NORDLYD

NORDLYD [A Norwegian play on words which can be translated to “The nordic wording of sound”] can be the sound of the volcanic eruption in Grindavik, Iceland, the sound of wind turbines disrupting reindeer herding on the Fosen Peninsula in Norway, the dumping of mining waste in Førdefjorden, also Norway, forests being cut down in the Nordic countries, or the sound of water in the Faroe Islands and the inland ice melting on Greenland. Or simply the absence of sound where there once was sound.

NORDLYD is the festival commissioned by Oslo Flermediale – Nordic Multimodal Poetry festival 2024 (part of Oslo International Poetry Festival), with the theme focusing on the relationship between nature and culture. From the posthumanist view that there is no distinction between nature and culture, to the deep ecological philosophy that we humans have a special responsibility to care for the planet.

NORDLYD is created based on exploring how human creativity and forms of expression can reveal how our world is interconnected, giving nature a voice through multimedia poetic work. As the renowned posthumanist and new-materialist scholar Jane Bennett has beautifully put it:
«Texts are bodies that can light up, by rendering human perception more acute, those bodies whose favored vehicle of affectivity is less wordy: plants, animals, blades of grass, household objects, trash […] poetry can help us feel more of the liveliness hidden in such things and reveal more of the threads of connection binding our fate to theirs” (i The Nonhuman Turn, s.215)

NORDLYD is multimedial both in the works and in the distribution format. From October until the physical festival on October 19th, we published and distributed short films where five Nordic poets read or perform their newly written poems and share their thoughts on how poetry can be used to reflect on nature and our relationship to it. The poets on digital platforms are: Freddy Fjellheim (NO), Johan Sandberg McGuinne (SE/Sápmi), Ida Helene Benonisen (NO/Sápmi), Lina Ekdahl (SE), and Morten Søndergaard (DK).

For the festival itself, we asked seven Nordic poets to create multimedia works based on a sound from the Nordic nature. Sound will therefore be part of the poem. The sounds to be included are Nordic sounds related to how nature is changing and the human impact on it, the breakdown of nature and culture, or how the earth itself can be destructive.

The poets presenting works at the festival were Angela Rawlings (IS), Jessie Kleemann (GRL), Kim Simonsen (FO), Unnveig Aas (NO), Peter Clement Woetman (DK), and Timimie Märak (SE/Sápmi).
NORDLYD during the festival was the sound of nature playing on human-made instruments, the sound of the powerful yet gentle and gurgling river, the sound of a singing bowl sneaking through a Nordic forest, of human-made buildings and boats decaying, eroding, and becoming one with nature, and the sound of what happens when everything is still.

The focus is on the Nordic region because we share a common nature-culture-history, where what we do affects each other significantly through Nordic political and cultural cooperation. At the same time, the Nordic region is home to indigenous peoples living across national borders, just as nature exists across borders.
As we have experienced before, a volcanic eruption in Iceland has consequences for activities in other Nordic countries, while deforestation in one country leads animals to flee to another. Consequences transcend national borders, and thinking bigger – at least starting with thinking of the Nordic region – brings us closer to understanding the seriousness of climate change, which is global. At the same time, it brings us closer to the understanding that we are part of the earth, part of a vast interconnected ecology, which can bring us both joy and strength. The reinforcing effects of close collaboration and connections can be met by lifting the power found in the linguistic and cultural heritage we share.