moving classics : sonic flux (mc:sf)
Moving Classics: Sonic Flux (MCSF) is a new, ongoing (2020-2022) project that will creatively explore the condition of displacement through personal testimony, original music and AV/Film installations. It will connect musicians and AV/Film artists with displaced people to explore stories of flux that have shaped the modern European identidy.
The Project will create 6 hybrid sonic & visual experiences enabling musicians and artists from all corners of Europe to work with diverse ethnographers, visual storytellers and communities along with the Project Partners and their creative teams.
Starting with stories of internal displacement within countries, each new work created, will zoom-out to regional and transcontinental stories highlighting displacement as a human condition rather than a national one.
The project aims to bring new voices into the creation of contemporary music and AV/Film (both experimental classical and electronica) by both representing the stories of displaced peoples and including them in the creative process. It aims to highlight the condition of displacement as one of circumstance not nationality, starting with stories of people displaced within their own countries then zooming out to focus on regional and trancontinental displacement.
The research period of each project seeks to work with displaced people to bring their stories to the fore, resourcing and supporting the gathering of undocumented histories and personal narratives. It will allow for efficient and effective knowledge transfer by resourcing active collaborations across music, moving image and new technology.
One of one of these 6 art projects is “Defrosting – sense of displacement caused by politics and climate change on Svalbard”. blekksprut1, Norway is the head of this project. 2 artists, one from Norway and one from Great Britain will work together to create a unique audio visual piece with an anthropological point of view on displacement, geopolitics and climate change on Svalbard.
2021-2023
Location: Svalbard, Norway
Collaborator: TBC
Film: Stein Henningsen (NO)
Music: TBC
Research: Zdenka Sokolíčková (CZ)
“Defrosting – sense of displacement caused by politics and climate change on Svalbard”
The Archipelago of Svalbard is defrosting. According to Polarinstituttet, Svalbard and the Arctic is warming up twice the speed than the rest of the world. The narrative presented to the world is that of a climate change crisis. However, Svalbard might be melting down in more than one sense. Things are changing fast and people feel they live in an unpredictable world.
Coal mining has been the dominant industry, providing jobs and the main source of energy on Svalbard for over 100 years. The Norwegian government decided to close down the industry as a part of the strategy to become a greener nation. At the same time, central decisions regarding tourism, housing or environmental management are being imposed on the residents who sometimes feel as puppets in a geopolitical theater.
Political changes and the issue of climate change have a polarising effect. There are many different opinions and contrasting feelings. Some people feel a fundamental, deep dilemma living here, the simple life close to nature, but at the same time being an environmental burden because of the ecological footprint. Is it sustainable for people to live in Svalbard at all?
Political control from mainland Norway is heavily influencing life on Svalbard, while the average temperatures keep rising and the environment is not as old timers remember it. Do the people here experience a sense of disempowerment and displacement as a result of this? Do they feel their local knowledge, experiences, ideas and voices are being heard?
This Collaborative Art Project aims to explore how people living on Svalbard feel about climate change, but also about the past, present and future of their society, jobs and way of life on the Archipelago of Svalbard. Artists, producers and partners from Norway and Great Britain will work together to explore this topic, and the team will aim to create an audio-visual experience inspired by personal stories and the unique mood of Svalbard.
This project aim is to let the voices of people on Svalbard be heard.
