Ottar Ormstad
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LYMS |
Tell me something about you and your artistic background.
My artistic practice grounds in visual concrete poetry, which can be described as poetry for the eye. I have published several books. They are rather different, but have a specially conceptualized visual aspect in common. When I have presented unpublished books for the first time in gallery exhibitions, I have created some of the pages as large-scale prints on cotton-based paper, produced on my own printer. Selected pictures were presented in a solo exhibition in the Galleri Briskeby, Oslo. I also make prints based on black and white photos in combination with yellow letters, and I have started up with sound poetry. In my works I try to create a poetic experience through the use of visuals and words spatially arranged on a page. To give you an idea, I can tell you that some of my works have been characterized as having dadaistic elements. For instance, I regard my yellow y as a selfportrait.
Tell me about this film, initial idea and work process.
The basic idea is to augment my poetic work by combining my visual and electronic poetry with photographs I am taking on my own, and music specially produced by the norwegian composers Hallvard W. Hagen and Jens P. Nilsen, better known as "Xploding Plastix". The video starts with an extended version of an earlier poem I made for the danish web publisher afsnitp.dk. Vibeke Luther has animated some of my texts and photos in collaboration with me. I also worked very well together with the composers. They gave me a lot of opportunities to influence the result. Parts of the video are a challenge for the viewer according to language: Words from different languages are put together without translation. Each viewer will have a different, fragmentary experience with the work dependent upon her vocabulary. The multi-lingual approach has intentions in the direction of breaking the monopoly position of the English language.
Are you working on new projects at the moment?
I've just started up working on the manuscript for a new video, where I go further in some ways. In this project I will continue the cooperation with the composers. I'm also working with digital prints and make plans for a new book.
Do you have specific influences in your film/video making?
Much interesting is happening in the world of electronic poetry, and I have written articles about it. Here I just want to mention the french e-poet Patricya Rydzok, who presented her beautiful "instant memory" in epoetry2007 in Paris, and the american author and programmer Judd Morrissey. His work "The last Performance" is very inspiring to me. They both opened my eyes for the possibilities of electronic poetry in the way they are merging old and new technology. Among the concrete poets I would like to mention the late catalan Joan Brossa and Clemente Padin from Uruguay.
Why is it important for you to show your film/video in a festival?
When I first presented this video at the fifth international festival for electronic poetry, epoetry2009 in Barcelona, it was very important for me to get feedback from the community of electronic literature. Their reaction was very positive, and I was convinced to go on.
What role do you think Oslo Screen Festival should have to promote your work?
For me, Oslo Screen Festival will have the opposite function: here it will be important for making the new field of electronic poetry better known to the public, and hopefully make others interested in studying and producing creative works in this direction. When Oslo Screen Festival promotes my work, the festival also features a literary branch of new media art, that provides a poetic experience to the recipient.
