Blom, Tine. 2019. Nature, Wilderness and Ecological Awareness: Exploration, Experience and the Creation of Audiovisual Artworks of a Mountain
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Blom, Tine. 2019. Nature, wilderness and ecological awareness: Exploration, experience and the creation of audiovisual artworks of a mountain. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/26311/ The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Goldsmiths, University of London via the following email address: [email protected]. The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. For more information, please contact the GRO team: [email protected] Nature, wilderness and ecological awareness: Exploration, experience and the creation of audiovisual artworks of a mountain Tine Blom Ph.D. in Sonic Arts Department of Music Goldsmiths, University of London 2019 1 I hereby declare that the work in this thesis and the artworks and sounds presented in the accompanying portfolio are my own. I created the photographs, sounds and figures used herein and I therefore own and control copyrights. Signed, Date: 6th of March 2019 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research is the outcome of long and winding wanderings that would not have been carried through without the support and company along the way. Prof. John Levack Drever at the Department of Music introduced me to soundscape studies and encouraged and supervised this thesis all the way through. Noortje Marres at the Department of Sociology introduced me to Whitehead. Prof. Janis Jefferies at the Department of Computing gave clear advice on combining academic and artistic research. Many thanks. I am immensely grateful. The research has been part of my position as a researcher at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. Noorit Larsen has commented on the first parts and Alasdair Graham-Brown has language edited the thesis. My companions on the mountain were Martin Thomassen, Kjersti Swensen, Arne Næss, Siri Næss, Lotte Næss, Felipe de Palma, Geir Grønflaten and Alexandra Baixinho, and Ole-Bjørn Vindegg who also drove the snow scooter with supplies at Easter time. Many thanks for your company! Thanks to Arne Næss who inspired me in my youth, and to Siri Næss without whom this research would never have happened. 3 Abstract The research site is the mountain area along Tvergasteinstjørnet in Hallingskarvet mountain range in Norway. The mountain has been made by the processes of seasons, weather, geology and species and is in permanent transition. The research aim is to explore, experience and artistically articulate the mountain. This includes the experience of ecological awareness or the sense of being embedded, being part of and being vulnerable. I have developed and artistically articulated an embodied, sensuous and affective relationship to the mountain over a period of several years. The methodology is practice research and autoethnography, and the methods are wandering, place-making and writing fieldwork diaries. Field recording and art production are both research themes and research methods. The portfolio is a series of experiments with art forms and techniques. I compare them with a selection of artworks of other artists. The art forms are visual art, soundscape composition, audio documentary, multimedia and video. The techniques are the various perspectives of and relationships between visuals, sounds, voice and text. I discuss whether or how the artworks convey nature in sensory textured ways, whether or how they articulate embodied experiences and whether the artists are present in the artworks. Finally, I discuss what it takes for such artworks to articulate ecological awareness. The research is interdisciplinary, with approaches from philosophy, natural sciences, social science, visual arts and sound studies. I draw on Whitehead, Merleau-Ponty, Næss, Ingold, Böhme, Murray Schafer, Westerkamp and others. The research outcome is that the connections and discrepancy between the embodied memories and recordings are the most important source for creation of the artworks. However, the particular here-and-now experiences on the mountain cannot be mediated. Ecological awareness implies a relationship between nature and humans, and therefore the presence of humans should be indicated in the artwork, or the audience should be able to imagine such presence. 4 TABLE OF CONTENT PART 1. INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY 11 1.1 Introduction 11 1.1.1 Research concerns and research questions 11 1.1.2 Research site 13 1.1.3 Background and initiation 17 1.1.4 Research themes 20 1.1.4.1 Nature and wilderness 20 1.1.4.2 Nature experience 22 1.1.4.3 Sound and listening 24 1.1.4.4 Field recording 25 1.1.4.5 Artworks and art forms 26 1.1.5 Parts and sections 28 1.2. Methodology and method 28 1.2.1 Methodology 28 1.2.1.1 Practice research 28 1.2.1.2 Autoethnography 32 1.2.2 Methods 37 1.2.2.1 Practices on the mountain 37 Wandering and place-making 38 Embodied memory 40 Field recording 42 1.2.2.2 Writing 43 Logs and diaries 43 Writing (in) the thesis 44 1.2.2.3 Resources of study 45 Literature 45 Artworks of other artists 46 1.2.2.4 Practice of art production 47 1.2.3 Summary 49 5 PART 2. ON THE MOUNTAIN 50 2.1. Theory of nature, experience and tools 51 2.1.1 The concepts of nature and ecology 51 2.1.2 Theories of experience 58 2.1.2.1 The concepts of perception and prehension 58 2.1.2.2 Affect, sensation and the body 58 Phenomenology, atmospheres and the body 59 Affect, emotions and sensitisation 61 2.1.2.3 Consciousness and language 62 2.1.2.4 Engagement, attention and styles of perception 65 2.1.2.5 Ecological awarenes 68 2.1.3 Field recording and theory of tools 69 2.1.3.1 Social and material networks 70 2.1.3.2 Transducers and mediators 72 2.1.3.3 Tools and perception of environment 73 2.1.3.4 Tools and skills 75 2.1.4 Theory of sound 77 2.1.4.1 Sound and soundscape ecology 77 2.1.4.2 Listening 79 2.1.4.3 Sound and vision 83 2.1.5 Summary 85 Part 2.2 Practice on the mountain 87 2.2.1 Experiences at the margin of human settlement 88 2.2.1.1 The journey 88 2.2.1.2 The weather 92 2.2.1.3 Crossing the threshold 95 2.2.2 Recording technology on the mountain 96 2.2.2.1 Sound 97 2.2.2.2 Photography 103 2.2.2.3 Video 105 2.2.2.4 Multimedia recording 109 2.2.3 Awareness and sensitisation on the mountain 111 2.2.3.1 Styles of perception 111 6 2.2.3.2 The whole and the detail 114 2.2.3.3 Imagination and consciousness 120 2.2.3.4 Recordings, distortions and postproduction 124 2.2.4 Summary 129 PART 3. ARTWORKS AND ART FORMS 132 3.1 Portfolio 132 3.1.1 'Sound and Sensations of Seasonal Change' 133 3.1.2 'In Shelter / A Day and Night Inside' 135 3.1.3 'Winter Winds' 136 3.1.4 'Mountain lady / Nature love' 137 3.1.5 'Recording Technology as Tools of Engagement' 138 3.1.6 'Easter Winds' 140 3.1.7 'September Ice/ Joys of Cracking' 141 3.1.8. 'Report from Field Recording in Cold Winter Winds' 143 3.1.9 'Winter Mountain Beyond Representation' 145 3.1.10 'Mountain Sounds' 146 3.2. Artworks of other artists 148 3.2.1 'Stetind in Fog' and 'Nordkapp' by Peder Balke 149 3.2.2 'Exit Stetind' by Geir Harald Samuelsen 150 3.2.3 'Talking Rain' by Hildegard Westerkamp 151 3.2.4 'Vatnajøkul' by Chris Watson 152 3.2.5 'The Idea of North' by Glenn Gould 153 3.2.6 'Kits Beach Soundwalk' by Hildegard Westerkamp 155 3.2.7 'Once Upon a Time There Was a Fishing Village' by Andersen and Macé 157 3.2.8 'At the Edge of Wilderness' by Westerkamp and Debeugny 158 3.2.9 'Man of Aran' by Robert Flaherty 160 3.2.10 'Nordwand' by Philipp Stöltzl 162 3.3 Artworks and themes 164 3.3.1 Nature as process and textural quality 164 3.3.1.1 Process and unpredictability 164 3.3.1.2 Visual and sonic texture 165 7 3.3.2 Nature experience 167 3.3.2.1 Materiality and embodied practices 167 3.3.2.2 Affective atmospheres and emotions 168 3.3.2.3. Consciousness and voice 171 3.3.3 Field recording as theme and method 177 3.3.4 Ecological awareness, anthropocentrism and lifestyle 179 3.4 Art forms and techniques 183 3.4.1 Visual perspectives and visual techniques 183 3.4.2 Soundtracks, soundscape compositions, embodied memory and place 187 3.4.3 Films, multimedia and the relationship between sounds and visuals 189 3.4.4 Documentaries, audio documentaries and ways of listening 193 3.4.5 On the limits of representation 197 3.5 Summary and remarks 199 PART 4. CONCLUSION 202 REFERENCES 214 Bibliography – written texts 214 Video lectures and interviews 220 Audiovisual artworks and films 221 Sound art and audio documentaries 222 APPENDICES 223 Appendix 1. Trips to the mountain with recording technology 223 Appendix 2. Rucksack content 226 Appendix 3. Sound clips for Part 2. Practice on the mountain 228 Appendix 4. Artworks, productions and presentations 230 Appendix 5. Artworks, art forms and structure 231 Appendix 6.