georg klein : : listening green

The 'Listening Green' sound installation plays with our acoustic perception of landscape. Interactive 'sound trees' surprise visitors crossing a bridge ('Tälchenbrücke') with unexpected tone sequences. At the end of the bridge, people can then actively listen to the green space using the 'sound telescope'.

The installation topic is the way we deal with alien species in nature, the so-called 'neobiota' or 'invasive species'. In this way, twelve exotic bird voices appear around the bridge, imitated by the instrumentalists of the state opera, who are played in 12 bird duets. And in the sound telescope, the migratory stories of native and non-local animals, which are visually mirrored in the real picture, can be heard in a wagnerian natural mood. A similar question arises as in the social debate about the immigration society: Who is allowed to live here?
In contrast to this, an old paradise fantasy appears, which appears in the sound telescope in four utopian-blue patches in the landscape: 'The Golden Age' from the metamorphoses of Ovid - spoken by Angela Winkler in the style of a reading test. A text which speaks in almost revolutionary terms of a way of life in which people are in harmony in their relationship to themselves and to nature - "unconstrained, without avenger, without law".

The 'Sound Telescope' is based on a Viscope telescope. One can see the real environment in which animal and tree drawings are mirrored inside and their migratory stories can be heard. An angle sensor detects the viewing direction, and depending on which direction you look, you hear another text-music-piece, especially "invasive species": where does the animal or plant come from? When did it migrate to Europe? Are dangers going out of him and what are the criteria for this? And who decides whether an animal or plant species can live here?
As a counterpoint to the factual stories of migrations, natural moods emerge from German operas of Romanticism, a time when nature was not only romanticized, but also nationalistically interpreted ("German Forest"). The music pieces of Wagner and Weber, however, turn around in the course of the spoken text and sound backwards.

The six 'Sound Trees' (Hörbäume) stand around the bridge in a circle, so that a further, acoustic room with six listening directions is created. The sounds are randomly triggered by the passers-by walking on the bridge through one of the three light barriers.The 12 "bird duets" of the installation are compositions from the original bird voices with an imitation by an instrument (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn) by musicians of the Staatskapelle Berlin. Both voices were processed electronically, interwoven with each other and placed in a 6-channel, acoustic spatial structure. Before every bird duet, the original voice of the bird is to be heard first. All birds are non-European species, which have not lived here or have migrated to Europe (like a long time ago the oriole or recently the rose-ringed parakeet from India).

Bird recordings: xeno-canto.org Programming/Sensoring: Georg Klein, Pascal Staudt Graphic/SoundTelescope: Steffi Weismann SoundTelescope/3D/Construction: Viscope (idee concept), Daniel Vogel-Essex (Ozon), Arne Clemens (interzone) Instrumental recordings: Johannes Seibt (State Opera Berlin)
The permanent sound art project 'Listening Green' is the result of a competition organised by Grün Berlin GmbH, IGA Berlin GmbH, and the Orchestra of Change, founded by musicians of the Staatskapelle Berlin. Its realisation is being funded with the support of the Groth Gruppe.

The didactic programs were specially developed for the installation and they use the installation with an iPad control as an instrument and a spatial reproduction station in the park:
Natur klingt gut for children from 7-10 years (Kathrin Scheurich / StadtNatur)
Franky frägt dich for children from 11-15 years (Laura Holke with Rob Brinkmann / State Opera Berlin)
> video documentation: GRÜN HÖREN Workshops