The word "panorama" has two meanings. Its first meaning is derived from our sense of vision: "An unbroken view of a surrounding region." The origins of this meaning come from the Georgian era painter Robert Barker, the first person to use the phrase in modern terminology. "A complete survey of a subject or sequence of events" which is closest to our version of the word's meaning. The constituent parts of the word are derived from the Greek pan, meaning "all" and horama meaning "view."
PANORAMA is a representation of a continuous experience rather than of a single moment in time. A traditional visual panorama is a projection of a 360 degree landscape-so the viewer can feel they are present the moment the picture was taken. PANORAMA is a representation of every second of a three hour journey of the Vistula river as a never-ending photograph with surround musical accompaniment.
More than that, PANORAMA is a continuous journey.The Vistula in Warsaw is no typical river. Unlike the Thames or the Siene, this river does not pull the city to its banks. There are no major attractions here. You see very few people milling about. From a boat you do not see very much of the city. It's almost as if it envelopes you, protecting you from civilization.
In this continuous journey the music mirrors the composition of the river. Time reads the panorama continuously like a score, from left to right. The river is the composer and the sheet music. Each bridge signals a new song. Each part of the landscape: river, trees, sky and man-made represents a part of the composition.
The sounds were chosen to symbolize each part of the landscape and the bridges separate the musical movements. Instead of choosing to reveal the history of the river, the composition expresses the character of the landscape through the reflective passage of water. It is this passage of time, and the journey that it represents, that I sincerely hope comes across in this work.
For more about Panorama please visit jan kubasiewicz's site for an in-depth explanation of the project.
contents ©2009 colin owens