An interactive sound experiment for the Dover Arts Development Digital Festival by Lucas Levin.
Numerous sound layers of varying intensity are mixed together, including:
- Construction work
- Heavy traffic
- Public transport
- Children playing
- A quiet street
- Beata Progenies by Leonel Power (1370 - 1445), an English sacred motet in a piano arrangement performed by Yi-Shing Cheng
- Sounds from a forest
As each person listens, they erode away the layers. As more people listen, the work progresses from being primarily loud, city noise to only the quiet sounds of nature.
This is happening at every moment of listening; thus the start of the work is likely to be more eroded than the end. Periodically, it is rebuilt, with all the layers reforming.
The musical focus is motet, yet it is nearly impossible to hear while all the layers are in place, and it is, ultimately, also eroded away.
Additionally, there is a short phrase for each layer of erosion. In a sense, it forms a non-linear poem - it is likely that the first line displayed will correspond to a certain amound of erosion, and the following lines will progress backwards as the erosion lessens towards the end. However any order is possible - even showing only one line for the whole work.
This work is a response to upcoming (commencing 2022) redevelopment of the Maison Dieu in Dover, England. I was very privileged to be given a behind-the-scenes tour of the ongoing preparatory research and discovery process before the restoration commences, and one aspect that made a particularly lasting impression was the rich layered history that can be found in such an ancient building.
In more than 800 years of use, it has been a hospital, a military base, storage, courtroom, prison, general meeting place and place of government. The very walls are palimpsests, with patches at the time of my visit uncovered to reveal ancient tiles, decorations and paintwork from its past.
The Leonel Power's motet is very likely to have been heard many times in the Maison Dieu.
Thank you for reading this far. There is an easter egg if you play the work 10 times.