Övergång/Crossing (2016)
Technique:
2 Ohm LM 5 loudspeakers, 1 Behringer iNuke amplifier, Mp3-player, digital sound file, 24 min loop.
The changing character of water runs from reassuring and caressing to stormy and rebellious. In this piece, these extremes are used dramaturgically in the different sequences of the sound; from calm to uncontrollable. Site-specific temporary sound-installation at ”Konst i Ån”, Society Bridge in Norrtälje, 2016.
Human beings are strongly influenced by their expectations of which sounds go together with which places or situations. The composition exploits this expectation by using sounds at the site; one of the loudspeakers relays the sound of natural water, whereas the other loudspeaker transmits water sounds, which have been manipulated. Shifts in the composition, created by modulating the original sounds, problematize the expected and the experienced, so that what you see is at odds with what you hear. By way of gradual changes, the listener/observer is faced with a sensory dilemma; that their hearing and their eyesight do not tell the same stories.
Every location has its own special acoustics. Under a bridge with running water, you can hear waves lapping, echoes and lingering effects. Up on the bridge, the soundscape is created by the movements of people and vehicles. In that sense, the bridge-brook junction represents both a visual and an auditory crossing. But the bridge also carries the symbolism of stepping across water in order to reach another spot of land as well as another condition; in Greek mythology, you hade to cross the river Styx in order to reach the god Hades on your way to the underworld.
Soundsample (1.03)
