Collection d’hiver – Winter Collection is a 8 channel sound installation that is based on recorded sounds of ice, snow, sleet and water.
Winter Collection is a sonic study of winter and coldness. In South-Western Finland winter has a liquid sound – sounds of water in constant transformation and flux . Water turning into snow, snow turning into sleet, sleet turning into ice and back into water again.
Sounds are processed and looped to bring out the inner processes of ice and water continuously changing shape and structure.
Sounds are played back through hanging loudspeakers some of which have knitted woollen covers. Loudspeakers are of different sizes and installation has an overall shape of a bent cone or an icicle. Sounds are played in random order by 4 cd players.
As a sound artist I started my career with site-specific outdoor installations. But when you live north of the 60th parallel the problem is that summer, the regular season for outdoors works is a bit short. This condition of northern artist got me interested in the potentials of ice and snow as materials. For the past few years I have been doing research and studies about recording ice and water with different microphones and hydrophones.
To me Collection d’hiver – Winter Collection is a of interim report of my ongoing studies of cold, water and winter. Installation also uses sounds that in my mind associate with coldness.
I also want to think of Collection d’hiver – Winter Collection as a kind of survival exercise. Some scholars insist that greenhouse effect will not turn Scandinavia into subtropical paradise. Other scholars have predicted that the Golf stream, that makes life above 60th parallel possible will stop flowing and our climate will eventually resemble that of Northern Siberia. In that sense Collection d’hiver – Winter Collection can be heard as sound artists preparation for the changing enviromental circumstances.
Technical Requirements:
Collection d’hiver – Winter Collection consists of 10 loudspeakers of different sizes.
Hanging loudspeakers form a bent cone that is suspended between ceiling and floor. Loudspeakers are fed from 4 cd players on random play.
All the 8 channels are amplified by car stereo amplifiers which are fed with computer power sources (110V-230V to 12 V).
The footprint of the installation is 1m x 2m and the height 3,50m – 4,50m.
Simo Alitalo 