persisting, absent
The sounding sphere of the Sonnenpark is largely determined by the continuous sound of the power station. The sound installation persisting, absent thematises this continuous sound: Is it noise, disturbing the silent atmosphere of the park? Or sound that can be overheard? Because what permanently is present often fades into the background of our attention. We cannot close our ears, but we are able to block out sounds and filter them out of our conscious perception. In this way, the real soundscape is replaced by a customised one.
In his essay Listening the philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy writes about music: “One can say of music that it silences sound and that it interprets sounds: makes them sound and make sense no longer as the sounds of something, but in their own resonance.” 1
In the sound installation, the continuous sound of the power station generator refers to itself. Noise is silenced and in its own resonance becomes musical material. By electronic modulation of the frequency spectrum of the power station noises, a sound composition is created that is carefully added to the sound sphere in the Sonnenpark via loudspeakers. Its recurring emergence and fading can make us sit up and take notice: to hear what is not heard but is there anyway. In the form of this sonic extension, the auditory perception changes between noise, sound and music.
1 Jean-Luc Nancy, Listening. Fordham University Press, New York, 2007. p. 32 (Originally published in French: Jean-Luc Nancy, À l´écoute. Editions Galilée, Paris, 2002.)