Immersed
In Cube Project, sound and space are one. Four cubes of different sizes stand in a large, dark, square environment lined with sheet metal, where the floor is covered with sand. The space is filled with a constant stream of sounds and silences that blur the sense of time. The audio-visual installation is a collaboration between composer Ton Bruynèl, architect Aldo van Eyck and sculptor Carel Visser. They envisaged a space in which music and sculpture are inextricably linked; the angular shapes, the metal and the tinny, sometimes ominous sound, which starts and stops abruptly, mirror and reinforce each other. The result is an environment in which you are fully immersed with multiple senses simultaneously.
Your own composition
Bruynèl obtained the sound that emanates from the four steel cubes from those same cubes. He used noise to induce vibrations in the steel plates and recorded the resulting sounds. The recordings were subsequently edited into 162 different sound tracks. Distributed across two recorders, these sound tracks are fed back into the cubes, which then produce sound again. Cube Project is interactive; you can turn the knobs on the two recorders. This allows you to choose the combination of sound tracks from the cubes and create your own composition. This can vary greatly; there are no fewer than 6,561 different options.
Collaboration
Bruynèl was a pioneer in the field of electronic music. In 1957 he established the first private electronic studio in the Netherlands. In his compositions, created for a combination of taped and live music featuring instruments and vocals, he brings together electronic and acoustic sounds. Bruynèl often collaborated with visual artists, poets and dancers. For Cube Project, he initially worked with Van Eyck, but the latter’s design for a space with rounded shapes was never realised because they felt the relationship between space and sound was not strong enough. Visser, an important post-war sculptor, created the design that was ultimately executed.