Spiral of Time – Plaça dels Àngels – MACBA

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.

activate the work

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.

with the support of:

_{Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.}

artist

Edwin van der Heide

Edwin van der Heide is an artist, composer and researcher in the field of sound, space and interaction. He extends musical composition and musical language into spatial, interactive and interdisciplinary directions. His work comprises installations, performances and environments. The audience is often located in the middle of the work and challenged to actively explore and interact with the artwork.

He has presented his work at renown museums, festivals, galleries and music venues as SMAK – Ghent, Ars Electronica Festival – Linz, Stedelijk Museum – Amsterdam, V2_’s DEAF – Rotterdam, ICC – Tokyo, NAMOC – Beijing, Transmediale – Berlin, SONAR – Barcelona, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, SFMOMA, FILE – Brazil, MAXXI – Rome, NMMCA – Seoul, SONAMBIENTE – Berlin, Reina Sofia Museum – Madrid, ZKM – Karlsruhe, Art Basel Parcours Night and Donaueschinger Musiktage.

Besides running his own studio he is part-time lecturer and researcher at Leiden University, involved in both the Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) including the Media Technology MSc programme, and the Academy for Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA). From 1995 till 2016 he was a lecturer at, and later also head (2014-2016) of, the ArtScience Interfaculty of the Royal Conservatoire and Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. He was Edgard Varèse guest professor at the Technische Universität Berlin (2009) and won the Witteveen+Bos Art+Technology Award 2009 for his entire body of work. He was an invited artist and guest professor at Le Fresnoy, studio des arts contemporain in France for the year 2011-2012 and guest lecturer in the Master Contemporary Arts Practice of the HKB, Bern University of the Arts in 2019.