FLOATING FIELD RESEARCH
in two pieces by GABI SCHAFFNER
The first piece is Kukka Shop Overdrive (2021). The location: A small kiosk selling flowers and eggs, next to a heavily trafficked road on the island of Lajasalo in Helsinki. The shop has been in the neighborhood for the last 20 years I was told, but egg sales occur only on Wednesdays. They are sold in trays by 40 pieces only. The weather was gritty, slush and gravel spurted from the cars in the road and form the overall backdrop of the ‘kukka’ shop conversations.
The recordings: All recordings originate either from the site of the ‘kukka’ shop at Lajasalo and another flower shop in Mäntta – and finally a private greenhouse in Taiwan.
Additional sounds derive from the frying of several eggs and a visit to a chicken shack in Ruovesi to collect more eggs.
Credits for Kukka Shop Overdrive (2021)
Field Recordings and composition: Gabi Schaffner.
Voice Taiwan: Margaret Shiu, Bamboo Curtain Studio, Taipei.
Chicken: Tyyra Jukka, Ruovesi.
Credits for Schweben | Floating (2023)
Stimmen/Voices: Claudia, H.W., Karim, Jann, L., Mathias, Tina.
Piano: Renard.
Fieldrecordings: Gabi Schaffner.
Other: “Ein Zimmer voller Sterne”, Schaffner, 2020.
Gabi Schaffner works as an interdisciplinary sound artist and curator. Her artistic practice is determined by the methods of poetic ethnography in connection with fluxus-like mise-en-scènes, radio-making and sound art performances. Much of her work originates from journeys. Next to her radiophonic productions, Schaffner creates speculative musical genres and inserts them into music history in order to raise awareness for cultural, gender-related and/or geographical conditions. Schaffner has been realising award-winning productions with Deutschlandfunk Kultur, radia.fm, Hessian Cultural Radio and ABC Australia. Since 2012 she maintains DATSCHA RADIO, a nomadic transmission project that links the medium of radio to current ecological issues.
great many thanks to GABI SCHAFFNER for FLOATING FIELD RESEARCH … and we also say thank you to her artistic collaborators, contributors and donators – especially to Augustin the cat!