Hyperrhiz 12

The Last Volcano / Det siste utbruddet

Roderick Coover

Scott Rettberg


Citation: Coover, Roderick and Scott Rettberg. “The Last Volcano / Det siste utbruddet.” Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, no. 12, 2015. doi:10.20415/hyp/012.me02

Abstract: A story of a catastrophic volcanic eruption and its aftermath is twice told by a woman before the slowly turning image of contemporary urban landscape. As the narrative cycles through a recursion, the woman’s husband attempts to interrupt, questioning the disturbing history and trying to place it in historical time. Though the story references events of the distant past, its setting and telling raise anxieties related to cycles of memory and forgetting.

The Last Volcano was filmed at docks in Bergen Norway using panoramic animation. The imagery of a peaceful and prosperous contemporary urban landscape is juxtaposed with an 18th century account of widespread death and crop-loss caused by an eruption of an Icelandic volcano. The work was filmed during the period of the 2011 eruptions of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano that impacted European air and transport.


VIEW The Last Volcano / Det siste utbruddet


Credits

Direction: Roderick Coover

Writing: Scott Rettberg

Translations: Daniel Apollon, Gro Jørstad Nilsen, and Jill Walker Rettberg

Voices: Gro Jørstad Nilsen and Jan Arild Breistein

Technical: 6:30 Minutes, HD 16:9, Color, Stereo.

Available in both single-play and installation loop formats.

The Last Volcano was first released in the USA and Norway with English and Norwegian subtitles.
It has also been translated and subtitled in French.