While traveling Dakar with Karima, Nika and Martin, each of us wanted to know how this city sounds. Being used to the soundscape of the Senegalese capital, Dakar seemed too noisy to me. While slaloming through its alleys, I was certainly interested in different sounds but I did as if it would say a fixation on metallic sounds. The din of the capital sometimes veils sounds of lucid harmony or
An afternoon of walking and playing.
already at the first presentation after our arrival in dakar, we had a lot of interested visitors. the people in dakar are very open-minded and curious. we also had an unexpectedly large number of visitors to our open studio, a presentation format that is not very well known in dakar. the people from dakar and especially from the neighborhood around the cultural center kër theossane were mainly interested in what
The documented journey of the two calabashes was shown during the open studios.
Rond-point 2 is the result shown during the open studios. The spacial installation is a composition of sounds produced by the resonating aluminum bowl that is played back by two speakers attached to two ventilators positioned across from one another. The turning bowl and the movement of the ventilators are both sequenced into on- and off-phases. The ventilators are rattling, low bass frequencies produced by the air entering the microphones
Just in time, before every thing gets shutdown, we had our open studios at Ker Thiossane. It was a very inspiring time and it is a pity it is already over. I am very greatfull for this experience.
For a work in progress my focus lays upon turning phenomena and shifting soundscapes. Therefore I visited Roundabouts like “jet d’eau sicap” and the lighthouse “Les Mamelles”. Back in the work room I installed an aluminum frying pan turning between two columns reflecting the sounds in space from one end to the other. Two microphones are placed in space and are sending their signals through two speakers close to the
Walking through the city, I encounter many of these bottles flattened by passing cars and pedestrians, to such a degree they have become another part of life in Dakar. We barely notice them anymore, nor do we pay attention to the crunching sound we produce by walking on them.
Two “Calebasses”(calabashes) are joined by a motor and move autonomously on the pavement and soils through Dakar city to meet moving cars, pedestrians and horses on its way. Sometimes individuals stop and watch others ignore and pass. A spontaneous intervention that shows a known object moving unpredictably from one side to the other. The sounds of the environment are merged with the buzzing sound of the motor and the crunching
An installation with speakers, a water bottle, wire,and piezos hanging from a branch of a mango tree. Here to be seen is a test of the movement induced by the magnetic field of the speaker magnets.
Sicap-Liberté is one of the 19 districts of Dakar (Communes d’arrondissement du Sénégal). The cities of Sicap-Liberté were erected as borough communes in 1996. The commune became urbanized from the end of the 1950s with the construction of the six districts from 1958 to 1973 under the aegis of the Cape Verde Real Estate Company whose acronym SICAP gives its name to the locality (Société immobilière du CapVert)………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The soundscape of Dakar is very special. The diversity of sounds that animate this city makes it too noisy at times and too quiet depending on where you are. Between the bleating of sheep, the impact of hooves of horses on the asphalt, religious chants and the roar of traffic, the impression of being in a whirlwind of parasitic noise invades frequently my sound spheres. On the other hand, there
The train in Dakar is a relic like, many other manmade things. Those relics are repaired to be used again but to no avail. In a time when all eyes are on the new jewel: the Regional Express Train (TER) which, for the time being wastes away and feeds upon the dust at the Dakar train station; ‘’Le Petit Train Bleu’’, keeps on trying to assuage the mobility problem in
Religion in Senegal (95% of Muslims, 4% of Christians) and more precisely in Dakar, is a dazzling star that radiates over everything and guides us spiritually to other lands. And yet in our tropics and far from prying eyes, we tend to feel that the population is 100% animist. Truth or lie? In any case, it is near this harmless beach and this monstrous shadow of the ocean liner –
The “calebasse” is THE multipurpose fruit of Senegal. It serves as a bowl for water transportation or food preparation but it is also used for religious ceremonies and as a musical instrument. The “calebasse” and its organic shape become an interesting tool for sound and autonomous movement experimentation. Besides its existing purposes it provides a great isolating surface and reflecting body for introduced or existing sounds of the environment. Besides
Maybe in a dream or in another life Surrounded by the sounds of metal on metal, we find peace in seeing the old anew. Scraps of old cars whisper softly of the things they can become – life after life. From the first week. Walking in the streets of Dakar, with a new group of people, even down streets I have never seen or experienced. I can’t help but feel
and electricity buzzes… work in progress
looking for equipment in a very small market close to the harbor on a very hot day, after a long ride in a taxi from kër, accompanied by an amazing radio voice, sounding like a rapper but just telling the news from today, and the car was shaking like a broken umbrella, the busses rumbled closed by, horses cluttered past and we ended up eating street food. a very nice
