Compositions
Title: Compositions
Material: Light, sound and video
Dimensions variable
Project manager: Paola Zamora
Sound design and programming: Nils Edvardsson
Location: Preschool “Älvan”, Vårsta, 2011
At the preschool Älvan, the artist Lina Selander has worked with a composition in several parts. Compositions consists of sound, light, and moving images in various places inside the preschool as well as outside. In her work, the artist has chosen to work with abstract features in order to challenge and affirm the children’s imagination and to create awareness about body movement and the ability to associate.
There are motion sensors located around the preschool’s main room, “The Square”, which during the day register and save the children and the pedagogues’ movements to a computer. The recorded movement patterns are thereafter used as a score and are transformed into a meditative, calming musical composition that is played from three built-in speakers located in the nap room. Every day creates a new composition.
“The Harp” is an invisible, tactile instrument. Using the sensors in the large room, children can create music in real time. The effect can be described as if the floor were a giant piano in two dimensions, where different points in the room correspond to different keys. By plugging in a portable guitar amplifier in one of the sensor boxes, the children can play this instrument during chosen times.
Outside the pedagogues’ kitchen there is a color pool that constantly changes color. It is like an infinite flow of color, surfaces, and light and inspire play and association. Outside the school, there are spotlights placed on lampposts that direct light toward different objects and places in the garden. In this way, little scenes and a basic dramaturgy are created. The whole yard is activated for play and feels inviting and safe.
In working with Compositions, how have you related to the place?
Since Älvan is a preschool where children grow, create, and develop, I have chosen to work with a piece that constantly changes and that the children and pedagogues themselves can be a part of creating. The sound installations are abstract and changing. The soundscape consists of long, pure tones that to me can symbolize color and light.
In working with the lighting of the yard, I have chosen to incorporate the surrounding forest and, in the yard, created different places that feel safe and invite play. The goal is for the music, video installations, and the lighting to inspire the children to move, play, and contemplate. I have also had the year’s dark days in mind; inside, the video projection pulsates with many colors, outside, small scenes light up the dark.
