:Empty Spaces During our studytrip to the North, I discovered empty spaces. Empty, yes, but they were quite different from what I had imagined. The spaces opened themselves as empty, not only because they were left behind, or because they were industrial ruins. Some were meant to be empty, others had absence of human scale, one was built into the building (on purpose), others were empty because time and people had moved on. It is difficult to say something specific about why a space is perceived as empty. I will try to point out some of my thoughts around the empty spaces I found on our journey to the North. The empty spaces to me, are the different spaces. The ones I can not understand. The quiet ones. Carrying a story that is not being told. It is easy to understand spaces that are filled up with people, with noise, with energy. What about the opposite. They are. Something absolutely different.

:TimeThe city of Hammerfest was burned by the Germans towards the end of the Second World War. No building was left behind. 1945. Empty spaces are layers in time. They have existed. What is left of them today. All spaces were once empty. All spaces were once nothing.

:SoundscapesThe sound of place. Empty space, does not mean silence. Neither does it mean absence of sound. Sometimes industry soundscapes, absence of nature, or human sounds, are the most empty.

:MethodI found mapping empty spaces challenging. As the impressions of empty spaces are very subjective and about sensing space. It is important to remember that the spaces I have been mentionning, are so much more than what is given in the diagram. On the other hand, this gives us the opportunity to see them in relation to each other, differ-ences and similarities. And opens up for further investigations. With methods such as ex-posing them to opposite realities. Filling up spaces, maximizing or minimizing structures, take them as far out as you can, in order to see how much the space can take. Here are some examples out of my head:

:ConceptsCan the Snow sheds be usefull when there is no snow? Give meaning to the big rock. How to show that it is a big rock. Wrap it in cloth. An object this big in the landscape. Make it bigger. Make it smaller. Vidda. Fill up the landscape with noise from a birthday-party. And many many people. Rockconcert. Rock carvings. Graffiti and young people hanging out in this landscape. Inbetween Kautokeino, filling up the spaces inbetween, inside the building, and around the houses. The poles in the landscape. Fill the land-scape with poles. Empty houses Hamningberg. If the houses could choose, what would they do? Being empty is boring! Hjell. Use the empty structures and make something new, maximize, minimize, or put in a new context. Hjell all over the place.

:The people of the NorthHow they built their settlements. The concentrated resources, the spread living. So much land. Spread living does something to the culture. The hard and unpredictable times does something with the way people are. Constantly being exposed to this big empty spaces, makes it important to be close to other people. The people living in the North, are the contrast of empty spaces. Their attitude towards life fills up spaces.