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VATNAJOKULLXL (the sound of)
Programme > Mapping > VATNAJOKULLXL (the sound of)
 'Vatnajokullxl' is a microphone located inside an Icelandic glacier | | Katie Paterson, V A T N A J O K U L L X L (the sound of), 2007
Call a mobile phone located in a glacier and listen to it melt on +44 (0) 7757001122
Location: Jökulsárlón, Iceland
Funded by Virgin Mobile
Commissioned by Modern Art Oxford
Katie Paterson is a Scottish artist based in London.
Vatnajokullx is a microphone located inside Jökulsárlón glacier, connected to an amplifier and a mobile phone that can be called from any part of the world. The sound at the other end of the line is one of melting ice – the sound of a vanishing world. The work is ephemeral but at the same time exists everywhere in the planet where a mobile phone can be dialled. Vatnajokullx becomes a tangible platform from which we can physically experience a disappearing landscape and particularly it underlines the way communications create a common ground of experience regardless of physical presence. Vatnajokullx received thousands of calls from 47 countries around the world highlighting how the reality of climate change affects us all no matter where we are.
Florencia Guillen interviewed Katie Paterson asking her if it was her intention to raise awareness on climate change and what does she feel common space is in the context of her work.
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"It wasn’t initially my concern to raise awareness on climate change in a direct way. I was thinking more along the lines of the melancholy of a world which is slipping away, the sadness of the disappearing landscape, a Japanese notion ‘mono-no-aware’ which describes the transience of the world, and a gentle sadness at its passing.
I set up a phone line so only one person at one time can get through - an attempt to create a direct and immediate connection to a far-away landscape, that is both singular and universally accessible at the same…a kind of intimate ‘common space’. " | |
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