Konsthall Se (Konsthall See), exhibition at Konsthall C, 2009
”80% of all human sensory impressions are based on vision. Konsthall Se examined how the other senses can be utilized in the arts. In the autumn’s first project at Konsthall C, twelve artists present new proposals for public art that also work for the partially sighted.
The exhibition proposes twelve new works for the public domain, works that could be understood and appreciated by people with or without eyesight. Based on their different practices and experiences, the artists in Konsthall Se have been investigating the possible and the impossible, the grandeur, the subtle, the bad and the humorous.”
(Curator Po Hagström.)
Featured artists: Janna Holmstedt, Lisa Jonasson, Mattias Larson, Matts Leiderstam, Ulf Lundin, Maria Luostarinen, Ola Nilsson, Anna Nyberg, Susanne Sjölund, Åsa Stjerna, Liv Strand och Lisa Torell.
CODE (dah-di-dah dah-dah-dah dah-di-dit), (sound installation / sculpture, 2009)
Patinated concrete, plaster, plastic, electronic equipment, audio DVD.
Materials in public work: bronze, electronic equipment, audio DVD.
This work originates in the experience of being perceived by, and perceiving one’s environment. The stick, which many visually impaired people use to orient themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, has a central place in the work. The technique used is based on a knocking sound that the partially sighted accomplish by beating the stick against the surface.
The variations and echoes in the sound generated is indicative and gives the visually impaired an opportunity to ”read” the environment they are in.
Here is a clear parallel to coded messages: to the uninitiated seeing person, the small variations in sound quality seem impossible to perceive. To the visually impaired however, it is part of the map by which one navigates. At the same time, the stick signals to the environment to pay attention to the situation and the visually impaired. The stick is, in a broader definition, a tool for communication with which the user creates a sound to announce their presence and to get information.
This work connects to an interest in language and sound, which is a part of my practice. I am using a linguistic system as a basis in which noise and echo plays an important part. A linguistic system can be rhythmic codes, such as Morse code, where some set intervals of combinations construct a message. CODE was built thanks to the collaboration of Karin Häll.
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Article_Subconscious_visual_sense link →
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The sound work in the exhibition consists of several separate pieces that relate to the Morse code in varying degrees. The sound piece CODE is activated by the visually impaired knocking on the base with the stick. By tapping again, a new piece will be played. In this way the sound from the stick is included in this “challenge-response work”.
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