Mountain project multimedia
These artworks combine soundscape compositions with photographs. This way, more of the stories are conveys through the sound. It is a mainly sensory and non-verbal way of storytelling.
Sound and sensations of seasonal change at Hallingskarvet
Sound and sensations of seasonal change shows how the seasons and weather continually changes the colour and texture of the mountain, how every kind of movement makes sound, and it indicates how small people are in relation to this nature.
The video consists of sound and a series of still images. As Barthes described in his book Camera Lucida (1993), stills are frozen moments in time; and in contrast to the narrative drive of moving images, stills encourage conscious, personal reflection and contemplation.
I use stills to encourage detailed and attentive listening. Sounds surround and penetrate, they evoke the sense of being embedded and immersed, and here they drive the narrative. We hear people’s presence; some sounds are without corresponding images, for example can we hear the sound of people walking, bathing and breathing without seeing them. This is to encourage the active imagination of the viewer/ listener.
I recorded the sounds of my footsteps when I walked on various types of grounds – snow, stone and marshland and so on. I discovered how recording soundscape was a way to explore the site and I became aware of how sounds are an integral part of the mountain. I also discovered silence; I think that a mountain without wind and covered with silk snow must be the most silent place in the world.
I presented Sound and Sensations at the International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA) conference in Bologna in August 2011 and on seminars in Visual Sociology at Goldsmiths College in fall 2011.
Easter Winds at Hallingskravet
Easter Winds is composed of photographs and sounds of mountain winds and skiing on soft and icy snow. It expresses the sense of awe for forces of nature and the joy of being alive. I made the recordings in April 2014 in Hallingskarvet mountain range in Norway.