| Floating
Islands is a mechanical floating orchestra which was
commissioned for the opening of the Royal Netherlands Embassy
in Berlin. This sound and light piece was installed in the River
Spree, facing the Embassy building. The orchestra consisted
of fifty small floating "sound islands” made up of
fifty vacuum cleaners, plastic bottles and illuminants. The
project was presented by acclaimed sound art space Singuhr -
Hörgalerie in Parochial - Berlin in collaboration with
the Netherlands media art institute Montevideo – Amsterdam.
day : sound night : light
"floating islands" sound-light-installation
staalplaat soundsystem = geert-jan hobijn (nl) + carsten stabenow
(d) & erwin stache (d)
floating islands is a mechanical floating orchestra - a sound
and light
installation located on the river spree in front of the new
dutch embassy berlin.
The orchestra consist of fifty small 'islands' that will float,
sound, and dream.
A 60 by 15 metre formation fixed in the free water space in
front of the mühlendamm-schleuse (locks) opposite the embassy
building.The base bodies of the 'islands' are constructed from
floating red hard plastic buoys. Self-built flutes made from
transparent plastic bottles are fixed on top of the buoys, a
battery of 50 vacuum cleaners is connected with the 'floating
islands' via a hose system. Hanging in a big framework on the
lock island in the middle of the water the battery of vacuum
cleaners breathes life into the flutes like a huge lung. Since
the vacuum cleaners will hang in the framework they will swing
when triggered, thus making the installation more transparent
and pulsating. Each island will have an additional light element
built into the bottles that will, at night, instead of playing
the flute only visually interpret the composition. a specific
composition is created for a permanent all week sound programme.
the orchestra will be controlled from the sluice island. the
steering unit consists of a controller running a composition
and a midi-to-volt-translator triggering a solid-state relays
system. Presented by Singuhr - Hörgalerie in Parochial
- Berlin and Netherlands media art institute Montevideo - Amsterdam
on the occassion of the opening of the Royal Netherlands Embassy
in Berlin
technical assistence: sebastian noth
curator/production: carsten seiffarth
with friendly support by : botschaft des königreichs der
niederlande, mondriaan stichting amsterdam, siemens electrogeräte
gmbh, stichting intro maastricht, ev. kirchengemeinde marien,
wasser- und schifffahrtsamt berlin, pfefferberg entwicklungs
u. verwaltungs gmbh, grafisches büro cyan.
To download pdf documentation on Floating Islands
is click HERE
It was presented at the zomerparkfeest in the Venlo (NL) from
26 till 29 August 2004 , in Stralsund (D) from 11 till 25 September
2004 and at the Happy New Ears festival in Kortrijk- from 10
September till 10 October 2005
Press
Berliner
Morgenpost: Die Botschaft der Flaschenorgel
Berliner
Morgenpost: Musik mit Staubsauger und Plastikflasche
Berliner Zeitung 11-03-04
Leipziger Volkszeitung
Audio
Floating Islands live in
Berlin (long / 25Mb)
Floating
Islands live in Berlin (short / 2,3Mb)
soon video documentation will be online
Original
concept
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