FLUGSPUREN 2020
The bell ringing of its time, as an almost unique sound feature in Central Europe, had an unmistakable influence on the time, structure and location of the church as well as on the congregation. Today, the ringing of many village and town churches only gives us an impulse in the sound space of modernity. The sound mark "bell ringing" has been replaced by industrialisation and tourism with their acoustic side effects. In order to trace the flight tracks acoustically, the overflights were recorded continuously from the same position over a specific period and recording frame from spring to autumn 2014.
In March 2010, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in Iceland. In mid-April, air traffic in Europe came to a standstill for a small window of time... Not only were there no aeroplanes in the sky, the world of sound also changed considerably during this time.
Almost 10 years later, on 22 March 2020, the federal and state governments decided on a contact ban to contain the new coronavirus. The associated rules were enforced up to and including 19 April 2020. Contact and curfews were also imposed at a global level. As a result, global air traffic was reduced to an absolute minimum. Almost all aircraft remained on the ground during this time.
How does the sound space change when an entire society stays at home?
When 95% of air traffic is reduced?
When the need to drive your own car to work is eliminated?
When the garden/backyard/balcony/window becomes the centre of life?
In the period from 28 March to 15 April 2020, the same listening (flight) room, same backyard, was acoustically recorded at intervals as in 2016. In a further step, the recordings were layered in a system and the temporal level was condensed to a period of just under 15 minutes by compressing and overlaying the individual soundtracks. The temporal and spatial compression thus reveals the acoustic quality of the soundscape and, in contrast to air and car traffic, traces a return of natural and social space. And the ringing of the bells suddenly takes centre stage again...
The work was first shown in 2021 in the exhibition Mattering Oil /Klima2+ at the Norsk Teknisk Museum Oslo in Norway.