Notes on “Spiral of Time”
Edwin van der Heide
On July 16, 2024, a set of pre-installed microphones began capturing the sounds that animate the vibrant, complex sonic landscape of Plaça dels Àngels in Barcelona’s Raval neighborhood. A lively, multi-purpose gathering place, the square serves as a vital, sometimes controversial space that mirrors the varied ways of living and being in Barcelona. Anchored at MACBA’s Centre d’Estudis i Documentació, this setup will remain in place for at least three years, recording one minute of audio every hour, 24 hours a day, as part of Spiral of Time, a project by artist, composer, and researcher Edwin van der Heide.
Van der Heide is known for pioneering work at the intersection of sound, space, and perception. In Spiral of Time, he brings this approach to Plaça dels Àngels, creating a subtle yet evocative listening experience that lets the square “speak” through its daily rhythms. Thus Spiral of Time unfolds as a layered, ever-shifting tapestry of voices, cleaning trucks, skateboards, and the occasional cricket or helicopter. Far from a voyeuristic snapshot, Spiral of Time offers a gentle, non-intrusive auditory portrait of the square, inviting us to observe changes in temporal and meteorological patterns, the varied uses of the space, and the subtle shifts that occur from day to day. By presenting soundscapes over different intervals—hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly—it helps listeners perceive the scale of time differently and understand how the square evolves with each season and moment.
Spiral of Time thus reveals Plaça dels Àngels as more than just a physical location—it’s an organic, communal space, constantly redefined by its inhabitants. Rather than freezing a single moment, the piece offers a dynamic portrait of the square, allowing us to experience its ambiance as it naturally unfolds and gains complexity over time, reflecting the ongoing pulse of Barcelona’s urban life.
In this podcast, we sit down with Edwin van der Heide exactly three months after Spiral of Time was installed, and just days before its interface becomes accessible to listeners worldwide. Together, we reflect on concepts of time travel and spirals, on creating staged memories and living archives, on the far-reaching sounds that traverse the square, and on the intriguing possibility of expanding Spiral of Time to encompass diverse, non-human landscapes.
Conversation, script and sound production: André Chêdas. Sounds: Edwin van der Heide's "Spiral of Time".
Edwin van der Heide
Artist, composer and researcher Edwin van der Heide expands musical composition and musical language in spatial, interactive, and interdisciplinary directions. His often site-specific, highly immersive installations don’t just take up space: they are a very deliberate inquiry into space itself and into its affordances as an artistic medium and material. Edwin’s pieces create space, modifying its actual and perceived boundaries. They make space present, apparent, and even tangible. In this podcast, we talk to Edwin about art in public space, air pressure, sounds under water, loudspeakers, networks, odd spatial experiences, and sonic phenomenology.
Edwin van der Heide
In this podcast, we talk with Edwin van der Heide about using radio as a way into the public, outside world, and about radio as a highly regulated space that sometimes resists experimentation. We discuss his early interest in short and medium wave radio and how it came to be expressed in these immersive, awe-inspiring installations, and we speculate about the production of meaning inherent in each of them.
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