Unknown cloud on its way to Stockholm University and An Elegy to the Medium of Film
Memories help us shape and influence the future, and we constantly develop different ways of storing memories in order to access them, use them, learn from them, and change and develop ourselves for the future. Autumn 2017, Accelerator, Stockholm University’s meeting place for art and research, was showing two works on the theme of “memory”, by artistic duo Lundahl & Seitl’s An Elegy to the Medium of Film och Unknown Cloud on Its Way to Stockholm University.
Lundahl & Seitl "Unknown Cloud On It's Way to Stockholm University" Sep 20th 2017. Photo Ingmarie Andersson.
Lundahl & Seitl "An Elegy to the Medium of Film" (2017). Exhibition documentation. Photo Ingmarie Andersson.
An Elegy to the Medium of Film
An Elegy to the Medium of Film worked with the thought that we all carry traces of the films and movies we have seen and made in our life inside us. The work contemplated film as a phenomenon and a medium – its traditions and its potential futures. But at the same time, it also plunged the observer into the camera’s incorporeal existence – a world where nothing dies but just continues to exist like a star which, despite having died light-years before, continues to shine.
Accelerator was showing an installation in cinema format, with 2D and 3D films as well as 3D sound in headphones. Some of the film was made at the sites used in famous films, like the Bruegel collection at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum or the Life Drawing Room at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. Some parts were recreated from historical film scenes.
Some days, not all, the light on the screen went out and, in the darkness, there was a voice creating pictures from the visitors’ consciousness. In an interaction between the visitors’ imagination and the voice’s suggestions, memories were projected from the film environment into the visitors’ minds. The visitors’ movements were choreographed to take on the perspective of a camera that floats, pans, zooms, and cuts between historical film scenes and the place where they were originally filmed.
Unknown Cloud on Its Way to Stockholm University
Unknown Cloud Caretaker, an AI smartphone app, was created by Lundahl & Seitl to foresee the movements of an unknown electromagnetic cloud. Predictions for the fall said that the cloud would pass over both Stockholm and Bangalore, India simultaneously in the fall. Those who wanted to experience The Cloud were invited to make their way to Stockholm University’s campus just before sundown on one of the predicted days.
The Unknown Cloud first appeared as a phenomenon in social media through shared articles, pictures and videos. An unknown electromagnetic cloud that travels the world. The cloud moves freely across borders and had growing, international group of followers. In addition to seeing what it has been and where it is going, there is also an interplay between the cloud’s movements and manifestations and the contributions of its followers.
The Cloud is based on the idea of humanity’s ability to communicate in large groups and over great distances, linked by a shared experience and trust in the other participants – the cloud can only exist if we let ourselves believe in it.
Vice-Chancellors’ Portraits
As a part of the exhibition in Accelerator’s future locale, a selection of portraits of Stockholm University’s Vice-Chancellors was shown. Find a digital version of the exhibition here. Stockholm University’s history as a radical alternative to traditional universities played an important role in “Autumn 2017” as in the creation of Accelerator. Stockholm College was founded on openness and Accelerator highlights the tradition and carries it forward.
About Lundahl & Seitl
Christer Lundahl and Martina Seitl created Lundahl & Seitl 2003 – a non-disciplinary artistic collaboration focused on transforming the observer-perspective into the work’s primary medium and thereby erasing the assumed boundaries between “doing and seeing”.
Time and evolution are the main factors in their research-based, successive projects that include curatorial work, large-scale projects, workshops and seminars – often in dialogue with other disciplines.
The projects investigate the relationship between humanity’s consciousness and technological developments in our culture, and are often created specifically for a place, a medium, or a situation.
Lundahl & Seitl’s works have appeared in venues including (in London, England): Tate Britain, Whitechapel Gallery, Battersea Arts Centre, Royal Academy of Arts; (in Berlin, Germany): Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berliner Festspiele; (in France): Centre Pompidou-Metz; (in Ghent, Belgium): S.M.A.K.; (in Switzerland): Kunsthalle Bern; (in Graz, Austria): Steirischer Herbst; (in Seoul, South Korea): Wooran Foundation; (in Stockholm, Sweden): Momentum 8 – Tunnel Vision, Nordic Biennial of Contemporary Art, Weld, Nationalmuseum, Dramaten and Magasin III.
Lundahl & Seitl also performed a large solo exhibition in 2017: New Originals at Kunstmuseum (Bonn, Germany) and the exhibition Symphony – Mnemosyne Revolution at the Kochi Muziris Biennalen (Kerala, India).
Curatorial statement
Starting spring 2018, Manne Siegbahn Laboratory is being rebuilt as an exhibition space. Autumn 2017 part of the space was made into a temporary exhibition spot, giving the public a chance not only to see the art, but also to see the former laboratory before it’s remade as Accelerator’s future physical locale at Stockholm University.
The origin of the theme for fall 2017 was the history of the laboratory. The idea of memory, our ability to store facts, stories and experiences in different ways, was woven through all of the artworks. Memory helps us shape and influence the future. We are constantly developing different ways of storing memories in order to access them, use them, learn from them, and change and develop ourselves.
Artistic duo Lundahl & Seitl was invited to adapt two of their artworks – “An Elegy to the Medium of Film” and “Unknown Cloud on Its Way to Stockholm University” – to our space. Both works engaged with different aspects of “memory”.
Stockholm University’s history as a radical alternative to traditional education also played an important role in “Autumn 2017”, as in the creation of Accelerator. Stockholm College (Stockholm University since 1960), was founded on openness and Accelerator highlights this tradition and carries it forward. As a part of the exhibition, a selection of portraits of Stockholm University’s Vice-Chancellors was shown.
Collaboration among cross-disciplinary research groups from all of Stockholm University’s four faculties lies at the heart of Accelerator. A group of researchers was invited to take part in “Autumn 2017” to reflect over their experience with the artworks from the perspectives, their disciplines and knowledge. During autumn 2017 Accelerator will organise lectures where the researchers share their thoughts about the process.
//Richard Julin, Artistic Director
Martina Seitl and Christer Lundahl, artist duo Lundahl & Seitl. Photo Niklas Björling. 
Lundahl & Seitl “An Elegy to the Medium of Film” (2017). Still from video. 
Lundahl & Seitl “An Elegy to the Medium of Film” (2017). Still from video. 
Portraits of Vice-Chancellors at Stockholm University. Exhibition documentation. Photo Ingmarie Andersson. 
Lundahl & Seitl “An Elegy to the Medium of Film” (2017). Exhibition documentation. Photo Ingmarie Andersson. 
Lundahl & Seitl “Unknown Cloud On It’s Way to Stockholm University” Sep 20th 2017 . Photo Ingmarie Andersson. 
Lundahl & Seitl “Unknown Cloud On It’s Way to Stockholm University” Sep 20th 2017 . Photo Ingmarie Andersson. 
Lundahl & Seitl “Unknown Cloud On It’s Way to Stockholm University” Sep 20th 2017 . Photo Ingmarie Andersson.
Credits
Accelerator
Richard Julin, Artistic Director
Stefan Nordlund, Professor, Interim Director
Margaretha Rossholm Lagerlöf, Professor Emeritus, Senior Advisor
Katarina Renman Claesson, Lawyer
Catharina Engström Jäderberg, Administrator
Anette Gärdeklint Sylla, Communications Officer
Stockholms universitet
External Relations and Communications Office
The exhibition with Vice-Chancellor’s Portrait has been developed in collaboration with Joakim Norrby, assistant curator of the Stockholm University art collection. Special thank’s to Camilla Hjelm, curator and art director for the Stockholm University art collections.
‘Unknown Cloud onIts Way to Stockholm University’
Stockholms universitets campus 20-22, 28 sep samt 5 oktober, 2017
Simultaneously: Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Lundahl & Seitl (2015–) Unknown Cloud.
Duration: Variable
Dimensions: Geoposition / Geofence Variable
Material: Three-dimensional interactive sound in headphones, Instructions and realtime Cloud data over Smartphone application for iOs and Android, Website HTML5/CSS and Open-source JavaScript library, CelsiumJS.org, Chatbot AI, communication and Community over Social & News Media. Polyphonic voice recordings from people worldwide.
Credits:
Application for iOS and Android developed by Nagoon (SE)
Dramaturge: Rachel Alexander (UK)
Video production: Joakim Olsson (SE)
Innovation Anthropologist: Erika Tanos (Curiosityshop).
Associate researcher: Ronald Jones (RCA, London) Markus Bohm (SE)
Community Director: Anna J Ljungmark (House of Real.dk)
Website: Development: Troels Ljung (workingimage.dk).
Website: Design: Nandi Nobell (SE)
Sound – Planetery Compostions: Jan Carleklev (SE)
Co Writer: Alex Bäckström (SE)
Project Manager: Emma Ward (UK)
Student guides: Alen Ksoll, Edit Ildikó Fándly, Lucie Ginette Claudie Gottlieb, Niki Kralli Anell
Unknown Cloud is supported by:
Kulturrådet / The Swedish Arts Council
Kulturbryggan
Iaspis – The Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual and Applied Artists.
Postkodslotteriets Kulturstiftelse / The Culture Foundation
Berliner Festspiele – Immersion
Thanks to: DS Teron and Sabin Rongpipi, Cloud Ambassadors in Karbi Anglong.
And thanks to: Marialaura Ghidini, Umesh Kumar and The National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and Institute of Arts, Design and Technology (SRISHTI) & Cloud Ambassadors in Bangalore.
The artwork has been developed from a degree project at Stockholm University’s curator education, “The Time of No Time” by Hanna Wörman & Kirsten Hinder in collaboration with the artists, presented at SU in May 2013.
An Elegy to the Medium of Film
Conceived in homage to the work by the great filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky and to everyone who continues to be receptive in life and art.
Medium:
Unseen guides, voice instructions, wireless sound technology, headsets, 3D projector and show controller: AV player controlling synchronization of: film, light dimmer, fresnel spotlights, electrical fan and a projector shutter.
Credits:
Video production: Tony Ahola / VideoMaskinen
Sound technology: Jan Carleklev
Sound archive: David Östberg
Rehearsal director: Pia Nordin
Collaborators: Sara Lindström
Student collaborators: Alen Ksoll, Elena Claudia Jarl, Iliane Kiefer, Lucie Ginette Claudie Gottlieb, Neuza Carina Fragoso Teixeira de Faria
Film material from Solaris, courtesy Andrei Tarkovsky, Mos Film 1972
Audio material from Secrets from Another Place: Creating Twin Peaks, courtesy Lauzirika 2007
The Project was originally developed with steirischer herbst festival (Graz) co-produced by the EU-Consortium NXSTP.
Thanks to Weld (research space), Bio Rio Stockholm, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Royal Academy of Arts London, Joakim Olsson (video consultation), Nikolai Petef Sennheiser (consultation and research), Emma Ward (coordination)
An Elegy to the Medium of Film are supported by Sennheiser Nordic
Lundahl & Seitl are supported by Kulturrådet Sweden