Omni Anima

The Sami Center for Contemporary Art, Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš 2/9 – 22/10

Live performance on Saturday 2nd September. The installation stand until October 22th.

Torgeir Vassvik is the performer and the composer of the audio part of Omni Anima, while visual artist Ståle Stenslie is behind the concept and has made the interface: a Sami drum drawn with an electronic and sensitive sensoric skin. Thom Johansen at Notam has designed and programmed the technical solution for multisensors, signal processing and speakers, which includes capacitive sensors, Max and SPAT.

Joik is a special art form. E.g., you do not joik about something or anyone, but you’re joiking them, and the joik itself belongs to them or it. Torgeir becomes the animal, the property or the soul he joiks. This work seeks to put the audience in a state of trance which the noaidi used joik to achieve. Through the trance, they could send their free spirit on trips to other places and worlds. Joiking is about magic animation. Hence the Latin title: omni = all and anima = the spirit, that is, all is spiritualized. This work seek to link the magic quality of the joik to technology. New technology here conveys and propagates joik and throat singing through interactive, immersive audio or holophony, as Stenslie calls it. The drumskin detects stroke, proximity and physical distance also without anyone touching it. For example, the volume can be adjusted by measuring the distance of the hand to the drum skin. Sensors sense the user’s “aura” (capacitance) accurately from 0 to 30 cm apart and can allow new types of rhythms and tonalities. Immersive audio gives a different listening and working situation than stereo, and the experience of being within the sound and possibly moving around inside it, provides other possibilities for an artistic expression.

Notam aims to cultivate new artistic expressions in a variety of genres, where surround sound technology plays an increasingly important role, and through artistic projects we support development of interfaces, technological solutions and surround sound applications.

Torgeir Vassvik (1962) is responsible for the music and composition of Omni Anima. He is a Sami composer and vocalist who combines the joik and throat singing with traditional Sami instruments and natural sounds. He is by some called “The Sound Magician”. Vassvik’s albums Sáivu and Sápmi were met with good reviews.
Ståle Stenslie (1965) from Elverum stands for project design and execution. Ståle Stenslie is a Norwegian artist and curator, with a PhD. from the Architecture and Design College in Oslo (2010).
In his own artistic work he has been a pioneer figure on the international electronic art scene. In addition, he has been an exponent of cognitive and perception-manipulating art projects where interface technologies and new digital tools have provided the framework for his work in the fields of art, media and network research.
Thom Johansen is responsible for the technology design, sound processing and programming. He has 12 years of experience with Ambisonics and is a developer at Notam.
Notam, the Norwegian Composer Fund and the Culture Council have supported the project.