Rivierenland
Busy waterways, including the Waal and Lek rivers, as well as the Amsterdam Rijn kanaal. In Leerdam, there is little or no evidence of this hustle and bustle. Apart from a ship transporting sand for the glass factory, the Linge is used for pleasure sailing and little else.
I had been invited by the Kunststation (art center Martina Florians a.o.) to design a sound sculpture for the city, and I opted for the idea of broadcasting sounds within the city that characterise the busyness of the waterways and beyond, as an element of the surrounding landscape.
In the center of Leerdam, an antenna was placed on the church tower of the Grote Kerk. Four receivers would scan the signals coming from all wind directions of the mariphone communication between inland shipping and ships traffic points at the locks, bridges and waterway junctions. At the top of the church tower, a loudspeaker was placed for each wind direction.
The public were invited to climb the tower and to walk around at the top, so as to view the landscape and listen to the mariphone announcements on the loudspeakers. At the entrance to the tower, the public were given a map of the surrounding area on which were pinpointed all the VHF radio posts associated with the stream of announcements to be heard. When facing in any given direction, visitors could listen to the announcements coming from the radio posts in that particular direction.
The visitor was thus able to listen and scan the landscape, and get a feeling of the enormous activity going on in this region, so rich in waterways that flow quite close together through a flat lowland area, somewhere between the mountains and the sea.
year | 2000 |
location | Leerdam NL |
brief description | mariphone-messages from the surrounding waters made audible on top of the church in the center of Leerdam |
curator | Kunststation (artist-run space) |
photography | regional weekly magazine Rivierenland |
project or event | Quack-boat-clock |
technical | Haman Telecom Services Asperen |