Conversations about Life and Aging.
Bachelor Project at The Faculty of Art, Music and Design at The University of Bergen, Norway.
How can we make people feel curiosity for old age
rather than fear?
Conversations about Life and Aging is a project that tries to direct the spotlight at old age in a society where it receives too little attention. So far in the project, I have interviewed three people over the age of 70, about their experiences with old age and life. The aim is to interview more people and thus gain a greater understanding and overview of what it means to get older. I have used photography and video as a tool to document these meetings.
"The camera shows us a piece of reality that is not filtered through ourselves, and this external gaze allows us to see the world anew, it breaks with our habitual gaze and creates a feeling of alienation" (Grøtta, 2016).
My journey started by researching and reading a lot about the subject. Everything from studies to biographies to already existing artistic projects surrounding the theme of aging. I also looked at the preexisting aesthetics surrounding this subject. My first vision of the end result was to create a book, so I sketched a lot in this medium. However the more I read, I realized that maybe this wasn't the right medium for the project. I wanted to make this age group more visible in todays society, and studies show that people get more and more invisible in the media(tv, internet..) the older they get. I therfore decided to go away with the collage/vintage look and go towards a more clean/ polished look that grabbed the attention of the public. I wanted to present them in a way that was not so common for this agegroup.
AUDIO-VISUAL INSTALLATION
The project resulted in an installation that experimented with scale, materials, space and technology to create an audiovisual experience. The installation was designed to present the people and the interviews in unusual and novel light. Hopefully making people curious and leading them inside the room. Using scale I enlarged their presence in the room and made them more visible. The billboard size portraits are designed to catch your attention. Each portrait is selected to keep true to the personality of each individual, emphasizing their unique qualities.
The purpose of the installation was to showcase people from different ages and their stories. I therefor designed a room where you could sit down and explore my conversations with them more deeply. I edited them down to the questions and answers that told more about the person. Showcasing a wide spectrum of what it means to age.
The three 1x2m portraits were central to the installation. These were used as a first meeting with the participants. At the same time, they were used as screens to project the interviews in the form of video and sound, inside the room.
For the sound I used 3 special "directional speakers", these directed the sound towards the portraits which in turn reflected it towards the seating area in front of them. In this way, an illusion was created that the sound originated from the video projected on the poster. Although the sound gradually blended in the room, you could hear each individual if you sat down in front of them. In this way, the visitor was challenged to move around the room to catch all the conversations. The sound was designed to catch the attention of the public and draw people in to the room, where once seated in the proper seat they would be able to hear the conversation and discover a whole new side to the person.
The Making Process
I'm truly thankful to Gunnhild, Arnvid and Torill for giving life to the project!
