Serendipity - ARCHIVE & TOOL

ARCHIVE TOOL

ARCHIVE BOOK 1

Glacier �an extended mass of ice formed from snow falling and accumulating over the years and moving very slowly, either descending from high mountains, as in valley glaciers, or moving outward from centers of accumulation, as in continental glaciers.�

Morteratsch Glacier, Graubunden, Switzerland Altitude 2039-3988 m 46°24´34´N 9°55´54´E 10.000 m

LANDSCAPE In March 2017 we went on an expedition to portray the glacier of Morteratsch. The mountains and the glacier were overwhelming, yet subtle due to the snow muting the echoes of the valley. The weather was harsh with shifting snowstorms, wind, temperatures and sun.

In June we returned to the exact same place that had gone through a vast transformation. Only the shape of the valley with its tree line and markings from the glacier throughout time, was recognizable. Without the snow, a moon-like landscape full of sand and rocks was left. The collapsing and melting glacier created streams pouring out at the foot of the glacier. The landscape was in constant movement with car sized rocks sliding down from the top of the melting glacier, creating explosions over the valley. All we could see was ice, rocks, sand and water.

TEXTURES The summer landscape contains a huge variety of textures made out of few elements. This experiment investigates if it is possible to portray a landscape only giving the viewer a close up fragment of the textures ruling the landscape.

Textures can be a direct depiction of how a surface looks.

Determent on the representation, it can also give an abstract understanding of an appearance in a surface. In a photograph a texture is only represented through contrasts between light and darkness. By introducing casting in relation with the photograph you create a direct imprint of the shapes and textures of space - leaving out the materiality, light and darkness.

This project investigates the relationship between these two analogue medias in the attempt of capturing the present elements of the glacier. Sand, rock and ice.

Sand

Rock

Ice

BOOK 1 - ”ARCHIVE” ETHZ - DARCH Prof. Christophe Girot - Chair of Landscape Architecture Matthias Vollmer, Johannes Rebsamen & Ludwig Berger Serendipity FS17 – ICE LIGHT VOID Students: Aleksander G. Kongshaug & Marie M. Jacobsen July 2017

TOOL BOOK 2

PROCESS Developing a method in a short period of time forces you to follow a set of dogmas that can guide you through the fieldwork. This gave us a precise and intuitive process. During the fieldwork we discovered a method to register a landscape in small-scale representation. We had to extract the elements that describe the landscape in the most essential matter. With the elements sand, rock and ice, we worked instinctively with a clear intention.

The dogma dictated the repitition of the method with each photograph and casting, resulting in an archive. We had to extract the essential elements of the landscape by taking the picture directly over the chosen spot. Thereby it became possible to cast at the exact same spot where the picture was taken.

This book will describe our discovery of an analogue registration technique that can be developed into a tool for the archive to expand.

1.000 m

FIELD EQUIPMENT Camera (Hasselblad medium format) Tripod Light meter 20 kg plaster Bucket Water bottles Casting form Duck tape Notebook

This project was an experiment. We aimed to develop a tool to register a large scale landscape in a 1:1 representation of the textures. By Combining analogue photography with casting techniques we hoped to create an overview of the landscape.

The photograph gives a scale-less sense of texture. It is about light, darkness and atmosphere. Having the casting - a physical object and a direct representation from the site next to the photograph, gives a dimension to help understand the spatial qualities of the texture.

The photograph and the casting are two techniques combined, that together work as a tool to capture and collect samples from a landscape.

TOOL By working with different tools of registration in the Serendipity course, we discovered the strength of combining different medias.

In March we worked with both analogue photography and sound recording. We experienced how a sound recording can supply a photograph and vise versa. We also saw how 3D scans can depict a landscape in a precise and contemporary way.

Yet we found that the tool of casting, which we introduced in this thesis elective, adds another dimension to ’The tool box of landscape registration’. By crossing the four tools in new projects and thereby creating mixed-media combinations, we would be able to enhance and supply the outcome.

In the case of the project ’Archive’, we aimed to bring the dogma into new landscapes, and continue to expand the archive of textures and castings.

1. Sound recording

2. 3D scanning

3. Photography

4. Casting

BOOK 2 - ”TOOL” ETHZ - DARCH Prof. Christophe Girot - Chair of Landscape Architecture Matthias Vollmer, Johannes Rebsamen & Ludwig Berger Serendipity FS17 – ICE LIGHT VOID Students: Aleksander G. Kongshaug & Marie M. Jacobsen July 2017