Immitated Stream of Curiosities
The Imitated Stream of Curiosities proposes the re-invigoration of the pleasure farm through the introduction of a trout fishing stream at Bygdøy, Oslo, Norway. The river accumulates ground water through draining the surrounding fields, and will accumulate trout and salmon from the sea by means of a small spawning stream. A set of underground dams are suggested in areas where topography indicates a seep of water when the soil becomes saturated. In addition to providing a haven for the fly-fisherman, the project will provide visitors with an ecological “cabinet of curiosities”.
The Imitated Stream of Curiosities project investigates the possibility of employing the strategy of the "wunderkammer" to reassociate man with nature through a set of built intervention aiming at blurring the categorical boundary between artifice and nature. The blurryness of the built interventions will trigger a reassessment of the governing conception of a polarity between nature and artifice, and hopefully reveal the potential benefits and necessity of human participation in an ecology. The project uses fly-fishing as a narrative strategy, and seeks to display the aesthetisized ecology that has resulted from the fishing of trout by means of imitating a natural insect occurrence. The fly fisher tends to release his catch, as he "understands it", he has successfully communicated with the trout through it's positive response to his suggested fly. The project explores the idea of unravelling a understanding of ones place in an ecology comprised of both nature and artifice by means of built interventions and their narrative potential.
