Overdue update :-)

Things have been quiet on here so far in 2023, which is to say I have neglected to publish updates. The Persistent Disequilibrium collaborative group project continues, the most recent instalment having been an exhibition and performance-concert at Møre og Romsdal Kunstsenter in Molde, March 2023. The next outing with the group will be at Kulturhuset WRAP in Bergen in September, and then a theatrical version at Rosendal Teater, Trondheim, during next year's Meta.Morf biennale of art and technology. Further on, discussions are underway to produce an installation and concert for Molde Jazz festival in 2024. 

Below are some "production stills" from Molde. The working method of Persistent Disequilibrium is that we conduct an intensive on-site workshop to develop the specific installation and performance for that particular venue. Hence the project will never be the same twice, though certain elements are repeated. Transducers are used both to produce sounds and to physically manipulate materials which are recorded on video to create projections. And one of the instruments produces both sound and image - a wooden board that creates partly chance-based paintings on large sheets of watercolour paper. A multi channel audio installation that combines pre-recorded material with live electronic sound functions as a binding element, together with projection,  to tie the whole installation into one spatial unity.

Days of testing are essential to find the right elements that will work together

Tijs Ham setting up an installation with modular synthesiser and animated fluid.

Trond Lossius tests the spatial audio in the installation

Øyvind Brandtsegg tests the main instrument of the installation. Transducers vibrate the table and create a painting.

In the meantime, group member Tijs Ham has just completed his Phd at the Griegakademiet, University of Bergen.  Tijs and I will also take part in a workshop & performance initiated by composer/performer Alwynne Pritchard later in the year, together with several musicians, where we will reinterpret/deconstruct/reconstruct a number of songs. That will be an interesting experiment.

Tijs Ham defending his Phd project Tipping Points on 23 June 2023

The acquisition of a new and more powerful iPad and a 2. generation Apple Pencil, plus new or updated software, enabled some experiments with electronic collage, combining photographic fragments with digital drawing and painting tools. Maybe these will end up as works on paper, maybe they are simply sketches, visual thought experiments pointing toward something else. After years of working in a project-oriented mode, where production is always geared toward a specific exhibition, performance or concert, the practice of simply making things in the studio is slightly strange. The process of making is itself enjoyable and stimulating, but whether the output has any meaning or purpose beyond its own becoming is a question I don't manage to resolve at present.