Resonans to Ultima
Published
Gunhild Mathea Olaussen and Roar Sletteland have in several periods been working in BEK’s electronic workshop to develop and build electronic parts for Resonance. Resonance is a new work by artist and scenographer Olaussen, which will be on display as an installation and as an extended instrument played by a series of performers during the Ultima Festival opening weekend.
Resonance is a spacious sensor-driven instrument that produces sound, which viewers activate with their own bodies as they move around the spaces within the structure. The installation takes the form of a circular landscape of resonating copper loudspeaker membranes around a core of sensor-activated columns of strings – a highly tactile enclosure of resonance, air and sound waves. In the gaps between these tactile objects, we and our bodies participate in a physical and active sonic experience.
The installation is open during the museum’s opening times Saturday and Sunday. One or several performers will make a performance as a form of dialogue with the active room. Visitors are free to come and go as they please.
Performance
13.30 – 13.50
14.30 – 14.50
15.30 – 15.50
16.30 – 16.50
Gunhild Mathea Olaussen – concept and installation
Kristine Tjøgersen – clarinet
Jan Martin Smørdal – guitar
Magnus Myhr – dance
Bernt Isak Wærstad – sound
Roar Sletteland, Jonas Barsten and Bernt Isak Wærstad – technical assistance
Rickard Engström Thimgren – carpenter
In collaboration with Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Supported by Notam og Bitraf.
(Portrait photo: Tale Hendnes)
Gunhild Mathea Olaussen
Gunhild Mathea Olaussen (NO) is an interdisciplinary artist, specialized in scenography and sound art. Her recent work explores somatic perception through soundscapes, where space, material, body and time are treated as equal parts of the composition. Her work is driven by her interest in tactility, embodied experience and dramaturgical sociology. She is currently an artistic research fellow at the Norwegian Theatre Academy, working on her project entitled Responsive Space.
Olaussen’s diverse works in scenography, music and installations have been exhibited in galleries, site-specific areas, public areas and at theatre/dance/musical venues in Norway, Europe, Asia and the US over the last ten years. The works include solo work, self – initiated projects, curated and commissioned work, and collaborations with a number of artists. Amongst others, she is collaborating with Ingvild Langgård on the musical project Phaedra who have received great reviews in publications such as The Wire and Uncut, and Fiksdal/Langgård/Becker on the award-winning dance performance Night Tripper (2012), which has toured Europe and the US the last five years.
Olaussen holds a BA in Aesthetics and Art from the University of Oslo, and a BA in Scenography from The Norwegian Film School/ Oslo National Academy of the Arts. She has also studied Theatre Design at Rose Bruford College (London) and Romerike folkehøgskole in Norway. In 2012 she was awarded the Norwegian State´s Working Grant for young artists, and has later been in the jury for the same grant. Olaussen is currently a member of the board of directors of the Production Network for Electronic Art, Norway (Pnek), and was from 2016 – 2018 a part of the board of directors of Norwegian Scenographers Union (Nsc) .