The Sonic Agency of an Architecture
The Whalesong Project – Eindhoven
2022
Geolocated Sound Walk
Location: City center of Eindhoven
Duration: ∞ (depending on listener)
documentation: Thijs van Gasteren
I see buildings as instruments with their own agency. This work is a sound walk accessible in the city of Eindhoven via the smartphone app ECHOES.xyz. From field-recordings, I took at de Fabriek during my residency in 2022, I created a geo-located spatial composition, with a radius of approximately 2 km. The work emphasises the particular sound qualities of the old book binding factory and the sounds that it creates by itself. Through the movement of the visitor, different compositions are generated. Like in a cubist painting the spectator experiences the sound-objects scattered, simultaneously, and overlapping in time and space while approaching the building.
You can enter the audio walk by downloading the echoes.xyz app and traveling to the city of Eindhoven in The Netherlands. For further information please visit:
The Whalesong Project on ECHOES.xyz App
The Whalesong Project (at Dutch Design Week)
2022
Installation
microphone, tripod, headphones, printed entrance cards
dimensions: variable
duration: loop
During the Dutch Design Week, I presented the geolocated sound piece ‘The Whalesong Project’ with an installation. This installation served as an entrance to the sound piece, inviting the visitors to pick up an “entrance card” from the ground and scan a QR-code to start the walk. Next to the walk, it was possible to listen to the building in the same way I did during my recording sessions. Via headphones connected to a high-sensitivity microphone the listener was able to hear even the most subtle cracking and creaking sounds the building produces by itself.
The “entrance cards” to the walk where printed with photographs I took during my residency at De Fabriek. While the field-recorder was recording I had to wait long stretches of time. I used this time to explore the building and its surroundings with my camera and discovered secret landscapes, interesting relations between inside and outside, as well as between nature and architecture.
