n.waves

narrative environment

Mon, 09 May 2011 19:46:59 -0400

http://philandrewsbadmp.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/narrative-environment/

Full installation documentation from Newcastle. October...

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 19:03:13 -0400

Full installation documentation from Newcastle. October 2010

Appr. 23 min

n.waves installation october 2010

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:31:43 -0400

n.waves opening october 2010

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:23:00 -0400

The world's most northern mosque

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 04:44:46 -0400

The world’s most northern mosque has arrived by barge in Inuvik, N.W.T., giving Muslims in the Arctic town a proper place of worship. A Northern Transportation Company Ltd. barge arrived in Inuvik late Wednesday afternoon, carrying the prefabricated 1,554-square-foot beige building that will soon be a mosque and community centre for a growing Muslim population in the Arctic hamlet of 3,200 people. Facing an early snow, a crowd of about 40 Muslims greeted their long-awaited mosque at the NTCL shipyard. There were prayers, group photos, hugs and applause. “It’s a beautiful building. Everyone’s happy to have this small little home for meeting and for prayer, and for the children to be playing in,” resident Amir Suliman told CBC News when the mosque arrived. The arrival caps an incredible 4,000-kilometre road and river journey from Manitoba, where the mosque was built, through two provinces and the Northwest Territories, down the Mackenzie River to the community just north of the Arctic Circle. The Zubaidah Tallab Foundation, a Manitoba-based Islamic charity, raised the money to build and ship the structure to Inuvik to help the Islamic community there.

10 images from the first 20 when searching for...

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 04:28:34 -0400

10 images from the first 20 when searching for “Northernness” on Google.

A list of sounds, instruments and how to put them together

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:38:45 -0400

The sound of water filtered through a ring modulator.

Harmonics on a cello mixed with the sound of wind.

Squeeks and noise from outer space.

A recording of my grandfather singing an old swedish song.

A bass flute playing a melody.

A symphony orchestra playing long notes that creates a texture of slowly changing harmonies.

Birds, especially sea birds.

A distant sawmill.

Footsteps on a wooden bridge.

A viola da gamba with it’s old sound quality.

pink noise from a radio.

A philicorda organ recorded with a microphone and then digitally processed through filters and effects.

A trumpet pitched down 2 octaves.

Whispering voices.

Prepared piano.

Prepared Kantele played with a bow.

My idea is to create a musical soundscape. The music is there not as songs or tracks but as a soundscape along with all the other sounds. You should enter the installation as you enter a room where you will stay for a while to contemplate over the idea of north. The sounds has no narrative line to follow, they are just there juxtaposed to each others. Sometimes with a meaning, sometimes by coincidence, but all the time as a never ending wave or flood of details that creates a stillness that goes beyond the world we are used to live in. I am thinking of a quadrophonic sound system, or 5.1 but it’s not important. For me it can be 7 speakers playing individually. Or 3. The important thing is to create a room where the audience will stay for 10, 15 or 25 minutes to think or just be there. (Leif)

Green like the forest surrounding us. (Leif)

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:28:36 -0400

Green like the forest surrounding us. (Leif)

Tolkien, Lewis, Joy, and the Discipline of Winter

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:39:01 -0400

(re-blogged from discardedlies.com)

Once Christmas is past I feel I’m on the brink of an abyss and can barely make out Spring on the other side. Spiritually this is a bleak time, a dry and cold season before the Resurrection. There are however memories of a sustaining wintery austerity. I had not ever given this much thought until I had read deeper into the works of Tolkien and CS Lewis. Both shared an affinity for a profound mood that Lewis called “northernness”. Squadrons of scholars have made much of this and they seem to linger on the aspect related to Nordic culture and mythology. Those aspects are certainly catalytic to both authors’ discovery and appreciation of this sublime and other-worldly sentiment. And no doubt much of that tradition’s finer mythopoetic acheivements are infused with and inspired by this “northernness” But is there a transcendental element unrelated to tribal culture?   Lewis gives us a clear and vivid description of this deep emotion. In his case he first experienced it when reading a Beatrix Potter story as a child. As absurd an association as this might seem to an adult, to his juvenile sensibilities an enduring impression was made:

It troubled me with what I can only describe as the Idea of Autumn… . It sounds fantastic to say that one can be enamored of a season, but that is something like what happened and … the experience was one of intense desire. And one went back to the book, not to gratify the desire (how can one possess Autumn?) but to reawaken it. - Surprised by Joy

This same mood was evoked even more strongly later in his life by Longfellow’s King Olaf:

“I heard a voice, that cried, ëBalder the Beautiful / Is dead, is dead!í

And through the misty air / Passed like the mournful cry / Of sunward sailing cranes.” – ibid

Lewis describes his reaction:

I knew nothing about Balder; but instantly I was uplifted into huge regions of northern sky. I desired with almost sickening intensity something never to be described (except that it is cold, spacious, severe, pale and remote) and then … found myself at the very same moment already falling out of that desire and wishing I were back in it. - ibid

I’ve some experience with northernness and as with Lewis the strongest apprension of it occurred when I was a child.

I have a very strong memory of a particularly happy Christmas Day. I could see the snow on the pines in the woods behind the house. Dad had opened up our traditional gift to him, an assortment of sausage and cheeses and was doling out slices of this manna and ambrosia to all who desired them. A deep peace and contentment settled on the house. As we shared this tribal communion, the arctic wind made the tops of the trees sway against the stark blue infinity of sky.

Another strong recurring theme would come later in autumn, usually while traveling a northbound highway with wooded verges. Carried as it was on Canadian winds, there were strong associations with the French-Canadians I grew up with. There were elements of ice fishing, the pitchy smell of sawmills and drying flannel, extinct brands of chewing gum and the antiques that dispensed them. But over all was the presence of a vast northern expanse, the playground of the Wendigo and Manitou. Every year when winter winds make all else silent, it comes back to me.

Tolkien of course shared this sense with Lewis and in fact it was a cornerstone of their friendship. Both men also understood that this uplifting of the soul was a longing for something eternal, similar one can say to Blake’s seeing eternity in a grain of sand. In his agnostic phase Lewis equated it with the German concept of sehnsucht or longing.

Tolkien later related it to his term “eucatastrophe”. Simple put a eucatastrophe is a happy ending. But it had a special significance for him juxtaposed to the Norse and Finnish epics he studied so deeply [which were, like their Mediterranean analogs, essentially tragic] and in his estimation the Gospel was the greatest example. Lewis similarly converted the mood of northernness into a spiritual value which he called Joy.

I tend to agree that this sentiment is an echo of an eternal transcendental spirtual reality. But I wonder if it is universal. Would someone from a more southern latitude recognize it, or would they have some corresponding mood that had different, less “nordic” trappings?

There may be something uniquely nordic about northernness. I have experienced similar emotions looking at Cartagena from a distance, or a childhood memory of a seascape that I imagined was an Aegean harbor. But maybe I was translating northerness into a different topographical idiom.

It could well be a regional phenomenon. Winter is a disciplinarian and it lends itself more to an asceticism sense of loneliness that distinguishes northernness. One would expect to find more monasteries among the cold mountain peaks than on the shores of a South Sea island.

I do suspect that regardless of origin, we all have a capacity to appreciate northernness. For myself and all I pray blessings from the Infinite through the soul of the season to the souls of us all.

Another Kind of Nordic Wings: otherwordly-ness,...

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 09:24:00 -0400

Another Kind of Nordic Wings:

otherwordly-ness, death, angels, nordic magic realism and symbolism,

sigur ros

Primeval Darkness in Norse Mythology The ancient inhabitants...

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 09:16:01 -0400

Primeval Darkness in Norse Mythology

The ancient inhabitants of the Northern regions imagined that both Sun and Moon were incessantly pursued by the fierce wolves Skoll (repulsion) and Hati (hatred), whose sole aim was to overtake and swallow the brilliant objects before them, so that the world might again be enveloped in its primeval darkness.

What does Northernness mean to you? (re-posting list from Ralph Lichtensteiger)

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:56:10 -0400

Northerness

- Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer, Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 (1903/1905)

- Mats Larsson Gothe, Swedish composer, Concerto for trombone and wind instruments

- Peter Bengtson, Swedish composer

- Edvard Grieg, composer, Norway

- Carl Nielsen, Danish composer

- knäckebröd

- Meatballs

- Fish

- gräddfil (sour cream)

- Reindeer

- smörgåsbord

- Nordic Landscape Painting

- Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect and furniture designer

- Forests

- ABBA, Agnetha Fältskog, the blond

- The sexy Swedish party girl cliche

- Lappmarken (Swedish Lapland)

- Sami people

- Duodji (Sami handicraft)

- Ingrid Thulin, Swedish film actress

- Malmö

- Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress

- Nordic folklore

- Nordic mythology

- Valhalla

- Siegfried/Sigurd

- Ingmar Bergman

- Kantele (traditional plucked string instrument)

- Glenn Gould’s The Idea of North (Solitude Trilogy)

- Toronto

- Bobo Stenson Trio

- August Strindberg, Fröken Julie (Miss Julie)

- Hanna Elmquist, Swedish jazz singer

- Viktoria Tolstoy, Swedish jazz singer

- Midsommar (Midsummer)

- Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic

- Jaakko Hintikka, Finnish philosopher

- Ludwig Wittgenstein in Norway, He wanted to escape what in his eyes was the atmosphere of superficial intellectualising in Cambridge. At the end of October he took a room in a guest-house in Skjolden, a small remote place northeast of Bergen, where he intended to spend the winter in lonely contemplation of questions of logic

a composite of final sketch for screens and installation

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:20:18 -0400

a composite of final sketch for screens and installation

process and space

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 09:29:00 -0400

Some thoughts on the process of how we are visualizing the installation at Northern Stage.

Stage 3 at the theater has been a challenging place to visualize our installation in. Its a small space, and has a built in alcove type area that is used as smaller theater. Both Leif and me create work for the stage in different forms so the idea of re-working the context of what a ”stage” can be is very interesting. Initially, we wanted to break away and deconstruct the stage area, flip it around and hang the 2 screens in a way that would both create an additional space within the room but also hopefully change the perspective of what the architecture traditionally would ask for in this room. It’s both a small theater space and a lounge in the basement, with a flow of people coming through, both for shows and to pass through the building. The challenge was to create a hanging that would inform a new seeing of the basement space and create a reaction and a wish to stop, enter and feel like one would want to stay in this meditative environment.

Due to issues with throw distance, our first 2 ideas had to be re-thought and we have now landed in a somewhat more traditional triptych hanging than what we initially started out with. Its still ”a space within a space” – something we feel strongly about. The surround sound will encompass more than the screen space and will immerse the full basement area. Smaller ”stool areas” in locations outside of the triptych screen space will add a possibility to only listen to the soundscape. Or perhaps get a glimpse of a small portion of the video, while fully taking in the sound. A sit down environment inside the video space will invite for a more durational viewing.

Ideas of how the viewer would experience the work have been important to us. The piece itself is a meditation on the Nordic landscape, and much of the intricate subtleties can get lost if experienced to fast. The ”off-site” process of creating a spatial experience is one made up of instinctual decisions but one never knows until in the space.

The process of visualizing a space and an installation can take many forms. For n.waves I worked of still images of the space (different angles) and used these as departure points and backgrounds to layer video onto – the best way for me to get a ”not-quite-3D” spatialisation. I make sketches in After Effects which clarifies what works and what doesn’t, both in terms of scale, multi-screens and visual juxtapositions. During the trip we made in May we had our initial meeting with Rob Brown, head of sound and A/V who has been very helpful in our summer pursuits of tech solutions. And in June and July and starting back up now in September, Leif and I have had weekly meetings about directions, concepts of the macro/micro in landscape, and new sound/video ideas regarding our re-mix version. And working with the talented Leif is an amazing pleasure.

Final idea/version

A northern soul?

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:26:39 -0400

What is typical for a northern soul? Is it the fact that we live in a country so far up in the north? Is it the temperature or the weather that creates our personality? Or maybe we are not so unique, maybe it’s not the fact that we live in the north that creates this character.

We say that we live in the north but even more we live in a country that is close to the wide open, to the big eternity, to oblivion. All northern countries have big areas with mountains or forests, far from civilization and without human beings, and everytime I visit these places I get this special feeling that I am so small in the world. It’s scary but also comforting and it leaves a huge emptiness inside that follows me wherever I go. I have met people from places like Ireland, Portugal and Cape Verde who lives close to the wide open sea and I can see the same kind of personality as we have up here in the north and I think that it is living close to the wild, wide open that creates this charactheristic souls compared to people who lives in the middle of civilization with no wild nature close. All this countries have words, music or expressions to explain their own sadness or melancholy. Saudade in Portugal, the music style Morna in Cape Verde, the Irish verbal tradition of telling sad stories in the pub and the nordic melancholy expressed in our souls and knowned worldwide. I remember the first time I came to Berlin, it was before -89 and the opening of the wall. Most of the people I met never went out of the city. The closest they got to nature was visiting a park on Sunday afternoon. Or living in Holland or Belgium where wild nature doesn’t exist at all. I believe it must be so different to grow up in the middle of Europe from being raised in one of the corners of the world. It must be different to grow up in a place where you learn, as a child, to be street smart than to grow up in a place where you have to walk alone 20 minutes through a big forest to get the bus to the nearest village.

So maybe it’s not a northern thing at all. Maybe it has to do with living close to something that is so much bigger than ourselves, so much bigger than we can imagine.

Nanook of the North: A Story Of Life and Love In the Actual...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:42:41 -0400

Nanook of the North: A Story Of Life and Love In the Actual Arctic, 1922, silent documentary film, Robert J. Flaherty.

From his writings:

After this it did not take my Eskimo long to see the practical side of films and they soon abandoned their former attitude of laughter and good-natured ridicule toward the Angercak, i.e., the White Master who wanted pictures of them- the commonest objects in all the world! From that time on they were all with me. When in December the snow lay heavy on the ground the Eskimo abandoned their topecks of sealskin and the village of snow igloos sprung up around my wintering post. They snow-walled my little hut up to the eves with thick blocks of snow. It was as thick walled as a fortress. My kitchen was their rendezvous- there was always a five-gallon pail of tea steeping on the stove and sea biscuit in the barrel. My little gramophone, too, was common property. Caruso, Farrar, Ricardo-Martin, McCormick served their turns with Harry Lauder, Al Jolson and Jazz King orchestras. Caruso in the Pagliacci prologue with its tragic ending was to them the most comic record of the lot. It sent them into peals of laughter and to rolling on the floor.

The difficulties of film development and printing during the winter were many. That convenience of civilization which I most missed was running water. For instance, in the film washing, three barrels of water for every hundred feet was required. The water hole, then eight feet of ice, had to be kept open all winter long and water clotted with particles of ice had to be taken, a barrel at a time, from a distance of more than a quarter of a mile away. When I mention that over 50,000 feet of film was developed over the winter with no assistance save from my Eskimo and at the slow rate of eight hundred feet a day one can understand somewhat the amount of time and labor involved.

Eskimo - From a project by The Residents

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:12:54 -0400

Eskimo - From a project by The Residents:

In the 80’s the experimental group The Residents did a project called “Eskimo”. The record was like a fake anthropological research of the life amongst the eskimos lives. Or not fake - All the sounds are produced electronically and in the style of what they have been doing in other records with odd versions of pop songs. But this time they’ve created an ambient soundscape that is congenial with the stories about walrus hunting, tales about Nanook and daily life. Strange choirs - electronically processed - takes you to a land far from civilization. This is a part of a film that they made with the material.

And they haven’t been The Residents if they haven’t released a maxi single a couple of months later with the title “Discomo”. The same ambient sounds but with a drum machine playing disco on top of it.

The Phantom Hunter (1888). Canadian artist William Blair...

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:30:00 -0400

The Phantom Hunter (1888). Canadian artist William Blair Bruce.
Casting a northern tale about hunters, solitude, otherworldly-ness and death.

Dancing queen with ABBA: Nordic light in pop music - does it exist?

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:48:00 -0400

Dancing queen with ABBA: Nordic light in pop music - does it exist?:

More than 100 years ago painters went to Skagen in the north of Denmark to look for the magical light and to create a special technique in painting later to be called “Nordic light”. Ever since then the nordic light and atmosphere has been found in paintings, photos, films, theatre and music. I have been thinking about what is typicall for music done in our part of the world and especially music that has been spread worldwide, such as Abba, Roxette, Robyn. These are all artists that work in the field of popular music and music meant for partying and dancing. They have been described by journalists outside of Sweden to have a typicall nordic sound and style. So what is it? I listened to “Dancing queen” by Abba - I think Benny Andersson thought that he was doing a very happy song about a girl who is the queen on the dancefloor and everybody looks at her when she is swirling around in beautiful moves. But what comes out is something else - The melody is sad and with a melancholic atmosphere and tells us so much more that the lyrics. Then take a look at the face expressions of the two girls singing - there is nothing there that corresponds with the “happiness” in the lyrics. They look very serious, almost sad ( Journalists outside Sweden where fascinated by the blond Agneta Fältskog and I think it is because of the same reason: Beautiful and sexy but with a sadness in her face).

Is this the nordic light in music? Even when we are happy we are sad. It is said that the nordic light is best just before sunset and it is the same combination of light and darkness, the border between two worlds where we are dancing.

a coverall made of ballon material also survived the arctic for...

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:00:00 -0400

a coverall made of ballon material also survived the arctic for 30 years.

people did not.