In honor of astronomer Johannes Kepler, O+A created a sound cosmology, Garden of Time Dreaming. On the 400th anniversary of the city of Linz in Austria, this cosmology played throughout the gardens of the Castle of Linz. 400,000 visitors attended.
Commissioned by Ars Electronic and the Schloss Museum.
At this point in time (1990), with borders falling, roles reversing, technology exploding, nature besieged, human understanding overwhelmed, frailties exposed – we ask the same question Kepler asked. Can humanity find a harmonious way to live in the cosmos?
Garden of Time-Dreaming
Yes, but what is it?
It’s a personal cosmology of time, space, and dreaming, dedicated to the life and work of Johannes Kepler and the people and history of Linz.
It’s meditative space where the visitor explores and finds his own path through geometries of sound suggesting planetary orbits.
Sound environments shift as sound “movies” in time. Sounds change from dawn to night time from moon to moon and from spring to fall so the installation grows like a true garden.
Alchemy, Science, what next? Notes from a Time-Dreamer
In the process of developing the initial idea into Garden of Time-Dreaming O+A had many experiences which came into the piece. From the start, perspectives must be human judged in relationship to nature.
So O+A visited the ancient Anasazi ruins of the celestial city at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. These people lived in a type of “Harmonica Mundi” where all the important events of their society were aligned to the motions of the sun, moon, and heavens. Their city ruins offer ample evidence of construction oriented to the sky.
Recordings made at this time such as Sunne, and Narrend Mond, present a completely different feeling of time and space than recordings made in New York and Europe. O+A returned determined to make the Garten der Zeiträume as a round-earth project.