Spiral of Time
Sound is intangible and ephemeral, yet it can be one of the most distinguishing characteristics of the places it inhabits. Spiral of Time is a site-specific work, created and developed by the Dutch artist, composer, and researcher Edwin van der Heide, that explores sound and its relationship with space and time. This is a participatory time-based work, where meaning is created through active listening and the navigation of each person. The work is integrated in this page and can be accessed below. Furthermore, it will also be presented as an installation towards the end of 2025.
Installed on the façade of MACBA’s Research and Documentation Centre is a dedicated microphone setup that registers the ambient sounds of the Plaça dels Àngels, recording one minute of every hour of each day for a period of three years. The resulting sonic archive, organized by time intervals, allows for different ways of understanding the idiosyncrasies of the museum’s immediate surroundings through its cyclical sound patterns dictated both by nature (day/night, seasons and weather), as well as human-defined parameters (weekdays, weekends, holidays).
The archive builds a sonic portrait of the place, through which the patterns, often imperceptible in real-time, are revealed through the sounds captured in different moments. From birds chirping in the early morning, to the clanking of rubbish being cleared or the rolling wheels of a skateboard, all these sounds and impulses form part of the square’s soundscape. Spiral of Time uses a web-based interface that offers unique ways to navigate through the recordings at different speeds, with time visually represented as a spiral, providing an intuitive overview of hours, days, weeks, months, or years.
By choosing a specific path through the spiral, users can perceive and discover new relationships between sounds and time that are unique to the site’s context.
Learn more about Spiral of Time and Edwin van der Heide.
