Jan Haubelt, The Listening Station

 

 The Listening Station is a project focused on deepening visitors' awareness of, and engagement with, the landscape. This heightened experience is initiated by shifting the participant's point of observation and amplifying the sounds of the surrounding environment. The Listening Station itself is essentially a simplified giant ear, installed in an elevated position on a structure that allows visitors to climb up and remain within it. From this vantage point, they are naturally drawn into the unfolding life of the landscape, creating the conditions for a focused and authentic experience of a particular place and moment. 

The Listening Station is a project focused on deepening visitors' awareness of, and engagement with, the landscape. This heightened experience is initiated by shifting the participant's point of observation and amplifying the sounds of the surrounding environment. The Listening Station itself is essentially a simplified giant ear, installed in an elevated position on a structure that allows visitors to climb up and remain within it. From this vantage point, they are naturally drawn into the unfolding life of the landscape, creating the conditions for a focused and authentic experience of a particular place and moment. The Listening Station—its ear-shaped form—operates on a simple and well-established principle of analogue sound capture and passive acoustic amplification. This physical principle was used historically, for example by the British in coastal areas during wartime in the form of acoustic mirrors, which served as early listening devices before the advent of radar. The project is funded by the Culture Has a Green Light programme of the Škoda Auto Endowment Fund, in cooperation with NCSU.