Heaven and earth and such things,
or the possibility of travelling without moving

Christian EGGEN

Norway and Australia are about as far apart as you can get on earth. It is more than 30 hours travelling (by plane), but when you arrive you quickly realize it isn't much different. The leap seems paradoxically too big -- we have passed 10 000 meters above people and places we know nothing about, only to land in a country where the people look and dress like us and even play the same instruments.

So what's the idea of travelling then? Well, the idea is still to experience something different. Just that in this case the goal is even further away, so that we need a special vessel to take us there. The further you want to get, the less you will need conventional transportation. Our aim is to investigate dark matter in outer space, which is so far away that the most reliable source of information will be our own mindpower.

Dark matter refers to something out here that nobody has seen, but which must exist if our scientific calculations are to be correct. In other words: nobody has been able to go there and check, so we have made it exist by educated guesses. It is in fact a pure invention of the human mind, based on mathematics and computer simulation. The world appears according to our own systems and tools. But Einstein's equations has so far proven to be an amazingly correct description of the world, which means that mathematics can actually substitute for binoculars.

But this belongs to science. We on the other hand are artists. The source of material may be the same, but our approach connects to the human mind in a different way, and will therefore provide us with a different perspective. The great advantage of such a perspective is that it points equally strongly in at least two directions -- inwards and outwards. It gets you very close to yourself, your own creativity, your ability to perceive.

The material is compiled -- so to speak -- by Richard Barrett (UK composer) and Per Inge Bjørlo (Norwegian visual artist), and is brought to light (so to speak) by Elision and Cikada -- contemporary music ensembles from opposite sides of the earth.

When Daryl Buckley and I first discussed this project back in 1997, my initial idea was to use a ship for the whole production. Apart from being an interesting venue it would have been great for touring, all around the world (earth), and it would have given substance to the notion of travelling.

As it has turned out, the only things that have gone by ship so far are Per Inge's pieces of steel -- packed together in a huge container -- steadily travelling over the seas in dark silence, carrying the powerful message of its master. Now this is a picture I like. Art as dark matter, human mind hidden in a container. Per Inge's work has, by the way, always functioned like dark matter -- roughly shaped pieces of wood, glass, rubber or steel become sources of enormous, invisible mental gravity.

Invisible indeed: that is why he has called his installation projects «inner spaces». In his case the essence of the work doesn't exist out there, it comes into existence by being developed within our minds, though certainly pushed very deliberately in chosen directions by provocative forms and arrangements. The works are real for sure, relating to the theme in several ways. This is also the case with Richard Barrett's music. But I shall not be specific about this, as it is the pleasure of the traveller to make such discoveries for himself.

So then -- this is why we meet in Australia: to make a vessel of music and stainless steel, perfectly fitted to show you dark matter.