Icephery and Icy Score - concepts for multi sensory approach

Abstract

Introduction For years during the darkest moment of the year, I have photographed the reflections of light in the cracks of ice on a remote frozen lake in Eastern Finland. At first glance it may seem that there is only ice, snow and some light. And this is the case in some point of view, but the more detailed focusing widens the view. This exposition describes how by carefully multisensory reading the environment – here by reading the auditive and thermoception information - is organized and is in continuous moving process. My key concepts are Icephery and The Icy Score which I have created by analyzing what kind of information my thermoception and auditive orientations will give about the ice and the icy environment. In this presentation the other senses are less attentive. Those I have opened in my previous investigations (see Timonen 2014, 2019). By concentrating the multisensory close-reading the place gets new meanings and layers. The place that while ago was peripheral, remote and silence are now near with full of meanings and sounds. The understanding created by the sensory attention pushes the borders of periphery of the place in a constant float. The article proceeds by presenting the theoretical starting points of the research, then describing the concrete workplace on ice from the point of view of the place and materiality and then presenting the concepts the Icephery and the Icy score as a result of carefully multi sensory close-reading. The Icy Score is a visual outcome of the auditive layers of the ice.