Orka
sonic ethnography project
showed at Mengi, Reykjavik
sonic ethnography project
showed at Mengi, Reykjavik
My sound piece explores the resemblance, interaction and contrast of natural, human, and mechanical patterns, movements and rhythm, which is a focused interest in my visual art practice. Through active listening to the selected field, I recognized sound as another way of learning and another potential platform for my practice.
I got to know this group of people who are carrying out sweat lodge events around Selfoss, in the southern region of Iceland. Sweat lodge, as a ritual ceremony that origins from Native American culture, is believed to have healing and purifying power of one’s spirit. Being adopted under an Icelandic context, I found it interesting to regard it as a motif to explore human’s relationships with oneself, human production and nature.
We are surrounding ourselves with more and more mechanical, construction sound, which is a problem can be seen/or heard brought by rapid economic and tourism development in Iceland. Mechanical sound – mechanical energy fills our sensory and our reality. We often feel the need to escape, to leave these heavy energies behind and return to nature. Our body is constantly seeking to synchronize with nature.
Attending sweat lodge, as a human cultural behaviour, place human in the presence of the spirits of nature – fire, wind, earth, rocks, water, light, darkness, and moon. Human attends the sweat, wishing for an inner reborn, a renewal and purification of energy. The whole process of sweat lodge – from building the sweat to the event of sweat, is a circulation of energy. Human constructs the lodge, building a sculpture from an organic substance (wood), burns the rocks and wood to release heat, heat turns into water and drop back to the earth. It is like the ecological cycle of life. Everything is in motion. Energy is in motion. Energy is circulated, through construction, destruction, interaction and transformation.
By listening to the sweat lodge event, I found myself immersed in the sound of elements that are interacting with others. Fire, wood, wind, water… when the humming started, I’m utterly fascinated. It almost sounds mechanical to me. The humming forms amazing sound waves that carry my mind away. I recognize and feel the resembled pattern in waves of the ocean and the repetition of the humming, and the singing, which is the origin and metaphor of life. I travel beyond my physical body through sound and reach a virtual space where I’m carried away by the waves.
Human as a creative being has this ability to travel between reality and fiction, external and internal world. We turn our lived experience into artistic creation through our subjective sensory perceptions. We can dislocate and transform ourselves. Our spirit and mind are free.
I got to know this group of people who are carrying out sweat lodge events around Selfoss, in the southern region of Iceland. Sweat lodge, as a ritual ceremony that origins from Native American culture, is believed to have healing and purifying power of one’s spirit. Being adopted under an Icelandic context, I found it interesting to regard it as a motif to explore human’s relationships with oneself, human production and nature.
We are surrounding ourselves with more and more mechanical, construction sound, which is a problem can be seen/or heard brought by rapid economic and tourism development in Iceland. Mechanical sound – mechanical energy fills our sensory and our reality. We often feel the need to escape, to leave these heavy energies behind and return to nature. Our body is constantly seeking to synchronize with nature.
Attending sweat lodge, as a human cultural behaviour, place human in the presence of the spirits of nature – fire, wind, earth, rocks, water, light, darkness, and moon. Human attends the sweat, wishing for an inner reborn, a renewal and purification of energy. The whole process of sweat lodge – from building the sweat to the event of sweat, is a circulation of energy. Human constructs the lodge, building a sculpture from an organic substance (wood), burns the rocks and wood to release heat, heat turns into water and drop back to the earth. It is like the ecological cycle of life. Everything is in motion. Energy is in motion. Energy is circulated, through construction, destruction, interaction and transformation.
By listening to the sweat lodge event, I found myself immersed in the sound of elements that are interacting with others. Fire, wood, wind, water… when the humming started, I’m utterly fascinated. It almost sounds mechanical to me. The humming forms amazing sound waves that carry my mind away. I recognize and feel the resembled pattern in waves of the ocean and the repetition of the humming, and the singing, which is the origin and metaphor of life. I travel beyond my physical body through sound and reach a virtual space where I’m carried away by the waves.
Human as a creative being has this ability to travel between reality and fiction, external and internal world. We turn our lived experience into artistic creation through our subjective sensory perceptions. We can dislocate and transform ourselves. Our spirit and mind are free.