︎


A Choreography of Fog






This research has evolved around the phenomenon of fog. It started out with an extended walk through Bergen, when I observed and felt the weather on my body, and how it was changing over time. In addition to physically feeling the weather, I got intrigued by the fog, and how it was changing the landscape, manipulating my view. Had I not known the city from before it could have affected my perspective and perception of the city this day. When I was asked which mountain was the highest one in Bergen, I could not point to the top when giving my answer, because the highest peak in the landscape of Bergen this day, as well as the other nearby, mountains were hidden by a cloud of fog. No doubt they were there, as always, but not a part of our vision at that day.

Something permanent was obscured and manipulated by something temporarily, just for a moment, or maybe over a period of time. I was fascinated by how fog could hide and reveal parts of the environment, changing the view and perception, and thinking of how the experience would be different in various conditions or relating to time. Due to fog the context was manipulated and changed over time.

The underlying intention for the project springs out of the current situation in society, which is characterised by a fast pace, economy-based production and consumer-focused system, where the value of quality of life and contemplation seems to be less important. Jonathon Porritt writes:

An essential attribute of our progress model - in which consumption substitutes for quality of life - is that the faster you can do something, the better it must be... Far from improving the quality of our working lives, there is growing evidence that this progress is making us more miserable and more stressed

Jonathon Porritt



The project proposes an intervention that promotes awareness and slowing of pace, reconnecting with nature and the present moment, becoming more mindful. It aims to interrupt our focus, like a mental threshold. Interrupting, to start to challenge a single reading of the city, society and the set way of thinking and viewing time.

My explorations focused on the development of an architectural drawing method, that would allow me to design with and through the fog. It revealed the potential of highlighting specific details within a spatial design, while obscuring others, depending on the location and density of the fog as well as the observer’s position towards or within it.

The research and explorations will be used to inform a design proposal, for an outdoor park. The fog park will be a choreographed timed event so that it changes over time. There will be four different events, relating to the natural cycle of the sun, connecting it to nature. In this way, the fog events will connect the participants and observers back with nature by making them aware of the natural cycle, the seasonal changes, natural light and by putting artificial fog in an urban setting, while fog is a natural phenomenon.

  1. Jonathon Porritt. Too Many, Too Fast?, in: Tim Aldrich (ed.) About Time: Speed, Society, People and the Environment, Routledge (2005).↩













Cut-out collages representing initial site and idea. Looking into the layering and depth of the site, spanning from one side of the water to the other, two opposite views. Representing foreground, middle ground and background. Cutting out the man-made structures, to divide the view, leaving nature and the factors that influence the creation of fog like the body of water and mountains.















White fog on grey canvas. Creating and representing fog digitally after observations and collage work of different variations of natural fog found in Bergen, looking at what is already there. The horizontality of the natural fog becomes visually clear.  





Modelling up a framework and using a fog device to create artificial fog in a set context. Here looking into how fog will move out from a narrow long gap, close to ground. It is slowly seeping out in a calm manner in waves, before being influenced and carried up by the wind.










Stone object in fog, looking at how the form of the stone informs the form of the fog, and how the fog is concealing parts of the stone, giving it new form visually. Hollow tunnel object in fog, focusing on how the form and cavity is informing the fogs movement and form together with the calm wind conditions, helping create a direction.










In fog, there is form. You can see the cut-out outline of the handle bar and tube, and the form of the fog itself. The different levels of density also have their own form, that together create the overall form of the fog. The drawings show the changing density and form of the fog as the result of movement. Sequence of form and visibility over time. The wind is influencing the movement.















Looking at profile, form, gradient and tones of grey. Experimenting using digital distortion and tweaking through image trace. Looking at how a strong silhouette is blurred by the fog / gradients of grey. Fewer shades of grey equals more distortion of the profile of the building. Pixilation is what changes or influences the most. The form of the building is not clear and strong, but blurred.