The space under the high bridge in Burgdorf is certainly the one with the lowest quality of stay in the prospering half-timbered town. Nevertheless, it is widely used: as a passageway, especially by pedestrians and cyclists, but also by people looking for parking spaces and skaters.
The sound of joints and grids
This non-place, characterised by cold concrete, is now given a tonal colouring that transforms and at the same time contours it. The sonic material of this transformation has its origin in this place itself: the rhythmic clacking of the expansion joint produced by the cars driving over it and the sound pattern of the lattice bars at the base of the bridge.
Both sound elements are musicalised by electronic means. The dry initial noises are filtered through 12 harmonies that change every 3 minutes and are distributed spatially to produce ever-changing echo structures. Two further site-specific sounds are added to this sonic "harmonisation" of the city space: the sound of the bells of the nearby Pankratius Church appears every hour on the hour in an irritating musical transformation, and a speaking voice that reproduces an inscription from the Old Town Hall and thematises the survival of an emergency, as we are also currently experiencing as a result of the Corona pandemic.
While the grid sounds when passing through the street area, the voice appears in fragmentary loops in the pedestrian area in front of the installation when passers-by come across the line of interaction. These interactive variations are generated live, so that passers-by can always get caught up in a new game. And every motorist who drives over the bridge unconsciously plays along. The moment of passage enters into the sonic-musical event and at the same time turns the non-place into a place of listening, a place of dwelling in a difficult time.
