Sound Installation

in situ

2014

They are not cut yet but their luck is already sentenced.
About 60 trees leave their home in the north wing of the Weimarhallenpark to make room for the new residence of the Neues Bauhaus-Museum.

Birds, bats, banks and the others trees will say goodbye to this group of future outcasts.

adieu is an interactive sound-installation that wants to offer the opportunity to Weimarers and other habitants of the city that usually dwell this park to join this mourning’s chorus and begin to say goodbye to the each other.
If the plan is accurate, only five trees located on the other side of the road will survive in its current position and they will be the witnesses of the announced arrival of the new neighbour of 30 meters.

 

Weimar in Germany has currently nine big parks and the Weimarhallenpark is the only one in the centre of the city. This park was and is a very popular venue for adults and children.

On the other hand Weimar is very well know for be the first quarter of Bauhaus, the school of art founded by Walter Gropius in 1919. Since 1995 a temporary building houses the Bauhaus Museum Weimar that shows a small part of the collection that represent the architectural style of Bauhaus.

Around 2008 the city began planning the construction of a new Bauhaus Museum to replace the existing today, which is too small to host the complete actual collection.

After a huge competition and the redesign of the district planning law the winner was chose in 2012.

Around April 2014 Mr. Röhrich an inhabitant of the city, who grew up and has lived most of his life in the surroundings of the Weimarhallenpark area, contact me with the aim to create a strategy that allowed him to make duel with his memories an the new changes.

The construction of the Neues Bauhaus Museum will remove Mr. Rörich’s preferred wood bench in the Weimarhallenpark as well as the sixty trees that are behind of it. When we began to talk bout his feeling was clear that the result of our actions would be therapeutic art.

The first strategy was to visit the park regularly every Sunday between 11 and 14 hrs. In those sessions, we interviewed locals about their memories in the park as well as their opinion about the site chosen to the construction of the new museum.

I taught to Mr. Röhrich how to manage a Blog and between April and May 2014 he wrote the texts and I was in charge to the sound recordings. The title chosen by him was: Bauhaus oder Hausbau?.

On this process I noticed how the opinions about the places were more frequent than the memories of the place, also because many of the interviewees not grew in Weimar, they arrived in the city after.
Despite the difficulties was possible to collect some of the recollections and create an album, named Bürger zum Weimarhallenpark.   

Our fieldwork led me to a few insights that have implications for design an interactive installation and the potential ways of using sound in public spaces and creates an intersection between memory and time.

As the future of the trees is that they will be cut in the autumn of 2014 I choose the Sunday 28 of September as the day to install the piece.

adieu consisted in nine audio tracks of branches being cut with mowers an the sound of trees falling on the grass.

The original idea consisted that at different distances, different audios will be activated with the pass of the pedestrians, but the constant overlapping of tracks showed that it was better to use a single composed track.

The audios were reproduced in the site, and a red and white construction tape was installed around the area of the trees that will be cut, pretended to foresee the future outlook of the area and evoke in the citizens a spirit of solidarity with the trees as well as a moment of mourning and farewell.

Also I provided some yellow labels where people could write messages and leave them hanging in the trees.

Technical Aspects:

To the Audio Installation I used one board of Arduino Duemilanove with a WaveAudio Shield, the use of the Arduino AF_Wave library and a SD card, nine uncompressed 22KHz, 12 bit, mono Wave (.wav) and a pair of head speakers, also a PING))) Ultrasonic Distance Sensor.

For the Audio edition I use the programs Cubase LE AI Elements 6 and Audacity.

 

Audio

01:56
2014

Bells from there and here

Audio Composition with recordings made ​​by Sonus Syllabarium of San Francisco´s church bells in Bogotá, Colombia and records made by me of the Catholic Church´s bells Herz-Jesu and its surroundings in Weimar-Germany.

Sound Installation

in situ

2013

  

Childhood memories mapping of Weimar is a project that glides to be constituted by some interviews to the inhabitants of the city of Weimar, in order to compile the recollections of the infancy and create a ”cartography“ of childhood memory.

 

The main focus of the project is to create a sonorous memory file only of the infancy period: It is  also a work and a model that shows how a mapping of memories can look.

Interviews:

° My name is ... and I am 46 years old and grew up in Weimar. The loud, aggressive mumble of the Soviet attack helicopter is actually the most dominant sound of my childhood in Weimar. We lived near the approach flight path of the Nora’s airport, the largest Soviet helicopter squadron that was stationed in the GDR. Nohra is a few minutes' flight from the former inner-German border therefore it was so loud. The noise of the helicopter ́s rotors was so loud that talks had to be aborted and the windows clinked in the flats. The television was no longer possible and also you could not hear the radio. The Russians were flying on Sundays and holidays during the night. They often came unexpectedly and abruptly, and just when nobody expects them, then they came flying. Due to the low altitude, the volume was unbearable. Especially our parents and grandparents were reminded of the war. The noise was overwhelming and threatening. It always made us very angry, because it impaired quality of our lives greatly. For us, this was a demonstration of power and strength, and was shown that the Germans lost the war. We were helpless and we could do nothing about it. We had to actually endure it. 

~

  
 

 

° My name is ... I am 46 years old and was born in Weimar. I remember, like many people who have grown up in the GDR, sirens howled every Wednesday at 13:00.

That was a sharp loud noise, a high-pitched and annoying. I think it lasted about half a minute. It was silent at first, became stronger, calmer and then again, louder. Sometimes, I was on my way home from school. Sometimes, I was still in school. It depended on how long I had school every day. This tone, this siren had the task to warn people of a danger. Today they are also used by the volunteer fire department in smaller towns and villages. Every Wednesday, the sirens were turned on in order to confirm if they were working. They wanted to know, they work technically flawless. I think these sirens also had a psychological ideological task. The population, the people in the East and in the West (in the west, there were also those sirens) to inform you that we live in a time of the Cold War. In the 80s, the nuclear missiles were stationed first in the west, the "Pershing" in the East were adapted by nuclear Soviet missiles and for the Germans, certainly this was a problem. Their land was equipped with the most dangerous weapons that exist in general, and of course there was a hand of government interest, the people is prepare for this upgrade, this deployment to take part or at least tacitly accepted what was happening around them.

These are my memories of a special sound from my childhood. I think there could be many other more telling about it. Especially the people who were tasked to check these sirens maybe and of course the war generation, who had many memories of sirens, because every time air raid was when the Allies came with their aircraft, the population was indeed warned. Today I still remember that sound, because you can hear it on the land or in smaller cities, as I have already said still. Every time when the members of the volunteer fire department be called to duty. Always when an accident happened on the road or when there is a fire somewhere.

*Pershing: medium-range ballistic missil

 ~

 

  
 

° I am 41 years old. My childhood memories of Weimar's been next to a church. I distinctly remember the bell of the church., As one of my recollection and the cooing of pigeons. There were many pigeons around on the street and in the attic. I have lived in the attic and another childhood noise is the old Trabant in the former GDR, but the noise is gone, yes.

~

 
 
° 44 years old, Weimar. The noise that I can remember, I heard every Wednesday 13:00 ó clock to 13:00 ó clock, because at this time the City fire fighters tested the siren, should be available in the event of the fire alarm and all in our age or in that time lived in the city in this land did know that, because the Nationwide was always Wednesdays 13:00 ó clock, once, and perhaps it could be heard one minute.

~

° My name is ... I am 50 years old and grew up in Weimar. I remember very well my childhood. Which was very nice. I grew up in a southern part of Weimar. Between the houses were many large gardens and our school was quite long. It went up to Upper Weimar and the home of our garden, where many dogs lived. So, I remember the sound of the dogs, balls, particular things, and many bird voices, lots of birds screeching all the way from home to the school. Well, that was about 20 minutes every day, which we had to walk, and you have so few cars or traffic heard, if not more experience nature. That is at least my memory that way.

~ 

° My name is ... I am 49 years old. The sound I've often heard as a child and I like to remember is the violin lessons and the auditions of violin playing at the Belvedere Castle. In my childhood in the 70s has there establish the music school. So, at that time a music school where children from all over the GDR learned an instrument, and when I walked there (I grew up in a village nearby, walked into Vollersroda and we are often on weekends there) I've always thought as a child, how nice it must be , if you can take violin lessons and can learn at this school. Later, as a teacher in 1988 I have also applied for a job as a teacher. Unfortunately the place had just occupied. The tone I remember, I still like it.

~

The work started with the drawing of the map on an area of 2,35 x 2.18 meters. The map shows almost the entire area of Weimar, and with the use of different colours, it is possible to identify the places where the owners of the sonic-memories located them.

Until now the map shows seven different colours, meaning that the map represents seven different memories. From each of one colours hangs headphones, where it is possible to hear the owner of each memory describe it in German.

 

Next to the map is a pedestal where people can find transcriptions of the memories in English, to make the audio accessible to a larger audience.

The last layer of the map shows a series of cables that represent the associations between memories. In order to visualize it, I used a tool development for the Turkish artist Burak Arikan, especially created for mapping relations. The results is a kind of spider web that is possible to see on-line: graphcommons.com/

Once that I made this web, I translated it to the physical map. That is why the cables travel in and out of each area of color.

~

 

Installation

in situ

2012

 

The SED Bezirksparteischule* in Erfurt, Germany is for me a building frozen in a particular moment of history - the GDR time.

Walking in the building, the space evokes in me a game of chess. The intervention took place in the long corridor on the right side as soon as you enter the building. The installation consisted of an ambient arrangement of two chairs, one is still directed to the table, the other indicates that the occupant has left the game.

 

One chess clock still running for Whites sits upon the table, and ceases for the Blacks an unfinished game of chess, where only the pawns are present on the board.

  

In chess, some plays or games have a special name. Time, Space & Power is one of those names, named by Henrik Danielsen, the‪ game was played in 1964 in Amsterdam between the Russian Mikhail Tal against the Bulgarian Georgi Petrov Tringov and I chose this name because it fits perfectly with the history of this building.

Time, Space & Power by Henrik Danielsen

The intervention also invited the spectator to be there one minute in silence in order to hear the chess-clock and synchronize or stop partially their “times” like that of the building.

Special thanks to Mr. Daniel Wanzek the director and organizer of the chess tournament in Erfurt 2012.

*Bezirksparteischule

Installation

in situ

2012

Weimar in Germany is a city that has had at least 70 fountains throughout its history. Currently, only about thirty of them survive in good condition.

My interest in the fountains arises upon recognizing the city as a silent place that is invaded by the sound of water sources. After going on a tour of the existing fountains and those that disappeared I decided to work with a single fountain, a work of German Sculptor Arno Zauche: the Froschbrunnen (frog fountain), a relatively new fountain that replaced an older one.
The intention is to realize an intervention in the fountain, to evoke the story Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich (Frog Prince) collected by Grimm’s Brothers and allow children and adults have a different experience with this work that is part of the city.

 

Special thanks to Ms. Christine Tauro of the Weimar City Council - Urban Development Office - Conservation Authority and to Mr. Thierfelder the Fountains Master.

°°°°°°°°

Weimar ist eine Stadt, die in ihrer Geschichte mindestens 70 Brunnen besaß. Derzeit sind nur ungefähr 30 davon in gutem Zustand.

Mein Interesse an den Brunnen entspringt der Erkenntnis, durch sie die Stadt als einen stillen Ort wahrzunehmen, in dem das Geräusch von Wasserquellen eindringt. Nach Besichtigung der bestehenden Brunnen und der Beschäftigung mit den bereits verschwundenen, habe ich mich entschieden, mit einem einzigen Brunnen zu arbeiten, einer Arbeit des deutschen Bildhauers Arno Zauche: dem Froschbrunnen. Es ist ein relativ neuer Brunnen, der einen älteren ersetzte.

Meine Arbeit beinhaltet eine Intervention am Brunnen, welche die Geschichte vom Froschkönig oder vom eisernen Heinrich (Märchenprinz) der Gebrüder Grimm, an die Oberfläche bringt, um damit Kindern und Erwachsenen eine andere Erfahrung mit dem Brunnen zu ermöglichen.

Besonderer Dank geht an Frau Christine Tauro der Stadtverwaltung Weimar - Stadtentwicklungsamt - Untere Denkmalschtzbehörde und Herr Thierfelder der Brunnenmeister.

°°°°°°°° 

Weimar en Alemania es una ciudad que ha tenido por lo menos 70 fuentes en toda su historia. En la actualidad, sólo unas treinta de ellas sobreviven en buenas condiciones.

Mi interés en las fuentes surgió al reconocer la ciudad como un lugar silencioso que es invadido por el sonido de las fuentes de agua. Después de realizar un recorrido por las fuentes existentes y aquellas que desaparecieron, decidí trabajar con una sola fuente, la obra del escultor alemán Arno Zauche: the Froschbrunnen ( la rana fuente), una fuente relativamente nueva que sustituyó a una anterior.

La intención es realizar una intervención en la fuente, para evocar la historia El Rey Rana o Enrique el férreo (Der Froschkönig oder der Eiserne Heinrich) recogida por los hermanos Grimm y permitir a los niños y adultos tener una experiencia diferente con esta obra que es parte de la ciudad.

Un agradecimiento especial a Christine Tauro del Consejo de la ciudad de Weimar - Oficina del Desarrollo de la Ciudad - Autoridad en Protección de Monumentos y al Sr. Thierfelder Supervisor de Fuentes.

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