Oona Stern

Iceline - An Interactive Video Installation

"Iceline" presents the Arctic Ocean at the boundary between above and below water, providing a portal into details of a chaotic, beautiful environment. With video shot in Liefdefjorden, Svalbard, it shows the ocean aswarm with ice debris that makes their way from the crumbling terminal face of Monacobreen tidewater glacier to the open ocean to melt. This journey reflects the natural cycles of water, yet also reveals effects of climate change, melting polar icecaps, rising seas, and increasing occurrence of severe weather. "Iceline" showcases these effects, while addressing the relationship of people to natural phenomena. 

The video is a full-wall projection, establishing sense of scale, and the audience sees the Arctic as if they, too, are traveling the fjord and ocean. The sonic environment is crafted from field recordings of Arctic ice combined with sounds produced on stone slabs and other material from the region. The result is a whole body experience of being within the ocean. 

The interactivity is such that the behavior of viewers affects the narrative. If viewers are absent or dispersed throughout the space, the ice moves quickly, the audio disconcerting. If viewers converge on a single location, the visuals slow and the soundscape becomes peaceful. The message is direct: as people cooperate and behave collectively, natural processes within the environment are affected.

The project has been developed to date per best practicies of iteration and feedback. It has been field tested in private and public settings, to audiences of diverse backgrounds and demographics. Various feedback methodologies have been employed. There have been several rounds of software development. The audio and video content has evolved via audience feedback. The most recent beta tests have been successful, and the installation is ready for a public launch.

The technology developed for "Iceline" is intended as a seamless and functional component, not a showcase of the project. The project itself is aimed at delivering an immersive experience which is both remarkable and empowering. The location is beautiful, and the depiction from the water is unique. The immersive environment provides access to a place that is remote, fragile, and unfamiliar to many, and the experience offers an opportunity to see and think about the Arctic region from a number of angles. It is literally a call to action, and to practicing global citizenship. The experience can also be a science education tool, to raise conversation around environmental and physical sciences. In the end "Iceline" serves a twofold mission: it acts as an ambassador of scientific topics to the general public, while inviting the public to engage in social responsibility. 

Concept, production, design, and video by Oona Stern. Audio by Cheryl E Leonard. Software by Jesse Johnson.

Functionality:

The program is designed to allow installation in a range of environments, differing in size, lighting conditions, audience size, venue type, host affiliation, throughput, length of play.

An infrared depth camera (Intel Realsense) distinguishes audience participants from the ground. With this view of the space, the software calculates the position and size of groups of participants under the camera. 

The most important aspect of the project is the hotspot, which is a designated area in the room of a certain position and size. When the hotspot is filled with a big enough group of participants, it will trigger a change in video playback. 

The following parameters are adjustable to allow for configurations to various site conditions: 

• Initial size and position of the hotspot

• Hotspot as a fixed or randomized position

• Time between hotspot position changes

• Amount of camera vision blurring to combat ground clutter

• Distance between the camera and the floor

• Size of the experience floor

In addition to the main display, a remote screen can display real time operation, accessed from a web browser on a mobile device via a provided URL. This tool can help an admin guide the audience from the experience floor as needed.

About the team:

Oona Stern, Visual Artist, Creative Director, Designer

Oona Stern is a visual artist whose installations create a backdrop to daily experience - art into life - calling attention to the cultural habits that determine our environment, while generating a multifaceted dialog between drawing, architecture, and nature. She works with a range of materials including advertising posters, carpeting, neon, drawing and photography to bridge the gap between nature and culture, bringing the outdoors, both organic and clichéd, to urban and private spaces. Her multimedia collaborative works with composer and sound artist Cheryl Leonard focus on the natural environment, offering a portal on characteristics of often remote regions. 

Stern has a BA from Cornell University and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Public installations include a carpet and sound piece, the sound of grass growing, at Bloomberg NY, and meander, a landscaped 'drawing' carved into lawns on both the East and West Coasts. deDomination, a poster project, was installed in the NYC subway. Stern's solo show, the reluctant naturalist at Westchester Community College, presented a survey of her work based on Antarctica. She is the recipient of grants from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, NYFA, Artists' Space, and Manhattan Community Arts Fund, and The Puffin Foundation. Residencies include the Edward Albee Foundation, Dieu Donné Papermill, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace, and the Paul Drescher Ensemble's Artist Residency Center. A recipient of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists and Writers Residency and The Arctic Circle residency, she has recent projects based on both polar environments. Oona lives and works in Brooklyn.

"Iceline" is a collaboration between visual artist Oona Stern, and composer Cheryl Leonard. It is the latest piece in the "Adfreeze" series - a set of multidisciplinary installations, combining sound, video, instruments, sculpture, drawing, and photography: each piece is a portrait of a site in the Svalbard archipelago north of the Arctic Circle.  "Adfreeze" is fiscally sponsored by New York Foundation for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) organization.

Cheryl Leonard, Composer, Performer and Instrument Builder. 

Cheryl E. Leonard is a San Francisco-based composer, performer, field recordist, and instrument builder whose works investigate natural sites and ecosystems, and human relationships with them. Her projects cultivate stones, wood, water, ice, sand, shells, feathers, and bones as musical instruments, and feature one-of-a-kind sculptural instruments and field recordings from remote locales. She uses microphones and amplification to explore subtle intricacies of sounds, and develops compositions that highlight unique voices and soundscapes while addressing environmental issues such as climate change and extinction of species. Her musical research has taken her to a wide range of wilderness areas, including Antarctica and the Arctic. 

Leonard’s works have been presented in concerts and art exhibitions in the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Australasia. Her recordings are available on Other Minds, mappa, Gilgongo, SubPop, and numerous other labels. She has contributed to several academic publications on music and sound art, and her projects have been featured on television programs and in the video documentary Noisy People. Leonard has received grants from the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, New Music USA, American Composers Forum, American Music Center, ASCAP, and NYSCA. She has been awarded residencies at Headlands Center for the Arts, Kunstnarhuset Messen, Djerassi, Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus, the Arctic Circle, and Villa Montalvo. Her commissions include pieces for Kronos Quartet, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Funsch Dance. In addition to her solo projects, Leonard frequently collaborates with visual artists, choreographers, poets, scientists, and other musicians. www.allwaysnorth.com

Jesse Johnson, Software Developer and UI Designer

Jesse Johnson is a Creative Technologist and Software Developer who specializes in immersive entertainment and high-tech activations. Currently he is a Senior Developer and Game Designer at Beat The Bomb, a Brooklyn-based immersive video game company with three locations across the United States.