“Art is the lie that reveals reality.” Jeroen Brouwers - “Culture, considered as a process, means acquiring a vast deal of useless knowledge, and then forgetting it.” Albert Jay Nock - “The world is full of objects, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.” Douglas Huebler - “In life and in art one has to begin each day anew.” Louis Couperus



Title: Mental expansion of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
1999

 photo by: Peter Cox

Project commissioned by Cals College, IJsselstein with the support of Kunst en Bedrijf, Amsterdam.





IJSSELSTEIN - 'Your attention please, passengers for KLM, flight 837 to Singapore, immediate boarding please at gate B2', echoes though the school canteen. Pupils with rucksacks hasten to their classrooms. The school canteen of Cals College in the Dutch town of IJsselstein was connected live, at varying times each day, with the announcement headquarters of Amsterdam Airport, Schiphol. This audio art-work was provoked by the link between noise pollution around Schiphol airport and the Lopik broadcasting mast, which causes IJsselstein particular nuisance.
Both Schiphol and Cals College are bound to certain rules, but by way of this acoustic link-up they were able to free up some space for one another. Without exceeding the noise limitations, Amsterdam Airport, Schiphol could undergo an imaginary expansion, whilst each day the school canteen became a departure lounge and teachers and pupils at the school could escape briefly in their imaginations. The time at which the link would be made was always unknown, so that the announcements were always a surprise.

Links
  Listen to the announcements in the school canteen

© Sjaak Langenberg