For the entrance hall of the Rolex Tower in Dubai, James Clar created the Rolex Tower Soundwave: a massive sculpture resembling a sound wave, made of stainless steel.

The sculpture is like an abstract name tag for the building, as the artist recorded his own voice, saying “Rolex Tower”. The waveform of this recording in 3D form was then used as blueprint for the sculpture. The sculpture blends in very well with the architectural design of the building:

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There is a small tunnel underneath the railroad in Amsterdam where sounds similar to dripping water come from the walls. The first time I passed it I did not notice it right away, as the sounds are not very loud. But then I realized the experience of passing through that tunnel was more pleasant than usual. I love these sonic surprises and I wish I would encounter more of them throughout the city. 

This Sonorous Bench created by Clint Davis, Jaime Oliver, Jacob Sudol and Chris Warren, all students at the San Diego’s music department of the University of California, is another great example of sound art in public space. Two transducers emit resonance frequencies of the bench, and make it sing. It is not too loud, just a nice, subtle addition to the urban soundscape. 

When an architect designs a building, or a gallery space gets prepared to exhibit works of art, is the role of sound taken into consideration? What if the art in the exhibition consists of sound installations as opposed to visual arts? In Sound in Context, a short documentary by the Sound and Music organisation, the role of sound within the visual arts world is explored. 

People like David Toop, Richard Whitelaw and Benedict Drew, among others, discuss the invisible nature of this time-based medium we are dealing with here, and how many curators and art experts are not used to it. Another subject they cover is the value of sound art. Can it be sold? In what way? Should an artist give away CDs with recordings of sound installations? A very interesting subject which makes Sound in Context an interesting documentary to watch, apart from the soporific way some of these sound artist tell their story (they are probably not used to be recorded in a visual way).    

It is not the latest project by Carsten Nicolai, but this site was not around by 2004, so I still want to share this with you, just because it creates such a beautiful image. You will have to imagine the sound. 

Syn Chron is an integral sculpture of light, sound and architecture. The images projected on the surface of the object are synchronized to sound, and the object forms an acoustic resonance body.