Persuade, Evoke, Represent in Montreal
Posted on | november 14, 2011 | No Comments
Together with Tom O’Dell I will be at The 110th Annual Meeting of The American Anthropological Association in Montreal. We will present a paper named ”Persuade, Evoke, Represent – Ethnographic Compositions in Use” where we take our ideas on ”Composing Ethnography”, published in the latest issue of Ethnologia Europaea some steps further.
It will also be interesting to check out this years Ethnographic Terminalia exhibition running parallel to the AAA-meeting in Montreal. The theme this year is: Field, Studio, Lab.
Bollywood and The Artificial Past
Posted on | november 11, 2011 | 1 Comment
A couple of years ago I made a small installation based on light and sound together with light designer Anna Jönsson. The site for the installation was ”Blekingegården” at the open air museum Kulturen in Lund. One of the ideas with the installation was to explore how you could change the building into a kind of imaginary room that stretched the ideas about how museums could represent their materials and environments.
Next week a large film team from India will come to Blekingegården to use it as location for a Bollywood horror movie. ”1920 – The Evil Return” . I’m very happy to see that the artificial pasts of this location is now taken to further heights.
Article about the film in Sydsvenskan (in Swedish).
About the installation Artificial Past.
Yokohama in Düsseldorf
Posted on | oktober 10, 2011 | No Comments
Elsewhereness:Yokohama will be screened in Düsseldorf, Germany. Yokohama was the first city to be evoked in the Elsewhereness series by me and Anders Weberg. The Yokohama piece as well as the others in the series can be watched at http://www.elsewhereness.com
About the screening:
Directors Lounge presents experimental films all around Japan
We will participate in this year´s 日本デ , the 10th Japan-Day in Duesseldorf, celebrating the 150 anniversary of Japanese-German diplomatic relations.
DL: Short Cuts to Japan, screened on october, 15 at the Black Box cinema will be dedicated to Japan in experimental cinema and video art. Films included will cover a wide range of “Japans”, from fictional to historical to personal…
films by Ciro Altabás, Marina Chernikova, André Werner, YukihiroTaguchi, Jean Gabriel Périot, Matthew Dotson & Bart Woodstrop, Anders Weberg & Robert Willim, GUP-py, Kazuhiko Kobayashi, Akinori Okada & Masataka Ohta (pictured: Ansoku No Basyo, 2010)
curated by Julia Murakami
many thanks to Sascha Lueck and whiteconcepts for their support!
Black Box Kino im Filmmuseum , Schulstr. 4, 40213 Duesseldorf
October 15, 2011, 8 pm (admission free!)
New Work: The World is Not Enough
Posted on | september 26, 2011 | No Comments
A new collaborative work between me and Finnish artist Jussi Valtakari will premiere at The Cultural Center in Jöhvi, Estonia October 1st.
From the Statement:
The World is Not Enough is a joint work between artists Jussi Valtakari and Robert Willim, based on a sculpted wooden micro gallery by Valtakari and the video artwork Close to Nature by Willim. By screening Close to Nature in the space of the micro gallery the work raise questions about representation, scale and mediation.
Close to Nature focus on the ways that ideas about Nature are evoked and engendered through uses of technology. The video work is based on nine 30 sec. clips in an iterative sequence. The first clip of a woody landscape was recorded outside of Taivalkoski, Finland using an Intenso Viddy, a cheap Video Messenger. The clip was transferred from the Viddy to a laptop. When played on the laptop the screen was filmed with the Viddy, creating the second clip and another iteration of the primary filmed sequence. The process was repeated until there were 9 clips representing the landscape. Each of the nine iterations brings the viewer closer to the scenery, while the image and sound also become more distorted and noisy. By using a cheap consumer electronic device, and no video editing of the clips, serendipitous ready-made dimensions and glitch-aesthetics are high-lighted. Close to Nature stress an appreciation of imperfection, chance, and the role of media for experiences of nature.
A major theme of Close to Nature, the video part of The World is Not Enough, is the interplay between proximity and distance, a theme that is further highlighted in the context of the micro gallery. By mixing the video work with the sculpted space and the characters inhabiting the micro gallery a further iteration in the representational loop is engendered What is the role of a gallery and who is watching what?
Industrial Cool in Stockholm – ”A Room With a View”
Posted on | september 25, 2011 | No Comments
During the evening September 27 an event focusing on postindustrial rejuvenation processes will take place in an industrial area in southern Stockholm. Below is a presentation, from the invitation letter, of the event (in Swedish).
Kapitel 2. Den (o)synliga handen
Tisdag 27 september kl. 18-21
Vi sägs idag leva i det postindustriella samhället, ett samhälle där fokus ligger på upplevelser, konsumtion, trivsel och rekreation. Men hur postindustriellt är egentligen vårt samhälle? Förutsätter i själva verket det postindustriella tillståndet en ökad grad av industrialisering? Handlar det inte bara om att industrin har förflyttats någon annanstans eller osynliggjorts för våra ögon?
I Slakthusområdet befinner vi oss fortfarande i en konkret produktionsplats som står i kontrast till den abstrakta idén om det postindustriella samhället. Ännu idag är Slakthusområdet en industri och en produktionsplats som distribuerar 70 % av Stockholms samlade köttkonsumtion. För tillfället samexisterar här industrin och planerna för ett framtida, ”postindustriellt” område. Ett område för rekreation och upplevelser i världsklass. Vi intresserar oss för detta spänningsfält och processerna som styr utvecklingen av postindustriella miljöer, processer av sortering, estetisering, historisering och iscensättande.
En av våra mest inflytelserika ekonomiska teoretiker genom tiderna är Adam Smith, ofta kallad liberalismens fader. År 1776 lanserade han i boken Nationernas Välstånd begreppet Den osynliga handen. Begreppet har kommit att tjäna som en viktig marknadsekonomisk princip och går ut på att en individ som handlar till nytta för sig själv också indirekt handlar till nytta för samhället eller kollektivet. Denna tro på att marknaden utan statlig inblandning ger den bästa samhälliga utvecklingen, är en central del i de nyliberala tankemönster som genomsyrar vårt samhälle idag.
Är utvecklingen av Slakthusområdet någonting som Den osynliga handen genererar, eller är det en medveten process som drivs av högst synliga aktörer? Vi vill placera Slakthusområdet i ett större sammanhang och synliggöra de postindustriella processerna som verkar i detta nu på plats i Slakthusområdet. Den osynliga handen ska göras synlig.
Program:
18.00 Samling vid Slakthusområdets entré i korsningen Hallvägen/Palmfeltsvägen
Guidad tur genom området av Peter Ögren, ordförande i Föreningen Slakthusområdets Företagare.
19.00 Industrial Cool, föreläsning av Robert Willim
Robert Willim är forskare i etnologi vid Lunds Universitet och konstnär, med ett intresse för kopplingar mellan kulturanalys och konst. Han har under ett antal år studerat postindustriella miljöer och undersökt hur industrin estetiseras i samband med föreställningar om det postindustriella samhället. År 2008 utgav han boken Industrial Cool – Om postindustriella fabriker som även omfattar bilder och musik på webbplatsen http://www.industrialcool.net/.
* The Humping Pact (Dmitry Paranyushkin och Diego Agullo)
Screening av performance i kolkraftverk i Zollverein, Ruhr: ”The Humping Pact is the suspended act of love towards the environment.”
* Matmapping (Eva Arnqvist och Adriana Seserin)
Eva och Adriana är två av initiativtagarna till projektet Ett Rum Med Utsikt. För kvällen har de gemensamt utfört en matmapping, en genomlysning av vad som produceras i Slakthusområdet. Mappingen fungerar också som kvällens rumsliga gestaltning och måltid.
I Ett rum med utsikt utforskas en rad frågeställningar rörande platsens ideologi, politik och praktik. Genom en serie publika händelser med inbjudna gäster lägger vi kapitel till kapitel i en berättelse om en plats i förändring. Om en industrimiljös uppgång och fall, om kultur som tillväxtmotor och upplevelser i världsklass. Projektrummet blir en experimentell plattform med samtal, aktioner, konst och mat. Ett rum med utsikt genomförs under ett års tid genom en rad publika händelser. Projektet drivs av konstnärerna Eva Arnqvist och Karin Lindh samt arkitekten och konstnären Adriana Seserin.
Folkliv at The Museum
Posted on | september 19, 2011 | No Comments
Next Saturday, September 24th, the open air Museum Kulturen in Lund will arrange a day with a number of events on the theme of folklore and superstition. They will screen the series Folkliv (Folklife, link to the series on iTunes U) in the auditorium during the day. Here’s a link to a previous post on the series, that I wrote when it premiered on Swedish national television UR in 2010.
Tags: Anders Weberg > Folklivsarkivet i Lund > Mia-Marie Hammarlin
Culture Night and The Overlooked
Posted on | september 17, 2011 | No Comments
September 17 The Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences will arrange a number of events and attractions as part of the annual Culture Night in Lund. As part of the arrangement a selection of photos from our Overlooked-project (Förbisett) will be exhibited. After this exhibition we will start searching for new contexts and spaces where the Overlooked might be shown. If you happen to know about some interesting place, please feel free to drop a line.
And when talking about this project, I just found a thoughtful review of the book (in Swedish) by Arne Järtelius at Nationalencyklopedin.
Elsewhereness >> Milton Keynes
Posted on | september 5, 2011 | No Comments
A new part of the Elsewhereness-series will be screened at The 2nd International Visual Methods Conference in Milton Keynes, UK. Statement from the conference website:
”The 2nd International Visual Methods Conference will be held at the Open University in Milton Keynes from 13th-15th September 2011. We invite academics and others who work with visual methods to take part in presentations and discussions, as well as a programme of workshops, viewing a variety of exhibitions and screenings.
Following the success and interest generated at the first conference it was decided that a conference focussing on visual methods should take place every two years, enabling the growth of a visual methods community.
At this second conference there will be three internationally acclaimed keynote presenters, Professor Carey Jewitt (Institute of Education, University of London, UK), Professor Ludmilla Jordanova (King’s College, UK) and Katerina Cizek (National Film Board of Canada).
Alongside this, workshops will be held for those new to visual methods, there will be paper and panel sessions as well as a range of exciting exhibitions and screenings around the conference venue. Presentations will focus on state of the art visual methods as well as innovative real world applications.”
Transmutations of Nature
Posted on | juli 31, 2011 | No Comments
From August 9 until September 25 four of my works will be exhibited in a group exhibition at The Päätalo Center in Taivalkoski, Finland. The other two artists are Jürgen Umlauff (DE) and Jussi Valtakari (FI). My works are based on questions about landscape and problematize ideas about nature and mediation. Here’s the statement:
Close to Nature / Lähellä Luontoa
What does it mean to be close to nature? This question is examined in this video work based on 9 short clips. The first clip of a woody landscape was recorded outside of Taivalkoski, Koillismaa, Finland using an Intenso Viddy, a cheap Video Messenger.
The clip, 30 seconds in duration, of the landscape was transferred from the Viddy to a laptop. When played on the laptop the screen was filmed with the Viddy, creating the second clip and another iteration of the primary filmed sequence. The process was repeated until there were 9 clips representing the landscape. Each of the nine iterations brings the viewer closer to the scenery, while the image and sound also become more distorted and noisy.
The Viddy is marketed as a fridge magnet with possibilities to record and play messages. With it’s 1,8” screen, simple microphone and camera it has poor audio-visual qualities. In Close to Nature the limited quality of the Viddy is used to evoke the character of the work. Each iteration of the initial clip induces a closer image, but also more abstraction. By using the side effects of a cheap consumer electronic device, and no video editing of the clips, serendipitous ready-made dimensions and glitch aesthetics are high lighted. In contrast to genres of landscape art, and representations of nature where the sublime and feelings of wonder and awe are valued, Close to Nature instead stress an appreciation of imperfection, chance, and the juxtaposition of a media dominated consumer society with experiences of nature.
Out of Hand
Further aspects of the video work Close to Nature are called forth in a series of birch wood slices featuring minimalist paintings.
The paintings, made in watercolour are based on impressions derived from viewing the 9th part of the series. By using no brush, only fingers when painting, and by using the interplay between water colour, gesso primer and the water absorbing wood, the irregularities and glitches characterizing the uses of technology in Close to Nature are remediated.
These colour stained pieces of wood introduce questions on materiality and the interplay between controlled design and serendipitous irregularity. The three pieces become another dimension of representation, this time in another medium, raising further questions about mediation and transmutation.
Capture
The work is based on audio field recordings from the peak of Iso Syöte, a wood covered fell North West of Taivalkoski. The sounds of an approaching thunderstorm were captured and are played from speakers enclosed in a rectangular wooden box.
Thunderstorms experienced in mountain regions were a common theme of romantic representations of sublime nature. Here the sound of that kind of scenery is captured in a double sense, evoking other feelings than wonder and awe.
Muutunut Selkonen
Ready-made. In this piece something highly inconspicuous and mundane is used to evoke associations to identity formation and the transformations of the Koillismaa-region.
Ethnography North – A Knowledge Node
Posted on | juni 9, 2011 | No Comments
Together with Tom O’Dell I’ve initiated Etnography North, which is intended to be something we call ”A knowledge Node” dealing with questions about ethnography. An early version of a website is now online: Ethnography North on the web.
Photo by: Jan Bovin.
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