Spherical White With Diamond
HALLA STEINUNN STEFÁNSDÓTTIR
UK & ICELAND
We were proud to be able to collaborate with National Trust in Formby to invite Icelandic Musician & Sound Artist Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir to undertake an R&D residency during Winter 2019/2020. Responding to the theme of transforming landscapes, her investigations drew on a series of ecological concerns sweeping the coastal area, how people have dealt with these natural changes, and how this connects with areas of Iceland facing similar issues. Inspired by material uncovered in the archival & heritage collections at Crosby and Formby Libraries, we worked with Halla to develop a site-specific soundscape experience taking further inspiration from the National Trust’s focus for the year highlighting the “importance of places to people, the need of air and the need of quiet, of the night of sky and of things grown”.
RESIDENCY
Halla conducted her first NATUR residency in Formby, UK in October 2019. She stayed in Crosby and was introduced to the National Trust team who showed her around the enormous site of woodlands, beaches and dunes. She was accompanied by local curator Maria Brewster. Halla returned to Formby for her second residency in January 2020 where she further developed her new site specific work, Spherical With with Diamond. She, along with the NATUR team explored the site and technical possibilities and limitations. The team decided to focus on a path from Lifeboat Road car park as the sound trail, a beautiful exploration through woods, dunes and then ending at the sea. Halla further explored old maps of the area to inspire the finished work and the team worked with local videographer creating a promotional video for the National Trust.
THE PROJECT
Spherical White With Diamond is a sound installation of 9 independent mono channels voiced by Maja Jantar (BE), Angela Rawlings (CA/IS), Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir that was created for the National Trust, Formby. The work grew out of field recordings, site specific scores, sonifications, archival digging, activations and improvisations, as a sonic response to the site. At the same time the work uses the site’s morphing landscapes and transmogrification, as a key to its composition. Steinunn’s new work offers a chance to stop a while, to sense, meditate and experience the natural world afresh. A chance to think through listening at the meeting point of human and environment. Following the rapidly developing situation of COVID-19 trhough March 2020, the premiere of Halla’s Spherical White With Diamond sound walk at the National Trust in Formby was postponed, however the Trust graciously allowed for a pre-premiere as part of Malmö Gallery Week later that year in September.
SUPPORTED BY
Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir
Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir is one of Iceland’s leading figures within the contemporary music scene. She has been the artistic director of Nordic Affect since its inception in 2005. Believing that the exciting things happen ‘in the connection’ Halla Steinunn’s work with the contemporary classical ensemble has been a tour de force when it comes to collaborative relationships with composers, visual artists, and producers.
Furthermore she’s brought the spotlight to women’s role in music history, leading to projects such as HÚN/SHE which was broadcast by the European Broadcasting Service in 2015. With degrees from The Royal Danish Academy of Music and Indiana University School of Music, Halla Steinunn now holds a PhD position in artistic research at Lund University, in a time where the divide between creator and performer is being questioned in theoretical writings and in practice.
As part of her PhD candidacy she is currently undertaking various projects at the Inter Arts Center in Malmö, a platform for artistic research and experimentation at the University of Lund. IAC acts as a space forartistic research, concentrating on contributing to the development of various artistic fields, by working with processes, research, experimentation and technology over time.
H e (a) r (2017) is a surround and stereo soundscape created by Halla that was first premiered at the ICA, and subsequently released as an album on the Sono Luminus label (2018). The musical compositions on the H e (a) r are connected to ecology, acoustics and embodiment; drawing on encounters and what happens in the connection.