A New Sound Sculpture for the Future Diozezesanmuseum Köln .....

"Nicht mehr für Ohren...:Klang,

der, wie en tiefere Ohr,

uns, scheinbar Hörebdem hört

Umkehr der Räume. Entwurf

innerer Welten im Frein.....

Tempel vor ihrer Geburt,

Lösung, gesättigt mit schwer

löslichen Göttern......:Gong

Summe des Schweigenden, das

sich zu sich selber bekennt,

brausende Einkehr in sich

dessen, das an sich verstummt,

Daur, aus Ablauf gepreßtm

um-gegossner Stern....Gong

(from "Gong" by Rainer Maria Rilke)

Summary

This sound sculpture would use the four old bells in the collection of the Diozezesanmuseum Köln as living ears to the present and future acoustical life of the city of Cologne. In a permanent sculptural installation, they would be mounted on the roof of the future Kolumba Museum. Sensitive microphones and accelerometers would be placed inside of each bell to hear the resonant frequencies of the bells as they are excited by the ambient sounds of Köln. At a site to be determined in the future Kolumba Museum, a sculptural installation of loudspeakers would continuously play the live sounds of the bell resonances.

Two types of vibration phenomena will take place in these bells. Resonant frequencies within the air cavities of each bell will be exicited by ambient sound. This air cavity will also act as a filter, redefining the harmonic shape of the urban ambiance according to the physical structure of each bell. The metal structure of the bells will also produce minute vibrations that can be heard by accelerometers that are attached to the metal surfaces of the bell. These vibrations within the bell metal are very musical, and are metallic echoes and pitch transformations of the original sounds. The simultaneous hearing of the air cavity with an acoustic mirophone, and the metal vibrations with the accelerometer will reveal a magical acoustical world within the apparent silence of these old bells.

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This almost magical sense of a space returning to its essence by resounding to itself in an acoustical dream, is much more than a poetic illusion in the yet to be realized permanent sound sculpture called "Perpetual Motion" for the Diözesanmuseum Köln, when its new building opens in the new millenium.

This sound sculpture will use the four old bells in the collection of the Diozezesanmuseum Köln as living ears to the present and future acoustical life of the city of Cologne. In a permanent sculptural installation, they would be mounted on the roof of the future Kolumba Museum. Sensitive microphones and accelerometers would be placed inside of each bell to hear the resonant frequencies of the bells as they are excited by the ambient sounds of Köln. At a site to be determined in the future Kolumba Museum, a sculptural installation of loudspeakers would continuously play the live sounds of the bell resonances.

Two types of vibrational phenomena will take place in these bells. Resonant frequencies within the air cavities of each bell will be exicited by ambient sound. This air cavity will also act as a filter, redefining the harmonic shape of the urban ambiance according to the physical structure of each bell. The metal structure of the bells will also produce minute vibrations that can be heard by accelerometers that are attached to the metal surfaces of the bell. These vibrations within the bell metal are very musical, and are metallic echoes and pitch transformations of the original sounds. The simultaneous hearing of the air cavity with an acoustic mirophone, and the metal vibrations with the accelerometer will reveal a magical acoustical world within the timeless silence of these old bells.