Drifting sand

Discours_Project [3]:

DRIFTING SAND - memory of three hundred years

- a multi-screen interpretation

Introduction

The media-artist was given the opportunity to create a multi-screen show about the history of the drifting sand through three hundred years. It was not the factual story that should be told in a documentary way but as the client explicitly said it was the media-artists task to produce a “... poetic and evocative interpretation of the cultural history of the drifting sand through more than 300 years.”

Read more…

The room and the multi-screens (1998)

The final idea for the physical room and the placement of the multi-screens was developed with the spectator in mind. The metaphor that occurred was that of the tennis-match-spectator.When the spectator had walked into the 6 x 9 meter dark room s/he was invited to sit down on the spectator seats along the long wall. From this position the spectator could now look at the four 2 x 2 meter screens that is placed in front of her four meters ahead. This means that she can’t see all the four screens at the same time – or more correctly – that with her eyes' peripheral field she can notice that something is changing but she can only focus on one or two screens at a time. This is where the metaphor comes in because the spectator needs to move her head following the changes on the multi-screens and to change her focus field accordingly.

Quicktime videoclip
(8:26 minutes - 320 x 240 - 10,1 mb)

Flash movie
(8:26 minutes - 700 x 538)

The reconstruction (2011)

The original show was produced and showed in 1998 and the following three or four years and do not exist any more. It has been reconstructed 2011 from the original slides and sound and can be seen here in the very small scale of a quick time movie.

The whole show last 8 minutes and there is shown about 170 pictures. The whole story is build up by 70 strips each with 4 frames accompanied by an original produced soundtrack presented on four 2 x 2 meter screens.

The multi-screen show started with this short poem:

Drifting sand
The sand came 300 years ago
And ruined the fertile soil
The peasants complained
The clergy complained
The king lost his taxes
The struggle against nature began
Lyme grass was planted
The heather came - and finally, the mountain pine
What is lost must be replaced
Battles were won - and lost
Until we found the right balance
?

Quicktime videoclip
(1.45 minutes - 320 x 240 - 2,6 mb)

The documentary - the spectators view

The original show is documented in this video-clip recorded in 1998 and gives the impression of size and the so-called ‘tennis-match-spectator’ bodily movements.

A deep analysis of the creative process in the production of this multi-screen show will appear in Ingemann, Bruno (2012): Present on Site. Transforming Exhibitions and Museums, Lejre: VisualMemory Press.