Leestekst
The Amsterdamse Bos is home to a rich symphony of sounds that usually escapes our attention. In their joint project Eavesdropping on the Forest, sound artists Maaike van der Linde and Dario Calderone make this hidden world audible. Through eco-acoustic research, they reveal the sounds of insects, underwater life, nocturnal life and soil life. Calderone and Van der Linde invite you to actively listen to the world around you, both to their special recordings and with your own senses beyond them.
This is how you experience Eavesdropping on the Forest at its best:
- Put on your headphones or earbuds.
- Click or scroll to the Listening Station where you are.
- Play the audio track.
- The questions under “How do you listen?” challenge you to listen to the recordings, your surroundings and yourself with new ears. Are you up for it?
The seventh (and last) Listening Station is inside visitors centre De Boswinkel. Tip: pay a visit to the toilets...
Listening Station #1 | Inside the snake's nest
How do you listen?
Find a place by the waterside where you’d like to sit down.
Close your eyes for a little while and take a few deep breaths: in through your nose, out through your mouth. Take your time, there is no rush. Let sound travel to you.
What do you hear? Are there any sounds traveling to you from over the water? Can you imagine the time it took the sound to travel to you from its source?
Do you see the waves; where did they originate? Who started them? Can you make a sound that will travel to the other side of the water? Who do you hope hears it?
Walk to the snake nest at the beginning of the small path next to ‘boerderij Meerzicht’. It looks like a big overgrown pile of sticks and leaves. If you dare, you can sit or stand close to the nest. Can you hear your own heartbeat? Can you hear your breath? Listen to the audio track of the sounds inside the snake’s nest. Do you think the waves of the sound of your feet reached the inner ears of the snake?
Listening Station #2 | The Hill
How do you listen?
Can you close your eyes and let yourself enter darkness, until no memory of light flashes into your eyes? Can you imagine being part of this darkness, abandoning your fear, playfully?
Can you listen now to the space that surrounds you? How is the acoustic of this space? Could you define this space just by listening?
What is the farthest sound that you can hear? Are you hearing it or just imagining it?
Make a few small steps, as slow as possible, keeping your eyes closed. Can you listen with the soles of your feet?
What do you smell? Does this smell bring back some memories? How does this memory sound?
Listening Station #3 | The Small Pond
How do you listen?
You are at the Small Pond now, the Kleine Vijver. Does this place remind you of something?
If you close your eyes and listen, what sound captures your attention mostly? Can you follow this sound until you notice a change? Can you now add to your field of attention one more sound, and then another one, until you can include all the sounds that it is possible to listen to, all at once?
Perhaps some of the sounds are pitched. Can you listen to the chord that they make together? And can you also include the sound of your breath in this chord, along with the pulsation of your heartbeat? Can you imagine the roots of these two big poplars, how they are entwined?
Can you imagine listening to these two trees, talking to each other non-verbally? Do you have, or had, or want, in your life, a relationship with someone else similar to the one that these two poplars have?
Walk as slowly as possible on the hill, outside of the human path. Can you walk slowly on the paths of the rabbits? While walking on this path, can you listen to all the sounds as if you were a rabbit, listening for potential danger or predators? Can you follow the paths of the ants living here? Can you imagine being an ant and listening or sensing like one of them?
Listening Station #4 | De Poel
How do you listen?
If you take off your shoes, what do you listen with your feet? And with your back? Which sound makes your chest resonate? And your neck? Your head?
If you were a water cicada, how would you listen to the steps of the humans, and to the airplanes? Can you listen to the space around you?
Can you listen to how the wind shapes its path through the reeds? Can you listen to one single sound until you notice a change?
Can you use your imagination to combine as many pitches and resonances from the wind, the traffic, and the airplanes to create your own melodies?
Listening Station #5 | The Yellow Meadow Ants
How do you listen?
You’ve arrived at the Metropolis of the Yellow Ants in Amsterdamse Bos. We live underground in tunnels under the hills in this field: we are many, even when you don’t see us. Please sit down or lie down; we won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt us.
Can you hear us?
Can you imagine hearing us?
Can you imagine being as small as us, walking through our tunnels?
Which sounds travel to you from further away?
We ants listen too: we have ears below our knees, and those vibration sensors send signals to our brains. We feel the sound… Can you feel the sound too? With your feet when you take your shoes off, with your hands, with your whole body?
Do you smell something? Do you have a memory or feeling connected to this smell? Are you part of a big community like ours?
Listening Station #6 | The Schinkelbos
How do you listen?
What is the loudest sound that you can listen to here? How would you measure the energy of a sound without a measuring device? How does your attention influence the energy of a sound?
Here is the city of the sky, where we, the birds, create a soundscape together with the airplanes. We have included, without any fear, this more-than-animal sound into our soundscape. Can you also listen to all the sounds, all at once, without judgement?
Can you listen to the sound of your uncomfortable thoughts? Can you include them into all that you can listen to, like the birds did with the airplanes? Can you dissolve these sounds into the whole?
Can you imagine sensing or listening as if you were a water cicada? What would you listen to? How would you recognize the sounds coming from outside of the water?
Locations Listening Stations
At locations 1 to 7, you will find the Listening Stations of Eavesdropping on the Forest. Number 7 is located in the toilets of De Boswinkel.