The bells of Voorne/Putten
The artists Lex Wechlaar and Flip Krappendam based their project Thalassa/Anabasis around The journey of Tenthousend from the book Anabasis by the Geek author Xenophon. They projected the map of this journey onto the former island Voorne/Putten, which is situated south of Rotterdam, and allocated if for art. I was asked to do a piece about the area. I was fascinated by the landscape of Voorne/Putten; the vast plains blown over by seawinds, where beautiful little villages are situated and the churches are the only structures that rise above the horizon. In “The bells of Voorne/Putten” I wanted to create a temporary connection between the villages. I wanted to use three different forms of media communication; church bells, telephone and local radio. On Sunday 3rd October the chiming of the church bells all over the island, could be heard simultaneously via the local radio. Realisation of this project was possible by the participation of Radio Voorne in Hellevoetssluis. Performance. Telephone connections in the houses of people who live near church, are brought together by means of a telephone conference. The chairman of the conference is the reporter in the studio of Radio Voorne. In order to get the best use of the telephone system -due to limited sound quality – reportphones are used so that the sound of the church bells can be picked up via an external microphone. All the sound signals during the meeting are received in the studio and broadcasted live. Transmissions take place at 12.00 and 18.00. In this way, the bells of 11 churches on the island, each with its own sound, and its own deviation of exact time, are to be heard in a sound composition that lasts for about 5 minutes.
| year | 1993 |
| brief description | the church bells of this former island sound together via local radio |
| further information | The project was subsidized by the Arts Council of Zuid-Holland.
Special thanks to the co-operators of Radio Voorne, and the people who lent us their telephone line. |