Sound Installation at History Museum Graz – how it was. space and history

The temporary exhibit, “how it was. Space and History,” is one piece of a four-part provincial exhibition in the Austrian state of Styria which showcases the region´s cultural heritage on the first floor of the History Museum in Graz. The 500 square meter exhibition, spanning from the beginning of our era to the 20th century, aims to make ancient traces of historic architecture, landscapes, borders, legislation, and society legible and visible. The sound installation, created and produced by 13&9 Design (Severin Su and Martin Lesjak), is a key element contributing to the multidimensional visitor experience. The two-tier composition is based on an abstract and a narrative sound layer. The abstract layer emphasizes the spatial and conceptual design themes – densification and complexity, and scaling and acceleration – consisting of three elements: drumbeats, noise, and heartbeats. A deep droning drumbeat doubles its tempo and rhythm room by room, chronologically in time, resulting in a techno beat towards the end, signifying the scale and acceleration of life and human territory on earth. Starting with 30 Hz frequency in the first chamber, the noise begins to continuously layer and multiply, the further one progresses in the exhibition circuit. Initially harmonic, the frequencies cumulatively start to disharmonize, representing densification and complexity as well as the growing imbalance of the relationship between humans and nature. The heartbeats, the rhythm of life and therefore time, guide the visitor through the exposition, getting louder, more present, and finally exponentially faster, resulting in the ultimate questions: What is forthcoming? What remains? The narrative layer accompanies the space with sound effects that mirror the atmosphere of each period while also referring to specific exhibits.