The initial get-together and the first key-note presentation of Fluid States North, which is part of the all-year and all-around-the-globe event Psi #21 Fluid States took place in a beautiful wooden bath house on Amager Strand, a recently renovated beach area in Copenhagen during midsummer, 18-21 June 2015. Unfortunately the weather was not the best possible, with drizzling rain and a chilly wind, so the experience had an element of endurance performance to it. I decided immediately, however, to return to the spot with my camera after the conference, in order to look if I could find a slice of an empty horizon.
 

 

 
And that I did this afternoon, Monday 22nd June. After a rainy morning the sky cleared at least partly and there were moments of sun when I stepped out from the Metro at Femoren, a stop between Amager Strand and the Airport. And the mud in the adjacent park and the noise from people taking down something that looked like the stage of an outdoor concert from the weekend before, the place was much more inviting, and looked almost like a beach. There was nobody on the beach proper, of course, midsummer in Scandinavia is rarely suited for such activities, but some people were enjoying the walk. And nobody was disturbed when I walked out to the small pier and placed my camera on a tripod on the large boulders in order to find a spot were no islands or windmills or boats or the famous Orebro bridge in the distance would intervene with the horizon. The clouds were dramatic, though, and no evenly grey image like the one captured on my iphone during the first visit could be created this time.
 

 
This time – one more attempt to begin the series of videos with the working title “After Sugimoto”, referring to Hiroshi Sugimotos’s famous Seascapes – I was using a new objective in my camera, and now the camera was properly cleaned by a professional, too, so presumably no dirty spots on the lens would disturb the view. It was not so easy to find an “empty spot” on the horizon, but I think i almost succeeded this time. The windmills to the left and the bridge to the right were hopefully cropped out of sight. While standing on the rocks, as immobile and silent as possible during the recording I listened to the surrounding sounds, inspired by all the recordings on Amager included in the audio papers I heard at the presentation of Fluid Sounds yesterday. At least the music listened to be the roadies taking down the stages on the shore, the airplanes landing on the airport nearby, the signal beep of the trucks backing, and occasional sounds of people passing by, talking, as well as the soft splashing of water against the rocks next to the ripped were easily discernible. Perhaps i should try to use a proper microphone and record the sounds for my videos in a more conscious and deliberate way…