Sound Installation

For Berlin’s Museum Night 2011, Imira and I have connected the huge water wheel of the Museum of Technology with several mechanical music boxes. The water wheel drives the music boxes via a very long rope that makes its way in an expressive zigzag course over several pulleys through the museum’s beautiful garden.

The rope is moved by the drive wheel inside the forge. That wheel is directly connected to the water wheel on the outside. A well aligned pulley system inside the wood construction directs the rope around the barrel and outside the window of the little building.

Behind the forge is a little forest where the main part of the installation is set up.

Every second pulley has a musicbox attached. They all play different melodies at the same time and cover the garden in a magic atmosphere.

The looped rope is put under tension with a sand filled bucket. Removing or adding sand changes the tension on the whole system.

Even if it was quite rainy that night, visitors enjoyed our installation a lot!

And here are some sound recordings that I made during the exhibition:

Additional resources

• Album with more hires photos
  [all CC licensed for reuse - Credit: Alisa Kossak]