#trollgubbe

Idea #002

Magic 8 ball but with sound responses

Approach the troll, touch the troll?? and you will receive 1/8 responses based on magic 8 ball responses - figure out how to do this in Touch Designer? (don’t want to pay for max)

Each one has a corresponding card with words, drawings and symbols for you to interpret and take home - like a Zoltar fortune telling automaton

'FORTUNE TELLER', 2023, Mari Mattson

Sound installation (4 channels), pamphlet with listening instructions (digital print, 210 x 297 mm), sound (31:28 min loop), 4 speakers (each placed in one of the cardinal directions)

"Fortune Teller was made as a site-specific work for a forest by Stockholm University. The work consists of a sound composition for four speakers and listening instructions in a pamphlet. The pamphlet was available at the site and at Accelerator (a nearby kunsthalle) throughout the exhibition period, whereas the sounds were only present during the opening evening. 

The listening instructions, which can be performed in the forest or in a different location, instruct the reader to move around in their surrounding by finding sounds to follow. By doing so, they compose their own listening experience.

The sound composition is made up of four different graphic scores for clay flutes based on breathing exercises designed to reduce anxiety and stress, interpreted and played in dialogue by Erika Rohlfs and the artist. The flutes used in the recordings, are called ’Lergök’ (Clay Cuckoo) and can only make two tones. In Swedish folklore, the calling of a cuckoo bird can foresee the future depending on its direction. Each recording was therefore arranged for a different cardinal direction and played in a speaker either placed north, south, west, or east."

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Found this work that is super in line with my art practice! I've been super interested in divination, fortune telling and particularly Scandinavian folklore after many trips to visit family in Sweden in the last few years. I also relate strongly to finding methods to cope with anxiety.

I became enamoured with my "trollgubbe", a character/emblem I made based on a troll I took home from one of my first trips there. In July this year, I brought home another. For the first assignment, I made them out of air-dry clay and turned them into instruments. In my studio class, I've been making them out of stoneware clay and glazing them.

I initially thought of having one you spoke to and one that responded- 1 mic, 1 speaker... Perhaps you request your fortune to the small one, and the other mumbles something back. I will have a play with this. I am also slowly working on an ambient soundtrack for my grad show artwork (2 speakers, left and right channels), so that might be the best option for this assignment...

7/4/25

Making two trinket dishes out of Crayola terracotta air dry clay. One for me and one for my friend Zach's birthday on Friday. Paint ideas:

Zach's (left):

white base with neon green and soft blue, cut a piece of paper for a star stencil and spray paint silver stars on gubbe

Mine (right):

white base with neon pink and warm orange, silver spray painted stars

12/11/24

12/11/24