Jan Otto Ertesvåg

The reality of beach snails is not that much different from human lives, filled with an intricate interplay of social interaction and solitude, curiosity about the world and its rigid rules, fleetingness of life and the resilience to go on.

Animation of pieces of plastic found on the shore.

How happy can you be? is an attempt to make the practical manual – “Your guide to happiness” by using a modern, scientific approach: science, practical empirical attempts to measure happiness.

The sea and the fjords used to be our main road, National Highway No. 1. Now that everyone drives a car, the water is an obstacle, and at night the sea can seem strange and dark to us. But the undulating surface of the water reflects all light sources from civilization. We become part of the reflective waves, while we experience sounds from a night in the coastal town of Ålesund: storms, Hurtigruten at the quayside, and people's life in the nightlife along the quays.