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Architecture  /  England

Sound Mirrors

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01:18  /  04.07.2006
David Barrington
London
A few years back in a bookshop in Rye, (pretty much the only place of interest in the antique shop paradise that is Rye), I stumbled across a book called 'Echoes from the Sky' by Richard N Scarth concerning the history of acoustic sound mirrors that were built along the coast between 1916 and the 1930's.

Fenced off for decades and revered by the local folk as 'listening ears', it's tempting to believe they hid the secrets of sinister military experiments using sonic death rays, but it transpires that they are in fact a forerunner of Radar.

Pioneered by the obsessive Dr W.S. Tucker of the Royal Engineers, the concrete sound mirrors were intended to provide early warning of incoming enemy aeroplanes and airships about to attack coastal towns.

But with the development of faster aircraft and the increasing racket from the holiday resort down the road, the effectiveness of the mirrors twindled as an aircraft would be within sight by the time it had been located. The last nail was finally driven into the coffin of this uniquely English folly by the evolution of radar systems, so by 1934 they had tragically became obsolete.

So summer just gone, I thought I'd make the somewhat ardous trek across the shingle deserts of sunny Dungeness, and take some photos. 		It turns out English Heritage have recently re-developed the site, so whereas before you could walk up to them and happily spray a choice selection of expletives onto the aging structures, they've quite wisely dug a moat. However, you can get access a couple of times a year as Mr Snath organises walking tours.

The mirrors have inspired a few 'spin-offs', featuring in Joe Banks's Disinformation sound art project, Tacita Dean filmed her appropriately titled 'Sound Mirror' film from 1999 there and unfortunately they've turned up on a tiresome Turin Brakes album cover.

I've also heard of an ambitous art project from 2003 by Danish artist Lisa Autogena, which was to create a communications link building two new mirrors, one here and one in France, in an attempt to rescue Anglo-French relations, call me a cynic, but I guess the prospect of local yoofs high on sticks of rock communicating in the best way they know how to the French, kinda ended that project.

Website

Another Website

Lisa Autogena


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The Disinformation sound mirror projects - "Antiphony" double CD (packaging features sound mirror photos by Julian Hills) and "Antiphony Video Supplement" (by film-maker Barry Hale, later retitled "Blackout") were both published in 1997, with the video being virtually identical to later projects by Tacita Dean etc. An "Antiphony Architectural Supplement" was published as a feature in Sound Projector magazine in 1999. Barry Hale's sound mirror video has been shown at NTT ICC (Tokyo), The Royal College of Art (London), Galerie fur Zeitgenossische Kunst (Leipzig), Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt), The Dom (Moscow), and exhibited at The ICA (London), The Mac (Birmingham), Quay Arts (Isle of Wight), Wrexham Arts Centre, South Hill Park (Bracknell), Event Gallery (London), Q Gallery (Derby), The Latvian National Museum of Art and others.

Posted by Mark
15:59  /  06/12/2006


The NEXT sound mirrors exhibit will be at...

Saltburn Artists Projects
30 Marske Road
Saltburn TS12 1QG
United Kingdom
20 Jan to 11 March 2007

Where Barry Hale's "Blackout" will be appearing (as part of the "Fire in the Eye" exhibition by Disinformation). Check further details at http://rixc.lv/waves/en/txt08.html and www.discogs.com/release/117617 :)

Posted by Joe
10:15  /  10/01/2007


Re - "Sound Mirrors" by Tacita Dean, I guess you know that this artist has been exposed as a serial plagiarist?!

Posted by Senser
14:57  /  31/01/2007


A clip of the Sound Mirror video by Disinformation is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsR3qyJDk0c

Posted by Alan
03:42  /  19/02/2007


Thanks for linking to my site (hpoom). I enjoyed my visit to the mirrors and I am still fascinated by them. Glad to hear other people are interested by them.

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15:02  /  08/04/2007


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