PROJECT:

From December 17 2002 to January 13 2003, artists Sara Kolster and Derek Holzer will work in residence at the K@2 arts center in Karosta, Latvia. This arts center is located in the middle of a former Soviet warport, and most of its inhabitants are families of Soviet army personalle left behind when the troops pulled out in 1994. Since the turn of the 20th century, Karosta and its parent city Liepaja have figured prominently in histories of the Baltics. Around the First World War, Latvia's largest defense fortress, built by the Russian Tzar Alexander III, was destroyed there as part of a pact with the Germans. In the Second World War, first Germans and then Soviets completely occupied the region. Additionally, the area around Karosta is infamous in Holocaust histories for open executions of Jews during the German occupation. In Soviet times, the area was off-limits to all but military personalle with special papers. Currently, the port of Karosta has been declared an environmental disaster by NATO due to the prescence of scuttled Soviet ships in the harbor and large piles of lead-acid batteries on land.

RESEARCH:

During a previous trip to Karosta in August, 2002, Derek Holzer happened upon a beach covered in bones. The origin of these bones is unknown, but several possibilities exist:

1) Large mammals, such as a cow, horse, whale or dolphin.
2) Drowned sailors from a sunken shipping vessel off the coast.
3) Murdered Jews from the Second World War.
4) Iraqi refugees who didn't survive the passage to Sweden.

Prior to the residency, we have considered each of these possibilities as equally valid. To us, Karosta represents a location with rich historical significance, and one which embodies many of the dilemnas faced by those who would create "objective" chronicals of a place, time or people. For every single event, there are so many inherently contradictory personal testimonies that a single version cannot ever be realistically constructed from them. Our residency in Latvia will consist of research into the possible origins of these bones via social, scientific and artistic means. We will work closely with local historians, artists and residents to extract an identity from each of the bones found. In this way, the bones do not represent abstracted classes of people, but rather have their own individual personalities.The results will be presented as a CD and DVD, with the possibility of future performances of the material in a live setting.

WORKSHOPS:

The contribution of the artists to K@2 and Karosta exists in initiating workshops in the area of digital image and sound for the young people in Karosta. Hereby is it important to mention that the artists will give the technical and creative support to realize and develop the ideas of the young people. These workshops will focus on using simple audio and video tools, such as microphones, radio receivers, image scanners and cameras to investigate details in our environment which are usually left unnoticed.

---> Audio Exploration : Derek Holzer

Since most people experience the world in a primarily visual way, and because recorded music, cars, machnes and other human made noise are everywhere, many of the sounds that surround us every day become lost. The purpose of this workshop is to use simple tools such as microphones and radio receivers to investigate the small sounds hidden in everyday objects, in our immediate environment, and in the air around us. Once these sounds have been located and captured, workshop participants will then learn about different ways of using the computer to assemble the sounds into compositions, to transform them into entirely new sounds, and to make live improvisations which respond directly to the world around us and the objects close at hand.

One of the end goals of this workshop is to create an "audio-database" of Karosta, reflecting sounds that its residents find characteristic, or feel they are in danger of losing [or have already lost...] These sounds will be marked with Global Positioning System [GPS] data, mapped out and placed in a GPS-accesable database hosted by GPSter.net, so that future explorers and residents of Karosta can have a window to the region's acoustic past.

---> Video Exploration : Sara Kolster

There is so much visual information around us, that days go by without noticing what really happened. Sometimes you just remember a certain detail, without knowing the whole picture anymore. Without remembering the context you see someone who is tapping his/her foot or you remember a spoon which was laying next to a cup filled with hot tea, but you forgot the room where it was in. Later when the day is over, you try to put the images together and make a story out of it. You're dreaming...

The purpose of the workshop is to use stop-motion-animation to make up your own story out of the details of our daily life. Using different simple tools to capture images with -a DV-camera, drawing and scanning images or using flash - you are able to move objects without moving the object yourself. For instance, a pencil or spoon which is moving by itself, without seeing the hand who is moving it.

WEBLOG:

The whole Karosta Project is very much a process-based work. There are no set conclusions, no predetermined end-points, just a few concrete results that we hope to have ready by the end of our stay [some audio tracks, a short video, the audio-database]... Everything else relies on our daily experiences to guide us. This weblog will detail some of these daily experiences, as well as show some of the audio-visual materials that we gather along the way. It also provides us with further experiences for us in the form of your comments. Please feel free to post your reactions, ideas and questions to this website, and they will help to shape this project for all of us.