-discovery of a man (who turns out to be the parks commisioner) and the exhibition producer meeting in front of the moose site by observing footage taken from our 24 hour surveillance camera of the site (using a small cosmetics mirror attached to the outside of the atelier nord second floor office)

-the revelation of the permissions process causes some consternation– what is the function of the camouflage language of florescent orange if the work is officially sanctioned? is it just performative? if so that seems a problem. we decide to try and push the work to be a bit more assertive as compensation–

the 10 hinged walls (each two by two meters) to be attached as reconfigurable spatial framing tools to the structure, should help

-in the afternoon, occupation of the site after moving the modular elements out of atelier nord using a hoist and assembling them on the moose plateau

The weather has been wonderful and the walls endured the mounting process. Hillevi shed a tear and I am very happy!

A boy heard what appeared to be the sound of a sheep coming from the wall of Strykejernet Art School.

A bartender at Blå was concerned when he heard running water like that from a leaking water pipe. The sound disappeared before he was able to locate it.

A seagull can be heard, but is nowhere to be seen.

Sound pocket artist HC Gilje is causing slight disturbances in the urban interfaces.

Through the open call for the Open Forum we received a number of very interesting projects which will be presented and discussed on Saturday, 15 September between 14:45 and 16:00.

VISITOR beta by Silver & Hanne Rivrud
The project VISITOR is an intervention into social and public situations. What happens to the social games between people when one person is remotely controlled?
The project questions the role of simulation in our everyday lives, and tries to reverse the simulation back into reality. Hidden in the crowd, Visitor (the avatar) is attending a big social event. He is like anyone of us, but connected to him via mobile networks you can control his actions and influence the social game at the event. By using a mobile phone with the Visitor application, the player can send different commands to the avatar. When the avatar hears these commands, he has to do them, but still act natural. Connected to him via mobile networks, people can remain incognito and safe, while he experiences the true pain of life.
Production team: Martin Havnør, Hanne Rivrud, Petr Svarovsky, Johan Sæther, Christian Tviberg. Developed in collaboration with Vodafone GROUP R&D Germany and Atelier Nord, Oslo, Norway.

IKKELYD (NO-SOUND) and MASSELYD (ALL-SOUND) by NODE
Ny Musikk (Norwegian section of the International Society for Contemporary Music) asked NODE to do a purely visual project about sound in public space. For this project NODE co-operated with Felix Weigand to develop an alphabet that is playing with visual musical references. This alphabet was used to write sound-words in parks in Oslo, Berlin and Amsterdam — without announcing it or asking for permission.
“Masselyd” (Mass[ive]-sound) was initiated by Ny Musikk in cooperation with NODE and was run for two days in November 2006. A veteran bus with a massive speaker system mounted on the roof was driven around in the city centre of Oslo playing contemporary music for the masses. The sound being played ranged from Kurt Schwitters and Alvin Lucier to new and unpublished pieces by Norwegian contemporary composers.
www.nodeberlin.com

TILGIVELSE by Aase-Hilde Brekke
During Oslo Open in 2007 an outdoor installation and performance was placed in the park by Grønland Police Station, and Oslo prison near Grønland Park in the eastern side of the city. The project was called “TILGIVELSE”(no.), “Forgiveness”, and was presented as an installation with written texts about forgiveness, which was “planted” in the ground and hung from the trees in the park, and people could write in “The Book Of Forgiveness!”, in the interactive performance held. The park is a neuralgic spot in Olso where drugs are sold and openly used. The park is close to the biggest prison in Norway, which represents an official take on forgiveness. For the project, people were invited to write a text about forgiveness and send it to the artist.

ORCHESTRAL INVESTIGATIONS OF SECOND LIFE by Avatar Orchestra Metaverse
The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse is an orchestra within Second Life, a threedimensional virtual world populated by avatars - online representations created by people who acts in Second Life through the avatar. The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse is an intercontinental orchestra which counts among its members programmers, architects, visual, digital and performance artists as well as musicians and all the possible mixed breed. Its members are an ever changeing mix of backgrounds and generations shaping the orchestra at any time. It just started in early 2007.
To play live within Second Life means to play in a spatial sound environment. As a listener to inworld performance you will hear the music according to where you place yourself with respect to the performers, the performer close to you you hear better than you do the perfomer further away. This audience experience is essential to the performances of Avatar Orchestra Metaverse.
At the Open Forum, Avatar Orchestra Metaverse will play live “Fragula” by Miulew Takahe. The instruments are by Bingo Onomatopoeia. The project will be presented by Leif Inge.
See the documentation of other performances by Avatar Orchestra Metaverse at
http://www.youtube.com/v/yInQsAFBSMo
http://www.youtube.com/v/fRXQFjZlML8
http://www.youtube.com/v/oC85fNtUCPY
http://www.youtube.com/v/UTvU6jGRbZ8

We will have two different walks during Urban Interface Oslo. The first one is just a walk, not a guided tour. It will be part of the opening on Thursday night, 13th. After the speeches and some social talk supported by a free drink we will depart from Sound of Mu around 8.30 pm and walk together to the artworks’ sites. This walk will be accompanied by the artists and you can request information anytime or just walk, watch, listen and enjoy. Please bring your radios, because three of HC Gilje’s Soundpockets are only audible through radio.

The second walk is a guided tour by me and Hillevi Munthe, the exhibition producer. It takes place on Sunday 16th, 3 pm and also starts at Sound of Mu, the Urban Interface Oslo headquaters. We will give a short introduction into the exhibition project and to every artwork. As most of the artists will have left Olso by Sunday, only Vibeke Jensen will present her piece, The Blue Wall of Silence, herself. This tour will take approximately 1,5 hrs. Don’t forget to bring radios in order to find and listen to the Soundpockets!

Orange Works 1:1 scale model in Atelier Nord project room.

Artists Sancho Silva (left) and John Hawke (right) preparing the Moose Field.

Telart artist Jørgen Larsson merging old an new communication technologies (and an unknown amount of coffe) at the Atelier Nord studio.

At the end of the first UIO conference day, Emil Martin Krudøl will give an exclusive preview of the three new works commissioned for the motorway bridge in Drammen, Norway. Krudøl was a consultant to the project.
In connection with the building of a new motorway bridge, (a four lane bridge, almost two kilometres long, going through the centre of Drammen town), across the Drammen river, the Municipality (Drammen kommune) contacted the Norwegian Public Road Administration (Statens vegvesen), the County (Buskerud fylkeskommune) and Public Art Norway (Koro), with the aim of realising artprojects according to this situation.
Three projects came out of it: under the bridge – on the bridge – by the bridge

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AND ALSO THE OTHER PART SHOULD BE HEARD by Marit G. Arnekleiv
Arnekleiv’s project is a visual answer to the bridge as a construction, as well as it creates a dialog between the bridge and its surroundings. By the physical shaping of the park under the bridge, the focus is drawn away from the ambient noise and the attention is directed towards your own movements and the closer environment.

TEMPERATURE TIMEPROJECT by Gunnar H. Gundersen
Gundersen’s starting point is the continuous movement of the bridge. Through changes in temperature, the bridge, from cold winter to hot summer, can change its length up to two meters. The power of locomotion drives a big polished stone wheel that hangs on the bridge. On the top of the stone wheel there is attached a specially designed instrument of steel, with an edge covered with diamonds. This instrument, and its edge, is pressed against the stone, cutting its way down through the wheel towards its centre. Over the years we will be able to read the bridges movements in the stone and within maybe 60 – 100 years, the stone wheel will have to be exchanged.

LISTEN by Istvan Lisztes
Lisztes created an immaterial “bridge” across the two riverbanks, a metaphor for connection and contact. Two pillars are situated one on each side of the river, each one carrying a figure. These figures are facing each other, with a gesture as if they are shouting to each other from one bank to the other.

Anders and Jonas mounting the sound beam on a light pole by the pentagon.

The sound technology is developed in collaboration with Soundscape Studios.

Don’t forget to contribute your story on the Blue Wall of Silence website