RECYLCLED SOUNDS: the Audio Igloo.

An acoustic space: a building made from electroacoustic boxes . A room of my own - a sound space created from disguarded modern junk - the battered and disguarded artefacts of modern age. Relics temporarily salvaged from a metal schredder«s grinding teeth.

The boxes are not unlike the frozen building blocks of an igloo - when put together they turn into a dome-like space.

A room within a room : the Parochial Church as a refuge for homeless speakers. Thanks to the efficiency of the German recycling system (and sponsorship of BRAL Reststoffbearbeitung GmbH and Rethman AG) 400 loudspeaker boxes have been recycled into a new home: a habitat for listeners of avant-garde music.

Along with the speakers I have also collected radio tuners, record players, and guitar amplifiers - all of these have been re-soldered into a new structure of not just recycled electronics , but also recycled sounds (unseen sounds from the air: electro-magnetic waves). A chorus of electroacoustic souls whispering their last prayer.

We are allowed to enter this room, our body-resistance brings warmth into this media confessional, the sounds change around us - or is it our imagination?

The installation ends on the 12th of December and all 400 speakers will be returned to BRAL Reststoffbearbeitung GmbH - the final cycle of their fate.

Benoît Maubrey
Baitz 2004