Kortrijk

In October 2007 the installation was presented in Kortrijk, Belgium. It was part of the sound installation trail Klinkende Stad within the Happy New Ears festival.

A shop window of a former hairdresser at the corner of the Vlasmarkt formed the scene. The visual part of the installation was inspired on the barber pole. The red-white-blue bands of a turning barber pole seem to constantly move up and down. This optical illusion can be compared with the acoustic illusion of the Shepard tone. A Shepard tone is a sound that is composed of sinus waves in successive octaves, placed on top of each other. The acoustic effect is created by attributing a specific volume to each sine wave. In this way an illusion is created whereby the tone keeps moving upwards or downwards, while in reality the tone stays the same. The Shepard tone formed the basis of the audio part of the installation. To each of the 12 surfaces a hairdressers' sound was added.
The former hairdresser was brought back to life: on the location itself as well as on the worldwide web.