lnu.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Play, Performance and Media Flow in Öyvind Fahlström’s Radio Play "The holy Torsten Nilsson"
Karlstad University, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2400-4124
2015 (English)In: Play / Perform / Participate. The 2015 international conference of the International Society of Intermedial Studies (ISIS). April 16, 2015 - April 18, 2015: Conference Guide, Utrecht University , 2015, p. 101-102Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

In 1953 the Swedish concrete poet and internationally renowned avant-garde artist Öyvind Fahlström (1928–76) wrote the worlds probably first manifesto for concrete poetry, inspired by the historical avant-garde and the neo-avant-garde that at the same time was on its rise, but also by Pierre Schaeffer’s musique concrète. The poetical techniques proposed in his manifesto laid the ground for Fahlström’s later production in different arts, from concrete poetry to radio plays. His first radio composition Fåglar i Sverige (1963, Birds in Sweden) triggered a whole new genre, the international movement of text-sound-poetry (a.k.a. sound-poetry, poésie sonore). The second radio play (or blind music, as he called it) Den helige Torsten Nilsson (1966, The holy Torsten Nilsson), became a small success despite its strange story, and was aired in five different episodes by the Swedish broadcasting company. This radio play was composed from what Fahlström termed “life material,” i.e. recorded (with a microphone and cheap tape recorder) sound from the constant media flow in his apartment in New York, with himself performing the voiceover, telling the story. The remediated material was mainly taken from popular culture, for example horror movies, but also real life, filtered through TV and radio. His method was inspired by Schaeffer’s musique concrète and William Burroughs’ cut-ups, to which he added his play strategies. The result was a highly original media-mix, where he performed an international spy history interwoven with sounds from contemporary media and life, a mix that at the same time reflected his political urge and interest for world politics. In his use of new technology and different broadcasting media, Fahlström was a forerunner for media art, and the intermedial intricacy of his art can be fully understood and discussed only after the birth of Internet in our own information and media age.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Utrecht University , 2015. p. 101-102
National Category
Musicology Specific Literatures
Research subject
Humanities, Musicology; Humanities, Comparative literature
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-89605OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-89605DiVA, id: diva2:1361108
Conference
Play / Perform / Participate. The 2015 international conference of the International Society of Intermedial Studies (ISIS). April 16, 2015 - April 18, 2015
Available from: 2019-10-15 Created: 2019-10-15 Last updated: 2020-01-17Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Conference Program

Authority records

Bäckström, Per

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Bäckström, Per
MusicologySpecific Literatures

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 76 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf