Hubertuspark Geluidswandelingen
Collaborative soundwalk created for Hubertuspark (The Hague, Netherlands) by students from the Institute of Sonology under the guidance of Justin Bennett. May 2010.
Hubertuspark is near Madurodam, on the way to Scheveningen. Formerly an area used for hunting and artillery target practice, it was built between 1930s and WWII. The park gives the impression of being much larger than actually is because of the winding paths, its unusual height and varied vegetation. Hubertuspark consists of a forested area interspersed with large sand plains, remnants of ancient sand dunes and a few villages.
I contributed to this soundwalk with two tracks, each of them made for a specific location in the area and meant to be experienced on headphones while walking.
#2: Hubertustunnel
“Second track in our walk, starts in the benches area, an elevated viewpoint from where one can see the road. Towards the left we find Hubertustunnel, which runs under the dunes in the park. It was inaugurated in Oct 2008 after a few years of drilling works and with its 1600 meters long, works as a fast connection between Scheveningen and A4.
Walk from the benches above the tunnel, getting into the forest, then left and stop at the sand pit.”
Track based on recordings of the vibration/sound produced by the traffic crossing the tunnel, as captured within the ground of the park and through the security handrails inside the tunnel, using an accelerometer and geophone.
A visual/auditory connection is created during the experience, the rhythms of the cars passing as seen from this location coincide and overlap with the rhythms and resonances of the same traffic in the piece, which gets more blurry and textural as the listener walks into the forest.
#3: Bloedberg
You are now in the sandpit. Turn and face again towards the direction where you came from into here. Look further in the distance. Do you see that unusually high hill and its long staircase at the end of the path? It is called a ‘blood mountain’. Built with the effort of unemployed people many years ago, it is the highest point in Hubertuspark. Press play and continue walking towards the top.
This track plays with the notion of distance, the insertion of extraneous sound into the location and the act of walking the long path and ascending such an unusually high landmark. Speakers playing shepard tones were placed on top of this ‘mountain’ and the same proposed walk was then recorded binaurally on location. That recording constitutes the base for the track, which creates in the listener the illusion of walking towards a disquieting sound, which gets louder and more intriguing as one approaches the top. However, the mysterious sound source is never found, ultimately remaining invisible, such a ghostly presence.