BRAINSTORM

VIDEO & LIGHT INSTALLATION

KEFLAVÍK AIRPORT

ICELAND 2018

Brainstorm is a site-specific light installation and video work created by Haraldur Karlsson exclusively for Keflavík International Airport. The piece integrates a central video screen with the building's ceiling lighting system, creating a unified artistic experience that transcends spatial boundaries.

In the central screen component, Karlsson offers a poetic choreographic journey through the brain's physical architecture. Viewers are transported into the intricate inner spheres where external stimuli are received through neural networks and transformed into knowledge and consciousness. The ceiling installation, complementing this exploration, visualizes the brain's functional aspects—rendering thought patterns, creative bursts, and neurochemical reactions into dynamic configurations of light, shape, and movement.

Through this dual approach, Karlsson invites viewers to contemplate the remarkable paradox of our most intimate yet mysterious organ. The installation transforms the airport into a contemplative space where passengers can experience the beautiful complexity of human cognition rendered through modern technology.

Supported by Creative Take Off, Fullveldi Íslands 1918-2018, and ISAVIA. Curated by Kristín Scheving with text by Erin Honeycutt and consultation from Ingunn Fjóla Ingþórsdóttir.

INNARDS

VIDEO INSTALLATION PART OF MY SOLO EXHIBITION “TIME ASIDE”

VASULKA KITCHEN

BRNO, 2022

Innards is a new video sculpture installation rooted in his previous works, embedded with the essence of MRI scans of the human body revealing a world beneath the skin like under an ocean’s surface. Investigating spaces and non-spaces governed by the choice of thickness visibility from the MRIs. Choreographed movements of light and reflections in added and altered dimensions are associated with the viewer’s existing awareness of inner dimensions.

HUGVARP - THOUGHT WAVES

Video Mapping

Gallery Mutt

Reykjavík 2021

Thought Waves presents an immersive experience that transforms human cognition into abstract organic geometry. Inspired by "Hugvarp" (thought-casting), the installation visualizes the architecture of thought through generative art.

The projection displays neural patterns morphing between order and chaos— representing the mind's journey from scattered thoughts to crystallized ideas. Delicate light filaments branch in complex networks while color pulses represent the rhythmic nature of consciousness.

Viewers witness an artistic interpretation of thought processes: bursts of activity bloom like insights, recursive patterns fold inward like contemplation, and fluid transitions mirror the dynamic nature of human thinking.

SNÆFELLSNES

BROADCAST

STATION

REALTIME AUDIO/VIDEO SYNTHESIS

BROADCAST PERFORMANCE

NORDIC

CONTEMPORARY

ART AND ARTZINE

SNÆFELLSNES 2020

...In ‘Snæfellsnes Broadcast Station’, Haraldur portrays a landscape being consumed by the digital, however, it is not only happening on a consumer level, but as part of surveillance culture. “The Icelandic landscape has a completely different meaning after Google Earth appears because now, you’re not alone in nature,”...

...In the context of Haraldur’s previous work with themes of expressing a holistic philosophy of science and art in which art reflects reality in its relation to man, the artist is the anti-hero, using the medium to be more human. There‘s always a Google Earth satellite even in the most isolated landscapes, making the world more known, and giving with ita „human angle“ permeated with the factors of being human, which also means seeing it, as Haraldur does with video editing software, through the historical prism of science and philosophy.

(Excerpt from text by Erin Honeycut)

BRAIN

VIDEO INSTALLATION

GALLERY ATOPIA

OSLO, 2014

Since 2014, Haraldur has been working on videos based on magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and he simply calls it Brain.

In this early milestone of Haraldur Karlsson's ongoing "Brain" project, exhibited at Gallery Atopia 2014, viewers experience a poetic choreographic voyage through the human brain enabled by modern MRI technology. The work invites audiences into the inner spheres of this remarkable organ, where external stimuli are processed into knowledge and awareness. "Brain" represents a significant evolution in Karlsson's artistic journey, emerging directly from his earlier work "Little Solar System" and continuing to expand as a long-term investigation into the visualization of our internal biological landscapes.

THE FIRE

INSTRUMENT

REAL-TIME A/V INSTALLATION. SOLO EXHIBITION

KUNSTNERENERS HUS OSLO 2009

Here exhibited at the Artists House Oslo, the Fire Instrument exists at the intersection of sculpture, installation, and performance tool. This innovative interface harnesses the sensitivity of flames to detect air movements, translating these subtle atmospheric disturbances into precise control signals for immersive 3D video projections and multi-channel sound environments.

Presented as an evolving "work in progress," the project has garnered international recognition, receiving support through grants from STEIM (Amsterdam) and Atelier Nord (Oslo). The Fire Instrument's pioneering approach to natural element interaction earned its selection at the prestigious NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression) festival, where it was showcased for its groundbreaking capabilities in interactive 3D video control.

By merging elemental forces with digital technology, this instrument creates a compelling dialogue between ancient and contemporary forms of expression, allowing performers to shape audiovisual experiences through intuitive movements that interact with the flames.

INTERFERENCE

INTERACTIVE VIDEO PROJECTION MAPPING

VETRARHÁTIÐ

REYKJAVIK, 2021

"Interference" by artists Haraldur Karlsson and Litten Nystrøm is a video work that senses movement from the audience and the environment in front of Hallgrímskirkja, animating the church's basalt-column-inspired architecture. By moving and transforming the outlines, light, and shadow on the church's facade, hidden patterns emerge, playing with our fascination with permanence and transience, reality and perception.

NO BRAIN NO FEAR

INTERACTIVE A/V INSTALLATION

KUNSTNERENERS HUS

OSLO, 2017

"No Brain No Fear" is a collaborative installation created with my longtime colleague Daniel Schorno from our Sonology days at The Hague. This project exemplifies our ongoing creative partnership, which has encompassed workshops, performances, installations, and experimental instrument development rooted in our shared Sonology training.

During our residency at Atelier Nord's Project Space in the Artists House in Oslo, we developed an integrated multimedia experience. Daniel crafted sophisticated instruments responsive to light and magnetic fields, while I created interactive real-time video projections derived from MRI brain scans. By projecting these neurological visualizations directly onto Daniel's physical instruments, we achieved a compelling interaction between the two elements—the digital imagery responding to and enhancing the physical forms.

This symbiotic relationship between the tangible and the virtual creates a multisensory environment where visitors experience the dialogue between physical presence and neurological activity. The installation invites contemplation on how our perception is mediated through both our physical senses and our neural processing, with the brain scans serving as visual metaphors for the invisible processes that shape our understanding of reality.

MOUNT ESJA

VIDEO INSTALLATION PART OF MY

SOLO EXHIBITION “TIME ASIDE”

VASULKA KITCHEN

BRNO, 2022

The work Mount Esja 16 days is an observation and meditation on the mountain Esja and is based on a month-long recording filmed through a window at the Icelandic Art Academy in Reykjavik. Translating hours to minutes, 24 hours to 24 minutes, the 16 days presented in the work is a selection, arranged and displayed simultaneously for comparison on variations of movement, light and color over time. Looking out of a window from time to time has the limitation of presenting a view almost as a still — of just one moment; placing days side by side reveals the uniqueness of every day, how no moment is ever the same.

NEON SCULPTURE

Skolska gallery

Prague 2007

DANCE

My sculpture "Dance" captures the intimate movement of tango through intertwining neon tubes. One red and one blue tube spiral gracefully around each other as they rise from a wooden base, their sinuous forms mimicking the passionate embrace of dancers locked in rhythmic motion. The piece features an interactive element: a small

platform extending from the front holds a candle positioned near a light sensor connected to the neon transformer. As the candle flickers, its natural, unpredictable movements translate into subtle variations in the neon's intensity, making the illuminated tubes appear to pulse and sway in response to the flame. This creates a mesmerizing dialogue between the ancient warmth of fire and modern electric light— the neon dancers come alive, their luminous embrace animated by the candle's gentle dance, resulting in a living sculpture where technology and nature perform together in perfect harmony.

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