Mark Tholander “The Drums“ (still).

Press Release, March 2021

The Drums is an interactive narrative by Mark Tholander. By navigating with the scroll bar, the visitor moves through a story of a race track where a catastrophic event took place or takes place.

Along the way, one will encounter three songs that mark the dividing lines between the three phases of the narrative. Both in the songs, and in the soundscape of the scenes, drums become an integral aspect of the proceeding, although the drummers themselves are never seen or hinted at. In parallel, an announcer is commenting on the race as it progresses. The story takes form by means of the two directions that the scroll bar indicates — up or down — a constant two-way street. If the visitor scrolls up, a new scene loads, and if the visitor scrolls down, another scene loads. These paths, however, lead towards branches. By looking at the map, it becomes apparent that as the narrative progresses, the parts materialise more and more linearly, like a mass being pulled towards its own gravity. The work thus operates as a vertical line, which is constantly broken in labyrinthine detours, but in the end always returns to the descending verticality towards the end point of the narrative: a finishing line or a cul-de-sac.