Project Siberia is a multimedia project involving taking trains from Hong Kong to Gothenburg (including a ferry trip between Helsinki and Stockholm). A video camera is attached to the window of the train to take videos of the outside view. Music will then be made to the video.
Origin and genesis
I came up with the idea after watching Sigur Ros’ Route One video involving a car roof camera view of driving a full circle around Iceland. The concept was also what I submitted for my application to the music school in Gothenburg.
In 2018, after I began studying in Gothenburg, I began implementing the idea, and created a website for the project (now closed).
Process
Planning the trip wasn’t especially hard, as there were regular trains between main cities along the way and the itinerary looked like this:
- One-way flight (using points) from Gothenburg via Copenhagen to Hong Kong
- Hong Kong to Beijing (24 hours i.e. 1 night)
- Overnight layover in Beijing
- Beijing to Moscow (7 days?)
- Moscow to Helsinki (1 night)
- Helsinki to Stockholm (1 night, ferry)
- Stockholm to Gothenburg (3 hours)
This itinerary is no longer possible since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. However, there’s now a high speed train between Hong Kong and Beijing which takes just 8 hours.
The trip was funded by a certain royal art fund in Sweden (I forgot the name) which contributed 9000 SEK, and a distant relative in Beijing (who passed away some time around 2020-2021 if I remember correctly) who paid for my Trans-Siberian train ticket.
I made the trip in March 2019, which was quite the experience (my first and to date only time in Mongolia and Russia) but also gave me motion sickness.
The project resulted in a tremendous database of videos spanning all the way across China, Russia, Finland and Sweden. However, writing the music proved more challenging, and the lack of an art venue which could offer it open for 10 consecutive days meant the project has been stuck in limbo since.
On a train from Stockholm to Gothenburg
On a train from Stockholm to Gothenburg is the only part of Project Siberia which was completed. The background music is a slowed down version of my symphonic work Northern Nights.
This work was premiered in Gothenburg in September 2019 (?) and later at The Holy Art in London in February 2022.
I’ll make a separate post on this completed work.