Open square, city hall square, Copenhagen

Part of the exhibition 'Out of Nowhere' curated by John Wynne and Michael Madsen, June 1997. Michael initiated Lydd/Galleri, a gallery working with sound and music based around the construction of a system of 25 loudspeakers built into the paving of a section of the enormous city square near the City Hall. The speaker system is driven from a small studio space underneath the square. Each individual speaker is under the control of an automated routing system from a control and routing system in the studio. For 'Open Square' a microphone was positioned about 150m away from the speaker grid and the amplified sound of the square was fed to the speakers in real time. This gentle amplification was programmed to fade in and out in irregular intervals, one moment it would be there, another not. This situation allows an awareness for the casual visitor that something is very different acoustically. Often a minimal and subtle presence, the results could be at times startling - a loud bus starting up near the microphone position - the City Hall clock chimes with an audible and distinct delay - a sudden invasion of invisible pigeons