The former custom's house of Maassluis is situated at the point where the Nieuwe Waterweg - the important waterway between Rotterdam and the entrance of the port - meets the pictoresk harbour of Maassluis. The house is now used for exhibitions of art. My contribution to the exhibition program is based on the former function of the house and the movements of ships passing Maassluis in both east and west direction. It also connects with my former proposal Zeetijding from 2000 http://www.toinehorvers.nl/toinehorvers/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=732 presenting real-time data of the movements of ships into public space by means of an electronic text display in the centre of the city.
For one week, each day from sunrise to sunset, I call aloud the names and other information about the ships into the outside area. Thanks to the website of the Maassluis company Dirkzwager Maritime Information Provider I can follow the movements and the details of the ships on my laptop. When a ship is approaching I write down the details on a small form, go out and call the information by means of a horn, following the direction of the wind. The average daily amount of passing ships is 110 -120 I was assisted by Magdeleen van Eersel, Marinus van Dijke, Micheline van Neste, Tessa de Swart and Guus Vreeburg
Calling details: name ship direction passing time call sign nationality port of registration type length overall breadth gross tonnage coming from destination
year
2011
location
Douanehuisje Maassluis NL
brief description
from sunrise till sunset I call aloud the details about ships passing the harbour of Maassluis