'a Knocking Bird' 03.03.2013

‘a Knocking Bird’ is an urban and e-culture project with an ecological engagement, organised by CC Sint-Niklaas, WIT Urban Team (www.wit-urbanteam.com) and noTours (www.notours.org) in collaboration with the Colour U, several international sound artists and environmental and ecological organizations.
Curator: Geert Vermeire.

The pilot of this project happens between March and September and invites the residents and visitors of the city to a new urban experience with participation and with locative media.

Points of departure are a series of creative meetings with residents and artistic urban interventions by WIT Urban Team, next to an European event with fifteen residents from different European cities to explore nature in the city of Sint-Niklaas during a residency of a week. Their visit will be transformed in artistic results and in personal contributions about nature and city.

A “city sounds”-concert on the Day of Europe May 9th in the City Museum of Sint-Niklaas will present the Spanish artist TRES with a “Black Out Concert” in which he will “switch off” the museum completely, in search for silence in the city. The Colour U will translate Sint-Niklaas and other European cities into sound with urban soundscapes.

Via participation of the residents and contributions of the European visitors the project will focus on an aural experience of the city and on the creation of a soundwalk with an alternative and creative tour of the city.

The soundscapes are loaded into an audioguide with gps and activated when you approach certain locations. Once you switch on the audioguide you only need to walk. You are surrounded by soundscapes which come and go according to your movement through the city. Available from the 15th of June till 15th of September.

A project by CC Sint-Niklaas with support of Grundtvig, Lifelong Learning Programme, Education and Culture, Europese Unie.

© Geert Vermeire