2001 The “red sound blanket objects” – installation was presented in three little sleeping rooms of the Brotherhood house in Schoorl during the Schok art festival. Schoorl is a little village near the sea with formerly a lot of sheep farmers. The tactile sonic installation existed of three “red sound blanket objects” of different size hanging in the sleeping rooms. The middle bed room was kept empty besides the sound blanket object hanging in the centre.
The soundscapes coming out of this piece of blanket were reflected by the walls of the square room when not absorbed, reflected, changed by the interacting public who could walk around and touch the woollen sound object, hearing and feeling the sounds of the origin: the production process of the “red woollen blanket”. It was if they entered an old blanket factory while hearing and feeling the rhythmic vibrations of spinning, weaving machinery reflecting the sonic heritage of Holland with its important textile industry and large blanket factories, like the “red blanket factory”, until the end of the seventies in the past century. The installation triggered memories and stories about working in and living near textile factories, woollen blankets at home.
In the other sleeping room there was hanging the smallest “red sound blanket object” between the iron bunk beds weaving sounds and words about the production process of red woollen blankets. The sounds were bouncing left right between the beds. The doors between the bed rooms acted like sound faders used by the public and mixing the sounds and information of the production process with sounds from outside.
The third sleeping room was a separated one for meditation. A “red blanket sound bar” was hanging near the wall easily to access for children or adults sitting on a chair. They could hear and feel soundscape compositions like: “factory meditation”, “spinning silence” or “counting sheep”: factory soundscapes mixed with gong sounds, sheep sounds , etc. When the door of the sleeping rooms was open the sounds were mixed with the sounds from out side the Brotherhood house including the sounds of sheep in a little meadow.
touch sound: “I can feel the sound of a sheep!” “bar of blanket”
CD : “red blanket factory” , Ricardo Huisman, all rights 2001 (14 tracks)
You can buy the full album on my Bandcamp page here!
sonic heritage
The soundscapes are reflecting the sonic history of machinery in the 19th century: from hand weaving machine, driven by steam machine, to electric spinning-, weaving-, and knitting machines recorded in the Dutch Textile Museum and in a knitting factory in Hawick, Scotland, Borders.
