Travels in hyperreality no. 2 (2026)

This work is part of my ph.d project in artistic research at the Norwegian Academy of Music. The project is an artistic exploration of the concept of "hyperreality," where I use headphones, binaural sound, live cameras and other technology to create extended and distorted auditory realities, in which the sound of reality, amplified and intensified, is seamlessly composed with a virtual soundscape, altered to a level where the listener has difficulty distinguishing between the two.

About the work:

Here, the hyperreal space is constructed as follows: The audience are sitting indoors wearing headphones connected to a pair of binaural microphones in my ears as I move around outdoors, listening to the surroundings. Initially, the window is covered by a screen and curtains, so one only sees a mediated version of reality outside via a live camera projected on the screen covering the window, which gradually fades into video and audio recordings from the same point of view. A timelapse of sorts. 

And magically…. The screen goes up and the curtains go to the side…

About the work:

The starting point is the staged listener—me, the composer. I have walked, listened, seen, and reflected—this is my perspective. I do not attempt to present an «objective» imprint of the site, but rather place the audience in my position, with my ears.

Five times over a two-week period, I moved through the «bakgården» of the Academy of Music with microphones in my ears and a camera in my hand. In this way, documentation is embedded in the work itself—recordings of my personal sound walk at different times of day, in varying weather conditions and soundscapes, forming the raw material for the composition.

In my artistic ph.d. project I am composing with perception. And when composing with auditory and visual perspectives using cameras and microphones, it is essential that the audience can follow the process: what happens, when, and where. Composition largely becomes about guiding the audience’s attention and listening.

In this work, I position myself as a listener functioning as a prism through which you experience the work. As listener, composer, and performer, I act as a mediating link between you and the site. You observe not only the «bakgården» and its sounds—but also the act of listening itself experienced from a distance.

Listening framed by the window, cameras, and microphones—a staged listening experienced both at a distance, but also intimately through the headphones of the audience. A paradoxical mix of distance and proximity, intimacy and detachment.