisismama.nl/en/events/irl-en/role-playing-game-eixogen/
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