The site is the question

The recent project "Resurrecting the Obsolete" which was launched at the former Spode ceramics factory in Stoke on Trent in September was documented in an exhibition entitled "The Site is The Question" at Rom 8, KHIB. The exhibition brought together a wide range of materials and documentation, suggesting some of the vibrancy that characterized the site investigations that took place during the workshop. The project will now be further developed, with a new workshop in March 2013, leading to the production of site-specific works to be incorporated in the British Ceramics Biennale 2013. The project is being developed and led by Anne Helen Mydland and Neil Brownsword and involves participants from KHIB, The Royal Danish Art Academy, Mutheus Academy in Kiel, Nottingham Trent University and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Below are some images fom the current exhibition.

From Richard Launder's installation, incorporating objects, photographs, architectural drawings and video

Expanded map of the Potteries region

From a series of ceramic objects printed with images from the site

Photo series from installation in the former shop/showroom of the Spode factory

Recent past and near future

On Monday 22 October, Re:place was presented within the context of the Art Research Forum, arranged by KHIB and Griegakademiet in connection with the Norwegian Program for Research in The Arts. Although the project is still in its early stages and could not present a great deal of documentation, it was nevertheless a good opportunity to further examine the premises and primary aims of Re:place. Synne Bull and Jeremy Welsh held short presentations, and then were joined by Morten Eide Pedersen for a Q & A with the audience.

Later the same day, research fellows Michelle Teran and Ellen Røed both presented their projects for the forum. Michelle's performance "Folgen" further elaborates her research into the dynamic space between online video sites and actual terrestial locations. Taking the form of a diaristic "novel", the text of the performance is based on and adressed to the originators of a series of You Tube videos geotagged to sites in Berlin.

Ellen presented documentation of her ongoing work, including machines made in collaboration with Christian Blom, who has also recently become a research fellow at the Oslo music academy. The presentations were followed by a panel discussion chaired by Magnus Bartås, professor at Konstfack, Stockholm.

Discussion panel; Magnus Bartås, Franz Jacobi,  Michelle Teran, Ellen Røed, Joost Rekveld, Christian Blom, Amber Frid Jimenez

Coming up in the near future:

Signe Lidén will be mounting an exhibition based on the Cold Coast Archive project, in Rom 8, Vaskerelven, KHIB, during the period 12 - 25 November. There will also be a one-day discussion seminar connected to the exhibition - details to be announced.

The next Re:place lecturer will be Esther Leslie, professor of political aesthetics at Birkbeck College, London, on Monday 12 November.

Also coming up - though not a Re:place event in itself - is a day conference and events programme devoted to curating and presenting electronic literature, arranged by Scott Rettberg and Jill Walker Rettberg. Discussions take place at Hordaland Kunstsenter during the daytime, and then there will be an evening event at Galleri 3,14 that is announced as: "An Evening of Digital Narratives and Poetry" with Michelle Teran, Roderick Coover, Nick Montfort, Scott Rettberg, Talan Memmott, Kristian Pederson, Rui Torres.

Soundscape Røst For Insomnia

Not part of the Re:place project per se, but tangential to it, the exhibition Soundscape Røst For Insomnia by Elin Øyen Vister opens at Tromsø kunstforening coming Friday.

The exhibition is based on several years of field recordings capturing the soundscape at the Røst Island, documenting soundscapes of coastal nature and culture, and the sounds of endangered pelagic seabird populations such as Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Puffins and Razor Bills.

BEK has assisted the production of the installation, as it is making extensive use of Max, Jamoma and ViMiC spatialisation for the creation of immersive multichannel sound scenes. Saturday, as part of an extensive program accompanying the exhibition, Trond Lossius will give an artist talk and concert at Tromsø kunstforening.

Re:place - next

The next event connected to Re:place is a guest lecture by artist &  film maker Helen Petts, on Friday 19th. October.

First Re:place seminar 11 - 13 October

Images from the first Re:place seminar, 11 - 13 October at KHIB. Over the course of three days there were presentations and discussions of individual projects thematically connected to Re:place, a series of three guest lectures and a day trip to Hardanger, taking in a visit to the arts centre Kabuso in Øystese, the ancient agricultural village Agatunet, and Odda, to see the exhibition Odds.

The first day of the seminar: Morten Eide Pedersen, Trond Lossius, Scott Rettberg

Morten Eidi Pedersen, Signe Lidén, Scott Rettberg

Scott Rettberg, Synne Bull, Dragan Miletic with Chloe Lewis & Andrew Taggart presenting

Neil Brownsword, Ellen Røed, Richard Launder, Johan Sandborg, Clement Valla

Day Two of the seminar: Invisible Landscapes: lecture by Bil Rankin

The Universal Texture: lecture by Clement Valla

Lecture by film maker Inger Lise Hansen

Day Three; trip to Hardanger: Dragan Miletic & Synne Bull at Steindalsfossen

Steindalsfossen: Inger Lise Hansen, Clement Valla & Heidi Nikolaisen

Duncan Higgins & Scott Rettberg at Steindalsfossen

Presetnation of Kurt Johannesen's exhibition at Kabuso

Linda Lien presenting her design project during lunch at Kabuso

On the ferry "Hardingen" from Kvandal to Utne

Signe Lidén & Scott Rettberg, crossing Hardanger Fjord

Clement Valla & Ellen Røed on the ferry

Lars Korff Lofthus talks about his recent project at the historic village Agatunet

Lars Korff Lofthus as tour guide on the road to Odda

At the Odds exhibition, Duncan Higgins & Johan Sandborg

Ingeborg Annie Lindahl introduces the Odds exhibition

Dinner at the mountain farm Tjødnadalen Gard, close to Odda.

Hardanger-trip 13. October

    Programme:

    09.30:  Departure C. Sundsgate 53

    11.00:  Kabuso, Øystese.

                Exhibition by Kurt Johannesen. Torunn will tell us about Kabuso and their philosophy

         

    11.45:  Lunch-talk with Linda Lien. She will talk about The Caféproject Kvam

    13.00:  Departure Øystese to the ferry. The participants who are having flights to Oslo 18.15 will

                take a bus back to Bergen 14.30

    14.30:  Arrival Utne. Lars Lofthus will join the bus. We will pass by Agatun on our way to Odda.

    15.30:  Guided tour through the exhibition ODDS and Lofthus´s work at the
                literature symposium exhibition.

                Terje Kollbotn from Odda Municipality will show us some of the old factory-locations and

                answer questions concerning the debate about conservation or/and cultural reactivation of

                Odda´s industrial areas.    

                (Working class hero- concert at 18.00...)

    18.30:  Dinner together with ODDS organizers, Lars Lofthus.

    20.00:  Departure Odda towards Bergen. Arrival Bergen ca. 23.00

    If someone wants to stay over in Odda, ODDS can help with a roof over one´s head but bring   

    sleeping bag AND liggeunderlag.

places / traces / stories

Documentation images from the exhibition. Click on the image below to go to the photo gallery.

places traces stories

Images from the exhibition opening are posted on on this blog and on Flickr.

Exhibition opening 5 October

From the opening of places / traces / stories, Friday 5 October, Rom 8, KHIB,  Vaskerelven, Bergen. Documentation images of the work in the show will follow soon....

places / traces / stories

Open Lecture Programme Friday 12th October

Re:place  Open lecture programme. 

Friday 12 October 10.00 - 15.00Lecture room, 4th. floor, C. Sundtsgt 53, Nordnes

Bill Rankin 

Invisible Landscapes

Most maps present a two-tiered vision of the world; there is the topographic “base map” that shows the solid, neutral, physical world, and then there is “thematic” content overlaid on top. This simple act of laying makes a powerful ontological claim: it creates a dichotomy of primary and secondary, permanent and temporary, visible and invisible. What happens when we discard this hierarchy and take the temporary, invisible, or statistical as our solid ground? Focusing on these “invisible landscapes” creates a new sense of place that is simultaneously disorienting and liberating. Space itself is likewise no longer an empty container waiting to be filled; it is instead an active construction of identity, law, political economy, and historical memory.

Bill Rankin is a historian and cartographer. His mapping activity is focused on reimaging everyday urban and territorial geographies as complex landscapes of statistics, law, and history. His maps have appeared in publications and exhibitions throughout the US and Europe, including articles in Perspecta, Harvard Design Magazine, and National Geographic and shows at Harvard University, Pratt Institute, the Cartographic Bienalle in Lausanne, the Triennalle di Milano, and the Toronto Images Festival; his maps also traveled for several years with ICI’s “Experimental Geographies” exhibit. His historical research is about the politics of cartography and navigation in the twentieth century. He teaches at Yale University, where he is an assistant professor of the history of science.

www.radicalcartography.net

Inger Lise Hansen

Travelling Fields

Inger Lise Hansen’s recent works focus on particular phenomena occurring through a change of perspective and animated camera movements, as a way of redefining a place and its geography. These films document landscape and architectural elements across a series of diverse locations from a shopping centre in Linz to the deserted landscapes of the Kola Peninsula in north-

western Russia.

Inger Lise Hansen will present some earlier works and new films.

Inger Lise Hansen studied Fine Art at University of East London and Central-St.Martins College of Art & Design and Filmmaking at San Francisco Art Institute. Her films have been screened and exhibited in international institutions such as OK Center Contemporary Art 

in Linz, Austria, Rotterdam Film Festival, Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, National Gallery, 

London  (“Truth or Dare” Film Season), Académie Lebanese des Beaux-arts, Sin el Fil, 

Lebanon, Galerie National du Jeu de Paume, Paris  (Rencontre International), Gasworks Gallery, London (“Blink” artists’ animation exhibition). Tate Modern, London (Architecture Week; “Housing Problems”).

www.ingerlisehansen.com

Clement Valla

The Universial Texture

I collect Google Earth images. I discovered strange snapshots where the
illusion of a seamless and accurate representation of the Earth’s surface seems to break down. At first, I thought they were glitches, or errors in the algorithm, but looking closer, I realized the situation was actually more interesting — these images are not glitches. They are the absolute logical result of the system. They are an edge condition—an anomaly within the system, a nonstandard, an outlier, even, but not an error. These jarring moments expose how Google Earth works, focusing our attention on the software. They are seams which reveal a new model of seeing and of representing our world – as dynamic, ever-changing data from a myriad of different sources – endlessly combined, constantly updated, creating a seamless illusion.

Clement Valla (Brooklyn, NY) is an artist working with algorithmic systems. He pushes problem-solving logic to irrational ends. His recent work examines copies, repetition and reproduction in Chinese ‘Oil-Painting Factories’ and corwdsourced online drawing tools. Valla wonders about the blurring boundary between human creativity and computational interpretation.
Valla received a BA from Columbia University in 2001, where he studied architecture. After working for architects in the USA, France, and China, Valla began using computers and digital technologies in his own work. He received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Digital+Media.

www.clementvalla.com