JEWELSH: The Atmospherics

Still image from The Atmospherics 11. For documentation images, scroll down the page.

The Atmospherics (River Deep, Mountain High) is an ongoing collaborative project by Trond Lossius and Jeremy Welsh, begun in 2014 and continuing. Until now the project has encompassed 9 exhibitions/installations presented at different venues in Norway and Italy, as well as a conference presentation at Sound - Image 2019, University of Greenwich, London. Two exhibitions took place during 2019 - the first at Entrée, Bergen, in February and the second at TEKS (Trondheim Center for Electronic Arts) in August - September. In 2020 The Atmospherics entered its sixth year, with plans for new production, exploring more advanced aspects of 3D sound with both moving and still images. Due to Corona restrictions, work on new iterations was paused, but a single-screen version, The Atmospherics 11: remake/remodel was produced in connection with an online video project "To Video" hosted by BEK (Bergen centre for electronic arts). The Atmospherics part 12 has been partially completed and will be a four screen projection installation with multiple channels of audio.

Versions of the project to date

1 - The Atmospherics, River Deep, Mountain High (beta version) short film, 2014

2 - The Atmospherics 1, The Place Sound Makes In Passing, installation, 2014

3 - The Atmospherics 2, Flags, Flames, Smoke and Bridges, installation, 2014

4 - The Atmospherics 3, Til It Rains I'm Gonna Stay Inside, installation, 2015

5 - The Atmospherics 4, And Sometimes The Light Hurts Our Eyes, installation, 2016

6 - The Atmospherics 5, Stop, Hey, Watch That Sound, installation, 2016

7 - The Atmospherics 6, The Seat With The Clearest View, 2017

8 - The Atmospherics 7, Terranova, live audio visual concert, 2017

9 - The Atmospherics 8, single screen projection, surround sound, 2018

10 - The Atmospherics 9, A Blue Million Miles, installation, 2019

11 - The Atmospherics 10, audio visual concert, 2019

12 - The Atmospherics 11, remake/remodel, single screen video, stereo sound, 2020

13 - The Atmospherics 12, 4 channels of video, surround sound, 2021

Since 2014, the project has further developed our interest and research into notions of "place", explored here through field recording in sound and video. The material collected on field trips is processed and edited in order to realise large-scale (and sometimes smaller scale) audio-visual installations in which aspects and elements of different locations are combined to produce a particular temporary place that refers to, but does not literally represent, actual places that have been visited and documented.

The material collected often exploits contrasts - for example between industrial structures and the natural landscape, between motion and stillness, sound and silence, light and dark, etc. Much of the imagery used so far has come from a West Norwegian landscape that is well known from the work of 19th. century national romantic painters, and a question or challenge in the project has been - how to see these landscapes from a 21st. century perspective? How to capture certain qualities of the visual and auditive identities of these places, and then use these as raw material to compose something new?

Processes of abstraction and filtering allow the material to be transformed. Editing and montage de- and re-contextualise the images and sounds. Multiple viewpoints within an installation, and the use of surround sound enable the construction of an immersive environment that invites the viewer to interact with the material through their own perceptions, memories and emotional responses.

Each installation is developed specifically in response to the exhibition location in which it will be presented, and to that extent, the works have an aspect of site-specificity. The architectural and acoustic qualities of the installation space form the basis for the construction of each iteration of the project, and material to be used is edited, modified and mixed in situ, so that each time the work is exhibited it takes on new aspects.

Furthermore, the video and audio material used in the installation has often (though not always) been related to the broader environment in which the exhibiting venue is situated, so that local references will trigger particular responses in visitors. Conversely, when the work is shown at a location remote from the sources of material, both in terms of distance, cultural references and familiarity, then it takes on other qualities which rely precisely upon the viewer's lack of familiarity with the material they encounter.

The Atmospherics grew out of earlier projects that Lossius and Welsh have worked on separately and together. Questions of place, site, space, the mediation of these through audiovisual media, the role of memory in understanding particularities of place and space, have underscored many of the projects they have been engaged in since the early 2000's. In particular, the art research project Re:Place that was developed in collaboration between Bergen Academy of Art and Design, the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and The Grieg Academy, Bergen, between 2012 - 2013, was a crucial reference point and background to the current project. Many of the core methods used in The Atmospherics were developed and discussed within the framework of Re:Place.

The first work that was completed in the series was a short digital film made as a memorial to former colleague, composer Morten Eide Pedersen (1958 - 2014) who was also a participant and partner in the research project Re:place. Since then, two more single-screen versions have been produced, in addition to several multi-channel installations. The Atmospherics 8 (2018) was shown as part of a comprehensive film and video exhibition series at Entrée in Bergen, and The Atmospherics 11 was completed in 2020 and has been online since early 2021 as part of the BEK project To Video.

Biographies & more information on the artists:
Trond Lossius
Jeremy Welsh

Video links:

The Atmospherics episode 1 (River Deep, Mountain High) Bergen, 2014.

Installations that have been exhibited so far:

The Place Sound Makes In Passing: Kunsthall 3,14, Bergen, November 2014
Flags, Flames, Smoke and Bridges: Visningsrom USF, Bergen, December 2014
Til It Rains I'm Gonna Stay Inside: Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall, Arendal, January 2015
And Sometimes The Light Hurts Our Eyes, Heimdal Kunstforening, Trondheim, January 2016
Stop, Hey, Watch That Sound: Sogn & Fjordane Kunstmuseum, Førde, June - September 2016.
The Seat With The Clearest View: HardingarT, Utne, Hardanger, January 2017.

A Blue Million Miles: TEKS Studio, Trondheim, 2019.

The Atmospherics 10, a concert in two parts with Magdalena Manderlova and Michael Duch, 2019

Images from installations: (scroll down)

1: The Place Sound Builds In Passing (2014)
Kunsthall 3,14 Bergen

The Atmospherics 1: The Place Sound Builds In Passing (2014)

2: Flags, Flames, Smoke & Bridges (2014)
Visningsrom USF, Bergen

The Atmospherics 2: Flags, Flames, Smoke & Bridges (2014)

3: Till It Rains I'm Gonna Stay Inside (2015)
Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall, Arendal

The Atmospherics 3: Till It Rains I'm Gonna Stay Inside (2015)

4: And Sometimes The Light Hurts Our Eyes (2016)
Heimdal Kunstforening, Trondheim

The Atmospherics 4: And Sometimes The Light Hurts Our Eyes (2016)

5: Stop, Hey, Watch That Sound (2016)
Sogn & Fjordane Kunstmuseum, Førde

The Atmospherics 5: Stop, Hey, Watch That Sound (2016)

Exhibition opening - The Atmospherics 5: Stop, Hey, Watch That Sound (2016)

The Atmospherics 5: Stop, Hey, Watch That Sound (2016)