First draft presentation
Økern project
It’s noisy in Økern. Økern is in the middle of transformation. There are big plans waiting to be carried out, while people living there are surrounded by construction sites that can cause stress and confusion. There is a plan to open a river to Økern again that is now running in a pipe underground. It is included in the plan to tear down a building with a wavy roof that is built on top of the pipe. Could it be possible to open the river and to save the building on top of it? What if the part of the pipe that is under the building stays?
My idea is to bring recorded noisy sounds of a river along the route of the pipe. The river sounds replace the noise of traffic and construction works and visualize where the pipe goes. Aim of the project is to make the transition easier for local people showing what is going to happen and where, bringing elements of the river from underground to daylight before it gets opened. How is it possible to bring the sounds to the place? (headphones, qr-code?) Would there be other medias to support the idea such as video, illustrations with the river, meditation pavilion...?
The project could include a performance or a role play by local people imagining the river opened - fishing, making little bark boats, swimming, going to sauna, building salmon stairs, landscape painting… What other ways there could be to make this project participatory?
References:
Jana Winderen, Rats – Secret Soundscapes of the City, 2017
My previous work, Worker Roleplay, 2018