Visual Poetry UbuWeb

Cecilie Bjørgås Jordheim Horizon. No Horizon. [PDF, 22.7mb] 2011. Horizon. No Horizon. Cecilie Bjørgås Jordheim (1981- ) The Poetry of Repetitive Vertical Movement (at Sea) The project entitled "Horizon. No Horizon" seeks to understand the connection between the visual and auditory, both synesthetic and graphical, and to discover the Wittgensteinian theory of isomorphic relations between the idea and the world. Formalisticly it looks upon how movement can be materialized in 2D, on paper. Drawn symbols throughout history such as letters, numbers, notational scores for music, typography, choreographic notations and cartography are all examples of the humanity's need to systematize and describe the world and our surroundings. Linked to surrealist automatic writing, the drawings are produced from YouTube clips all from the same category: documenting voyages in rough seas, always from the bridge's point of view. We witness how the sea makes the ship rise and fall in large waves. The horizon appears and disappears. The drawing of a boat's repetitive vertical movement at sea seeks to be a score of movement; that also carries the possibilitiy to be reproduced in sound. The postcard sized scores, first presented in an installation entitled "NAUSEA", each holds the name of the YouTube video it is transcribed from. The postcard format is more or less a nostalgic view on the traditional rites one does while traveling; one goes away to exotic and new places and write home about experiences and new knowledge. Only one generation ago, sailors were the ones to break with the expectations of society. The classical Dream of the Big Blue Ocean was to challenge oneself and experience something else than everyday life. In Jean-Paul Sartre’s debut novel "La Nausée"/"Nausea" the main character, Antoine Roquentin, is rebelling and gets nauseated by the thought of being pushed into a secure and socially accepted life form. He clearly wants something more in life than to honour objective values of the bourgeoisie. Etymological speaking the English word nausea is directly linked towards seasickness as it derives from the Greek word naus meaning ship.