Norway

This video project explores Norwegian folk histories that return as fragments in light of ongoing volcanic eruptions. The project was recorded in Bergen following the disruptions caused by the activities of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. A folk history of disaster is set against slowly revolving images set in a contemporary landscape. This is the first of a series of works recorded in Norway that juxtapose folk histories and contemporary events to explore narrative and associative characteristics of cultural anxieties and collective memory. The project was researched and filmed by Roderick Coover in 2010 thanks to a distinguished-scholar-in-residence award from the University of Bergen.

This film was created in a very short amount of time during an experimental course in Bergen, Norway.

The assignment consisted of everyone receiving a fictional character who had recently experienced a "strange event" and was sent to Bergen to try and figure out what the root cause was. Each student was put into a group of about four, and it was up to the team to figure out a way to tell a narrative, while still weaving together some very random stories, events, and details. Our group decided on showing our narrative via a film. There are perhaps some gaps in the narrative logic, but perhaps a little character info can help fill those.

Jackson Sullivan: woke up on day on an island in his hometown with strange ruins tattooed onto his arm. He heads to Bergen to decipher them.

David Butler: an older gentlemen possessing the diary of his explorer grandfather. Inside is information regarding Norse ruins...

Aurora Berg: a British spy is doing her best to warn the world of potential harm.

Liam Omar: a scuba diver who notices the strange rise in water levels in the Bergen area. What can it mean?

(Source: Vimeo description by Dane Pedersen)

Katastrofetrilogien is a trilogy centered on themes of how stories of historic disasters impact contemporary conversations and relationships. Collaboratively and organically constructed, these three films call upon histories of deadly volcanic ash, great floods, and the plague to tell stories of present day longing, anxiety, and environmental change.

"The Last Volcano / Det siste utbruddet"A story of a catastrophic volcanic eruption and its aftermath is retold by a woman to a man before the slowly turning image of contemporary urban landscape. Though the story seems to reference events of the distant past, its setting and telling raise anxieties related to cycles of memory and forgetting.

Direction: Roderick CooverWriting: Scott Rettberg Translation by: Daniel Apollon, Gro Jørstad Nilsen, and Jill Walker RettbergVoices: Gro Jørstad Nilsen and Jan Arild Breistein

"Cats and Rats / Rotter og katter"A blind date between an American epidemiologist and a Norwegian woman takes place on a transatlantic Skype call. In trying to impress his potential paramour, the American steers the conversation terribly wrong, toward a discussion of the Plague and all the devastating historical memories it entails.

Direction: Roderick CooverWriting: Scott Rettberg Translation by: Jill Walker Rettberg,Voices: Jill Walker Rettberg and Rob Wittig

"Norwegian Tsunami/ Norsk flodbølge"During a cigarette break on an oil platform in the North sea, a Scottish geologist and a Norwegian chef consider a certain strangeness in the waves, their changing spirits, and the last time a tsunami devastated the nearby shores.

Direction: Roderick CooverWriting: Scott Rettberg Translation by: Scott Rettberg and Jill Walker Rettberg,Voices: Gillian Carson and Kristian A. Bjørkelo

This video project explores Norwegian folk histories that return as fragments in light of ongoing volcanic eruptions. The project was recorded in Bergen following the disruptions caused by the activities of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. A folk history of disaster is set against slowly revolving images set in a contemporary landscape. This is the first of a series of works recorded in Norway that juxtapose folk histories and contemporary events to explore narrative and associative characteristics of cultural anxieties and collective memory. The project was researched and filmed by Roderick Coover in 2010 thanks to a distinguished-scholar-in-residence award from the University of Bergen.