The BE OPEN Sound Portal is a site specific installation co-produced with the London Design Festival for Trafalgar Square, the public heart of the UK’s capital. Designed by Arup, world leaders in the area of acoustic engineering, with content commissioned by Sound and Music (SAM), the BE OPEN Sound Portal will become a cocoon from the aural chaos of the city: located in the centre of the square, allowing visitors to step into a sublime environment created only by sound. During the five-day the event, the installation will host five sound artists and their "sound works", ranging from the deepest natural sounds, such as the breaking up of glaciers, to the most contemporary pieces of electronic music by celebrated acts such as Squarepusher.
After its residency in Trafalgar Square, the Portal will be installed on The Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground at Chelsea College of Art and Design, where it will be part of an inter-college project to explore the dimensions of sound in all of its many aspects. The BE OPEN Foundation will commission new sound works from the students that will be launched at the ‘Sounding Space’ symposium in the Spring/Summer of 2013 as part of BE OPEN Inside the Academy, a platform to support emerging talent.
The project is part of the global think tank BE OPEN research into the 5 senses, begun in Milan this year. Sound and Music, the publicly-funded champion of avant-garde music has commissioned five sound artists and composers for the Portal, including award winning Norwegian artist Jana Winderen, radical music pioneer Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher) and a Russian artist sourced in collaboration with BE OPEN, Ivan Pavlov.
