Compression in a sea of tension 2.0
Proposal Munich Olympic Park 2022
The olympic hymn also known informally as the Olympic Anthem, is a choral cantata by opera composer Spyridon Samaras with lyrics by Greek poet Kostis Palamas. The anthem was performed for the first time for the ceremony of the opening of the first edition at the 1896 summer olympic games in Athens, Greece. In the following years, every hosting nation commissioned to various musicians the composition of a specific Olympic hymn for their own edition of the games. The Munich Olympic games had in fact the first instrumental anthem performed. In this tradition I want to introduce an instrumental hymn for the Olympic Park and its visitors to reflect and celebrate life. Performed as an ongoing process only by natural elements as the wind, the sun and the clouds passing by.
This environmental soundart installation is the result of research about a diversity of combinations of sound and construction in which the whole consists of pressure and tension in a same way Frei Otto designed the typical roof construction for the Munich Olympic Stadium. With a small breeze of wind the strings on the vertical aluminum tube are vibrating and therefore generate sound. The string and wind principle is derived from the ancient Greek Aeolian harp. The land where the olympic games have started. Both the construction and the way of generating sound are therefor connected to the surrounding olympic site. The sound creates an image of the prevailing winds at the Olympic Park lake and gives a rich variety of characteristic wind-like tones.
After visiting Munich for the very first time I was already very impressed by the atmosphere of the 1972 Olympia Park with its beautiful designed Olympic Stadium. The sound composition generated by this artwork is a homage and constant changing hymn to Frei Otto, like his beautiful construction design also this artwork is depending on the forces of nature. Despite the tragic history and where the olympic site is build on I thought about a resemblance with this artwork. Both depend on certain conditions in order to flourish. I can see and even feel that the olympic park is here because of that. The same with this artwork, uncontrollable weather conditions determine the ongoing and constant evolving sound composition. It is hard to predict when and how exactly it will sound. If there is no wind at all the artwork will remain silent. Here the earth is singing the song.., we have to accept the conditions and find the beauty in what it will bring.
A total of five sound installation units, like the olympic rings, will be situated in the Olympia Park lake and spread out on top of the water surface. In order to perform and interact with the natural surroundings and weather conditions like the wind and the sun, these units produce a wide variety of windy singing sounds. Here the direct sunlight, the wind and its variety of speed will manipulate the windy sounds by connecting parameters to it. This sound will be amplified by a small speaker and special contact microphones inside the vertical aluminum mast which works as a resonance chamber. So even when there is only a small breeze one can hear the soft windy sounds of the singing strings. For the power of the amplifier, speaker and electronics two solar panels are being attached to the mast. Without the sun only the wind will produce a variety of sounds.
But when the sun starts shinning something magical will appear because the windy sounds will be manipulated and amplified in all kinds of ways. Because of the solar energy even passing clouds will effect the composition. Therefor the whole installation reacts on natural elements and the more input it gets the more the artwork starts interacting with the surrounding nature and the audience.
Construction of the artwork:
The artwork construction is based on the Tensegrity principle developed by architect Buckminster Fuller. It doesn’t need any bolds or nuts and is kept firmly together with steel cables as a very stable construction. The vertical mast hangs completely free of its legs. It’s a system in a stable self-equilibrated state comprising a discontinuous set of compressed components inside a continuum of tensioned components. "A tensegrity is a set of strings that keep the construction together and the sticks apart."
size artwork: 5 - 8 meters tall
materials: stainless steel, aluminum, electronics, solar panels, speakers
location: Munich Olympic Park, Germany
client: Munich Municipality, Munich Olympic Anniversary Committee
__________________________________________
Compression in a sea of tension 2.0
Sound sculpture proposal for desert landscapes.
In the 2.0 version research is being done about the involvement of the sun and the clouds being used as a natural sequencer, whereby an amplifier with a speaker is also incorporated in the main mast so that the sound is electronically influenced, whereby the wind and the sun determine the parameters that precede it. must be used. As a location, research is being conducted into desolate areas that are subject to erosion and that have a strong relationship with the theme of nature versus culture, such as advancing deserts.
The sound installation units are the result of research about a diversity of combinations of sound and construction in which the whole consists of pressure and tension. With sufficient wind the nylon strings are vibrating and therefore generate sound. This will be amplified by the hollow aluminium tube which works as a resonance chamber. The string and wind principle is derived from the Greek Aeolian harp. The sound creates an image of the prevailing wind and gives a rich variety of characteristic wind-like tones.
year 1.0 version: 2018
Materials: Aluminium, monofylament nylon, wood, steel wires, inox, bitumen coating.
Size: 4 x 4 x 6 meter (wxlxh) (per unit)
_____________________________________________
The sound of scape
Commissioned by Municipality of Pingjum and Marne Art Foundation Friesland, Netherlands in the year 2018 - 2020
The farmer and his business currently determine the landscape. Perhaps his machines can literally bring back something from the historic dike. A new dike could form a base, in the middle of the fields, where tower residences referring to the potato crates and give the opportunity for contemplation on this vast landscape and its constantly changing elements.
The residence is also a permanent sound artwork that is controlled by the elements of wind, sun and clouds, to the rhythm of the Marneslenk landscape. Slowly, unexpectedly and unpredictably, ceaseless and changing soft-sounding sound composition unfolds that can be observed from the rest of the room or while walking. The sound source consists out of big ceramic singing bowls produced with clay of this area. Water tumblers which will be filed with water by waterpumps directly connected onto solar panels will hit the ceramics in certain intervals. The artwork tells the story about the entanglement of past and present; connecting land and sea through the elements, the disappeared Marneslenk, the Pingjumer Halsband and the Boer with beet and potato.
Audio stories from farmers and other villagers about their landscape experiences will also be collected. These stories get a place in an audio library in the residence.
location: North West Friesland near Pingjum and Waddenzee.
execution: sketch design in development
client: Stichting Marne Art Friesland
curator: Wout Hoogendijk and Anne Reenders
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Cella Semiosis at new Astrazeneca HQ
A massive sound sculpture of Corten steel with a skin of 22.000 chrome bell caps located under an Oak tree. Located at the UK Cambridge Science Park in the public courtyard of the new headquarters building designed by Herzog & De Meuron.
This sketch assignment was commissioned by AstraZeneca and Herzog & De Meuron, located at Cambridge Science Park, United Kingdom in 2016.
AstraZeneca is a Global innovative-driven biopharmaceutical company where they do fundamental scientific and hi-tech medical research. It's a world wide collaboration of scientists in a collaborative working environment with state of the art laboratories situated around a massive courtyard garden with Oak trees.
Under one of these Oak trees this steel sound sculpture is situated as a huge metal nerve cell covered with 22 thousand bicycle bell caps composed by hand. In autumn a connection is being made by the falling acorns on the bicycle caps of the sculpture.
The sculpture is derived from a human nerve cell; the fundamental units that make up the human body. Nerve cells transmit information between different parts of the body. Forming networks of nerve cells through which signals, or synapses, can be sent. Like the collaboration of scientists to share knowledge. Resemblance between action and function of nerve cells and AstraZeneca. They both connect and communicate.
Design and context of the sculpture:
Organic shape connects and refers to the surrounding nature and human body. The chrome reflection refers to reflection of glass architecture. Both designed and constructed with mathematical forms. It acts like an intermediary between the architecture, people and the garden. It connects with all surrounded elements. It refers to the human body in the pentagram Relationship to the golden section, common in nature, art, science and architecture. The Bell cap skin refers to the shape of human skin cells. It reflects and mirrors its surrounding nature and colors.
There is a physical connection with one of the Oak trees by its bell caps. It gives a sound of falling acorns in autumn and gives a sound of a hailstorm in winter. The open ends of the four tentacles avoid a closed mass character and the tentacles are pointed towards the surrounded laboratory as a visual connection. Spreads over the garden and follows the curved lawn. The sculptural body tries to communicate and connect with people. It functions like a huge bench, a meeting place and it invites people to use it, it attracts and interacts.
The connection with oak tree on the north side creates shadow in summer to sit on, it provides sun light during the winter to sit on and it creates an intimate square as a meeting place.
Human scale of the sculpture
The height of the sculpture is only 40 – 90 cm and has a huge variety of shapes and heights when walking around the sculpture. Only 4% of the grass surface is covered by the sculpture and it replaces other benches on the lawn in order to meet each other.
The complete skin is made by human scale bicycle bell caps. The chrome protection layer gives a therapeutic feeling to sit on and they have a cuddly character and unique feeling to sit on. The bell caps act like pixels who reflect the colors and natural surrounding.
_____________________________________________
Sound Architecture 5
Commissioned in the year 2014
'Sound Architecture 5' in Surrey, England at the Hannah Peschar Gallery and Sculpture Garden. 5000 bells on a bed of moss. The higher bells will sound by a strong breeze and in autumn the installation will be played by the falling acorns of an nearby Oak tree which is hanging high above the installation.
The complete installation is made without a plan. The hole idea is to start somewhere in nature and let it flow while working on it. The structure and composition reacts on the shape of the landscape and the trees of the garden.
One must be lucky to be a witness of the sounds being produced. Acceptance plays an important role in this work.
Measures: 10 x 3,5 meter wide, 10 - 100 cm height.
Materials: metal, 5000 chrome bicycle bell caps
Completion: march 2014 (permanent sculpture)
Location: Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden, Black and White Cottage Ockley, Surrey, England
Design and production: Ronald van der Meijs
© Ronald van der Meijs - All rights reserved. Please contact for image reproduction.
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Even the sparrow has to practice
Commissioned in the year 2014
The location of this permanent sound work is situated near the NAXT music building in Almelo city, a building where young talented musicians can make use of rehearsal rooms and perform in the concert hall. The artwork is a marker point on a crossroad leading to a new residential area along side an industrial estate and it has several similarities with the music building. A certain transformation process is going on amongst the users. Both structures have an anonymous exterior. Above all they both have rehearsal rooms where sounds or music is produced. In the Naxt building by talented musicians and in the sound artwork by the sparrow. One can regard the work as a sound-art work in which nature produces the sounds.
The shape refers to certain industrial objects and former dovecotes. The specific form and plan of the tower creates a dynamic perspective. The image appears to move just as the people who are passing by.
The work consists entirely of natural materials. A oak supporting structure and a tower of Spanish slate. All materials are left untreated so time and the weather conditions will affect its colors over the years. Also here a slow transformation process takes place. Besides the fact that the artwork is home to the sparrows, it is also accessible to people by crawling in the slate cutout. On the inside of the tower is a staircase leading to a half way up service platform. For the bird association to maintain the nest boxes and for visitors (lovebirds) who just want to stay inside looking for shelter or something else... To provide natural light inside the tower it’s lifted with the oak beams. The concrete slabs will reflect daylight into the top of the tower.
Materials: oak, plywood, concrete, zinc, slate.
Measures: 6 x 2,7 x 1,85 x 1,43 m (h x l x w x w)
Completion: december 2013
Location: Kolthofsingel, Almelo, Netherlands
Commissioned by: Municipality of Almelo, Netherlands
Curators: Art committee Almelo
Design and production: Ronald van der Meijs
© Ronald van der Meijs - All rights reserved. Please contact for image reproduction.
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Obscura Reverse
Commissioned by: Drenthe Province in 2012
An architectural construction gives insight into the structures, formation and transformation of peat landscapes in the Netherlands.
On a busy main road in the Drenthe province in the Netherlands, is an architectural object marked by the transition from the area of production landscape (agricultural and peat) to consumption landscape (tourism and recreation). Entitled 'Obscura Reverse', the work by artist / designer Ronald van der Meijs refers to camera obscura, a early projective chamber and precursor to the photographic camera: the work, instead alludes to the history, structures and transformation of the moorlands and peat pervades the area. Peat and its extraction have determined the landscape of the province of Drenthe on a large scale and made it habitable. An oak structure frame underlies a glazed skin and brass form based on the veins of a leaf and meandering lines of a map. The fine lines of the village cartography transform into structures of decayed plant remains in the peat landscape. The sculpture's glass container faces a nearby highway and allows the work to further incorporate the presence of contemporary infrastructure.
The oak-beamed structure is clad with epoxy-lined peat discs. The structure refers to a traditional agricultural roof that is so prevalent in the production landscape. The peat tiles are all spaced slightly apart so the light can shine through them. On the inside of the roof whimsical lines of light show abstractions of the drainage systems and subdivision of the moorland what was required for peat production. Both the oak construction as the peat discs will be transformed by the weather conditions. After a rainstorm, the peat and oak will become dark colored, while dried again with years of sun, these materials lighten in color and become moss-covered testaments to the changing landscape and the micro-worlds within them.
More information and interviews about al the sculptures along the N34 highway. N34-kunstroute
Obscura Reverse was nominated for the International Prix de Triennial Lanchelevici 2013.
For integration of monumental sculptural art in urbanism.
Musée en Plein Air du Sart-Tilman, Université de Liege, Belgium.
Materials: Oak wood beams, concrete, peat, epoxy resin, brass, glass, metal and lexan sheet
Measures: height 4,2 m, length 12 m, wide 3,5 m
Completion: december 2012
Location: parking area Vogelpoel at the N34 highway near Coevorden, Netherlands
Commissioned by: Drenthe Province (Netherlands), CBK Drenthe, Taak (former SKOR)
Curators: Nils van Beek, Monica Boekholt
Design and production: Ronald van der Meijs
© Ronald van der Meijs - All rights reserved. Please contact for image reproduction.
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Arabidobsis Synaptic Transmission
A sculpture in the wintergarden of Europol headquarters in Den Haag.
Commissioned by Atelier Rijksbouwmeester, Rijksgebouwen Dienst The Hague, Netherlands in the year 2011.
One of Europol's main tasks is about information management and technology. It has to support the member states as a complex and international organ with hi-tech information systems to communicate with great efficiency and effectiveness. One could say Europe is a complex living organism that tries to grow and survive in an effective, harmonies and human way. Where Europol is an important organ to manage al kinds of information to do so.
The concept should be an intermediary between the garden, the building, the people and function of Europol. Starting points for the design are Europol as a communication organ, architectonical technology and the winter garden as location. As a symbiosis of nature and technology.
The reason that plants communicate is in a way metaphorical to the communication activities of Europol; According to recent scientific research, plants communicate on all kinds of levels to optimize their lives. Plants have developed a signalling apparatus with both chemical and physical communication pathways. Plant neurobiology is a newly emerging field of plant sciences. It covers signalling and communication at all levels of biological organization and from molecules up to ecological communities. Plants are intelligent and social organisms with complex forms of communication and information processing. Plants are able to recognize the identity of herbivores and organize the defence responses accordingly. The chemical communication in and between plants is complex. More than 20 different groups of molecules with communicational functions have currently been identified. For instance, up to 100,000 different substances, known as secondary metabolites, are actively used in the root zone. Plant roots and plant shoots detect environmental signals as well as development levels and communicate over long-distance pathways.
The area where a new shoot is coming out of a branch serves as an example for the shape of the sculpture. It can be seen as a metaphor of a natural expanding network, development and growth. The shape of the sculpture is organic but also technically constructed and refers to the architectonical roof construction of the winter garden. The honeycomb cell structure of the skin refers to the cells of a plant but also to modern engineering because of its very strong and light weighted structure. Also every change in day- and artificial light will cause a variety of light and shadow patterns into the skin because of its translucent honeycomb material.
As a metaphor for the chemical signalling of plants, the sculpture is sprayed with human pheromones. The male armpit has been hypothesized to be a source of human pheromones. A pheromone is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting outside the body of the secreting individual to impact the behavior of the receiving individual. There are alarm pheromones, food trail pheromones, attraction pheromones, and many others that affect behavior or physiology. Pheromones also exist in plants: Certain plants emit alarm pheromones when grazed upon, resulting in tannin production in neighboring plants. These tannins make the plants less appetizing for the herbivore.
Arabidopsis is a small flowering plant related to Cabbage and mustard. This genus is of great interest since it contains thale cress, one of the model organisms used for studying plant biology and the first plant to have its entire genome sequenced. Changes in thale cress are easily observed, making it a very useful model. Synaptic Transmission also called neurotransmission, is the process by which signaling molecules called neurotransmitters are released by a neuron, and bind to and activate the receptors of another neuron. Neurotransmitters are used to communicate the signal from one cell to the next.
Materials: PPE plastics, plywood, acrylic paint, steel, pheromones.
Measures: largest diameter: 2,6 meter, total length: 14 meter
Completion: febr. 2011
Location: Europol HQ, The Hague, Netherlands
Client: Atelier Rijksbouwmeester, Rijksgebouwen Dienst Dutch Government, The Hague, Netherlands
Curator / adviser contemporary art: Hans van den Ban
Design and production: Ronald van der Meijs
© Ronald van der Meijs - All rights reserved. Please contact for image reproduction.
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Twenty feet Equivalent Unit ( t.e.u. )
Commissioned by Stadsdeel Amsterdam Oost and Rona Mathlener Projects in the year 2008
This location-based installation is a metaphor for our industry standardization. Everything around us is completely automated. Also the global transportation and container harbours. TEU; 'Twenty feet Equivalent Unit' is the unit of a standard shipping container and is also used to indicate the capacity of a container ship and container ports. The location is a former cargo port in Amsterdam, which disappeared with the arrival of the container. This harbor was not suitable for container vessels. When it gets dark, the container is illuminated from the inside and the transparency of jute skin refers to the vulnerability of the many dockworkers who used to work there. In the background a continuous loop of modern container terminal sounds is being played.
Materials: metal, old jute sacks, polyester, timers, fluorescent lighting, sound system
Measures: 600 x 240 x 260 cm
Completion: 2008 (commissioned for 1 year)
Location: Old harbour area at Cruquiusweg 0, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Organisation / curator: Rona Mathlener Projects
Photography: Titus Brein (picture 1 and 3)
© Ronald van der Meijs - All rights reserved. Please contact for image reproduction.
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Proposal Munich Olympic Park 2022
The olympic hymn also known informally as the Olympic Anthem, is a choral cantata by opera composer Spyridon Samaras with lyrics by Greek poet Kostis Palamas. The anthem was performed for the first time for the ceremony of the opening of the first edition at the 1896 summer olympic games in Athens, Greece. In the following years, every hosting nation commissioned to various musicians the composition of a specific Olympic hymn for their own edition of the games. The Munich Olympic games had in fact the first instrumental anthem performed. In this tradition I want to introduce an instrumental hymn for the Olympic Park and its visitors to reflect and celebrate life. Performed as an ongoing process only by natural elements as the wind, the sun and the clouds passing by.
This environmental soundart installation is the result of research about a diversity of combinations of sound and construction in which the whole consists of pressure and tension in a same way Frei Otto designed the typical roof construction for the Munich Olympic Stadium. With a small breeze of wind the strings on the vertical aluminum tube are vibrating and therefore generate sound. The string and wind principle is derived from the ancient Greek Aeolian harp. The land where the olympic games have started. Both the construction and the way of generating sound are therefor connected to the surrounding olympic site. The sound creates an image of the prevailing winds at the Olympic Park lake and gives a rich variety of characteristic wind-like tones.
After visiting Munich for the very first time I was already very impressed by the atmosphere of the 1972 Olympia Park with its beautiful designed Olympic Stadium. The sound composition generated by this artwork is a homage and constant changing hymn to Frei Otto, like his beautiful construction design also this artwork is depending on the forces of nature. Despite the tragic history and where the olympic site is build on I thought about a resemblance with this artwork. Both depend on certain conditions in order to flourish. I can see and even feel that the olympic park is here because of that. The same with this artwork, uncontrollable weather conditions determine the ongoing and constant evolving sound composition. It is hard to predict when and how exactly it will sound. If there is no wind at all the artwork will remain silent. Here the earth is singing the song.., we have to accept the conditions and find the beauty in what it will bring.
A total of five sound installation units, like the olympic rings, will be situated in the Olympia Park lake and spread out on top of the water surface. In order to perform and interact with the natural surroundings and weather conditions like the wind and the sun, these units produce a wide variety of windy singing sounds. Here the direct sunlight, the wind and its variety of speed will manipulate the windy sounds by connecting parameters to it. This sound will be amplified by a small speaker and special contact microphones inside the vertical aluminum mast which works as a resonance chamber. So even when there is only a small breeze one can hear the soft windy sounds of the singing strings. For the power of the amplifier, speaker and electronics two solar panels are being attached to the mast. Without the sun only the wind will produce a variety of sounds.
But when the sun starts shinning something magical will appear because the windy sounds will be manipulated and amplified in all kinds of ways. Because of the solar energy even passing clouds will effect the composition. Therefor the whole installation reacts on natural elements and the more input it gets the more the artwork starts interacting with the surrounding nature and the audience.
Construction of the artwork:
The artwork construction is based on the Tensegrity principle developed by architect Buckminster Fuller. It doesn’t need any bolds or nuts and is kept firmly together with steel cables as a very stable construction. The vertical mast hangs completely free of its legs. It’s a system in a stable self-equilibrated state comprising a discontinuous set of compressed components inside a continuum of tensioned components. "A tensegrity is a set of strings that keep the construction together and the sticks apart."
size artwork: 5 - 8 meters tall
materials: stainless steel, aluminum, electronics, solar panels, speakers
location: Munich Olympic Park, Germany
client: Munich Municipality, Munich Olympic Anniversary Committee
__________________________________________
Compression in a sea of tension 2.0
Sound sculpture proposal for desert landscapes.
In the 2.0 version research is being done about the involvement of the sun and the clouds being used as a natural sequencer, whereby an amplifier with a speaker is also incorporated in the main mast so that the sound is electronically influenced, whereby the wind and the sun determine the parameters that precede it. must be used. As a location, research is being conducted into desolate areas that are subject to erosion and that have a strong relationship with the theme of nature versus culture, such as advancing deserts.
The sound installation units are the result of research about a diversity of combinations of sound and construction in which the whole consists of pressure and tension. With sufficient wind the nylon strings are vibrating and therefore generate sound. This will be amplified by the hollow aluminium tube which works as a resonance chamber. The string and wind principle is derived from the Greek Aeolian harp. The sound creates an image of the prevailing wind and gives a rich variety of characteristic wind-like tones.
year 1.0 version: 2018
Materials: Aluminium, monofylament nylon, wood, steel wires, inox, bitumen coating.
Size: 4 x 4 x 6 meter (wxlxh) (per unit)
Compression in a sea of tension from Ronald van der Meijs on Vimeo.
_____________________________________________
The sound of scape
Commissioned by Municipality of Pingjum and Marne Art Foundation Friesland, Netherlands in the year 2018 - 2020
The farmer and his business currently determine the landscape. Perhaps his machines can literally bring back something from the historic dike. A new dike could form a base, in the middle of the fields, where tower residences referring to the potato crates and give the opportunity for contemplation on this vast landscape and its constantly changing elements.
The residence is also a permanent sound artwork that is controlled by the elements of wind, sun and clouds, to the rhythm of the Marneslenk landscape. Slowly, unexpectedly and unpredictably, ceaseless and changing soft-sounding sound composition unfolds that can be observed from the rest of the room or while walking. The sound source consists out of big ceramic singing bowls produced with clay of this area. Water tumblers which will be filed with water by waterpumps directly connected onto solar panels will hit the ceramics in certain intervals. The artwork tells the story about the entanglement of past and present; connecting land and sea through the elements, the disappeared Marneslenk, the Pingjumer Halsband and the Boer with beet and potato.
Audio stories from farmers and other villagers about their landscape experiences will also be collected. These stories get a place in an audio library in the residence.
location: North West Friesland near Pingjum and Waddenzee.
execution: sketch design in development
client: Stichting Marne Art Friesland
curator: Wout Hoogendijk and Anne Reenders
_____________________________________________
Cella Semiosis at new Astrazeneca HQ
A massive sound sculpture of Corten steel with a skin of 22.000 chrome bell caps located under an Oak tree. Located at the UK Cambridge Science Park in the public courtyard of the new headquarters building designed by Herzog & De Meuron.
This sketch assignment was commissioned by AstraZeneca and Herzog & De Meuron, located at Cambridge Science Park, United Kingdom in 2016.
AstraZeneca is a Global innovative-driven biopharmaceutical company where they do fundamental scientific and hi-tech medical research. It's a world wide collaboration of scientists in a collaborative working environment with state of the art laboratories situated around a massive courtyard garden with Oak trees.
Under one of these Oak trees this steel sound sculpture is situated as a huge metal nerve cell covered with 22 thousand bicycle bell caps composed by hand. In autumn a connection is being made by the falling acorns on the bicycle caps of the sculpture.
The sculpture is derived from a human nerve cell; the fundamental units that make up the human body. Nerve cells transmit information between different parts of the body. Forming networks of nerve cells through which signals, or synapses, can be sent. Like the collaboration of scientists to share knowledge. Resemblance between action and function of nerve cells and AstraZeneca. They both connect and communicate.
Design and context of the sculpture:
Organic shape connects and refers to the surrounding nature and human body. The chrome reflection refers to reflection of glass architecture. Both designed and constructed with mathematical forms. It acts like an intermediary between the architecture, people and the garden. It connects with all surrounded elements. It refers to the human body in the pentagram Relationship to the golden section, common in nature, art, science and architecture. The Bell cap skin refers to the shape of human skin cells. It reflects and mirrors its surrounding nature and colors.
There is a physical connection with one of the Oak trees by its bell caps. It gives a sound of falling acorns in autumn and gives a sound of a hailstorm in winter. The open ends of the four tentacles avoid a closed mass character and the tentacles are pointed towards the surrounded laboratory as a visual connection. Spreads over the garden and follows the curved lawn. The sculptural body tries to communicate and connect with people. It functions like a huge bench, a meeting place and it invites people to use it, it attracts and interacts.
The connection with oak tree on the north side creates shadow in summer to sit on, it provides sun light during the winter to sit on and it creates an intimate square as a meeting place.
Human scale of the sculpture
The height of the sculpture is only 40 – 90 cm and has a huge variety of shapes and heights when walking around the sculpture. Only 4% of the grass surface is covered by the sculpture and it replaces other benches on the lawn in order to meet each other.
The complete skin is made by human scale bicycle bell caps. The chrome protection layer gives a therapeutic feeling to sit on and they have a cuddly character and unique feeling to sit on. The bell caps act like pixels who reflect the colors and natural surrounding.
_____________________________________________
Sound Architecture 5
Commissioned in the year 2014
'Sound Architecture 5' in Surrey, England at the Hannah Peschar Gallery and Sculpture Garden. 5000 bells on a bed of moss. The higher bells will sound by a strong breeze and in autumn the installation will be played by the falling acorns of an nearby Oak tree which is hanging high above the installation.
The complete installation is made without a plan. The hole idea is to start somewhere in nature and let it flow while working on it. The structure and composition reacts on the shape of the landscape and the trees of the garden.
One must be lucky to be a witness of the sounds being produced. Acceptance plays an important role in this work.
Measures: 10 x 3,5 meter wide, 10 - 100 cm height.
Materials: metal, 5000 chrome bicycle bell caps
Completion: march 2014 (permanent sculpture)
Location: Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden, Black and White Cottage Ockley, Surrey, England
Design and production: Ronald van der Meijs
© Ronald van der Meijs - All rights reserved. Please contact for image reproduction.
_____________________________________________
Even the sparrow has to practice
Commissioned in the year 2014
The location of this permanent sound work is situated near the NAXT music building in Almelo city, a building where young talented musicians can make use of rehearsal rooms and perform in the concert hall. The artwork is a marker point on a crossroad leading to a new residential area along side an industrial estate and it has several similarities with the music building. A certain transformation process is going on amongst the users. Both structures have an anonymous exterior. Above all they both have rehearsal rooms where sounds or music is produced. In the Naxt building by talented musicians and in the sound artwork by the sparrow. One can regard the work as a sound-art work in which nature produces the sounds.
The shape refers to certain industrial objects and former dovecotes. The specific form and plan of the tower creates a dynamic perspective. The image appears to move just as the people who are passing by.
The work consists entirely of natural materials. A oak supporting structure and a tower of Spanish slate. All materials are left untreated so time and the weather conditions will affect its colors over the years. Also here a slow transformation process takes place. Besides the fact that the artwork is home to the sparrows, it is also accessible to people by crawling in the slate cutout. On the inside of the tower is a staircase leading to a half way up service platform. For the bird association to maintain the nest boxes and for visitors (lovebirds) who just want to stay inside looking for shelter or something else... To provide natural light inside the tower it’s lifted with the oak beams. The concrete slabs will reflect daylight into the top of the tower.
Materials: oak, plywood, concrete, zinc, slate.
Measures: 6 x 2,7 x 1,85 x 1,43 m (h x l x w x w)
Completion: december 2013
Location: Kolthofsingel, Almelo, Netherlands
Commissioned by: Municipality of Almelo, Netherlands
Curators: Art committee Almelo
Design and production: Ronald van der Meijs
© Ronald van der Meijs - All rights reserved. Please contact for image reproduction.
_____________________________________________
Obscura Reverse
Commissioned by: Drenthe Province in 2012
An architectural construction gives insight into the structures, formation and transformation of peat landscapes in the Netherlands.
On a busy main road in the Drenthe province in the Netherlands, is an architectural object marked by the transition from the area of production landscape (agricultural and peat) to consumption landscape (tourism and recreation). Entitled 'Obscura Reverse', the work by artist / designer Ronald van der Meijs refers to camera obscura, a early projective chamber and precursor to the photographic camera: the work, instead alludes to the history, structures and transformation of the moorlands and peat pervades the area. Peat and its extraction have determined the landscape of the province of Drenthe on a large scale and made it habitable. An oak structure frame underlies a glazed skin and brass form based on the veins of a leaf and meandering lines of a map. The fine lines of the village cartography transform into structures of decayed plant remains in the peat landscape. The sculpture's glass container faces a nearby highway and allows the work to further incorporate the presence of contemporary infrastructure.
The oak-beamed structure is clad with epoxy-lined peat discs. The structure refers to a traditional agricultural roof that is so prevalent in the production landscape. The peat tiles are all spaced slightly apart so the light can shine through them. On the inside of the roof whimsical lines of light show abstractions of the drainage systems and subdivision of the moorland what was required for peat production. Both the oak construction as the peat discs will be transformed by the weather conditions. After a rainstorm, the peat and oak will become dark colored, while dried again with years of sun, these materials lighten in color and become moss-covered testaments to the changing landscape and the micro-worlds within them.
More information and interviews about al the sculptures along the N34 highway. N34-kunstroute
Obscura Reverse was nominated for the International Prix de Triennial Lanchelevici 2013.
For integration of monumental sculptural art in urbanism.
Musée en Plein Air du Sart-Tilman, Université de Liege, Belgium.
Materials: Oak wood beams, concrete, peat, epoxy resin, brass, glass, metal and lexan sheet
Measures: height 4,2 m, length 12 m, wide 3,5 m
Completion: december 2012
Location: parking area Vogelpoel at the N34 highway near Coevorden, Netherlands
Commissioned by: Drenthe Province (Netherlands), CBK Drenthe, Taak (former SKOR)
Curators: Nils van Beek, Monica Boekholt
Design and production: Ronald van der Meijs
© Ronald van der Meijs - All rights reserved. Please contact for image reproduction.
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Arabidobsis Synaptic Transmission
A sculpture in the wintergarden of Europol headquarters in Den Haag.
Commissioned by Atelier Rijksbouwmeester, Rijksgebouwen Dienst The Hague, Netherlands in the year 2011.
One of Europol's main tasks is about information management and technology. It has to support the member states as a complex and international organ with hi-tech information systems to communicate with great efficiency and effectiveness. One could say Europe is a complex living organism that tries to grow and survive in an effective, harmonies and human way. Where Europol is an important organ to manage al kinds of information to do so.
The concept should be an intermediary between the garden, the building, the people and function of Europol. Starting points for the design are Europol as a communication organ, architectonical technology and the winter garden as location. As a symbiosis of nature and technology.
The reason that plants communicate is in a way metaphorical to the communication activities of Europol; According to recent scientific research, plants communicate on all kinds of levels to optimize their lives. Plants have developed a signalling apparatus with both chemical and physical communication pathways. Plant neurobiology is a newly emerging field of plant sciences. It covers signalling and communication at all levels of biological organization and from molecules up to ecological communities. Plants are intelligent and social organisms with complex forms of communication and information processing. Plants are able to recognize the identity of herbivores and organize the defence responses accordingly. The chemical communication in and between plants is complex. More than 20 different groups of molecules with communicational functions have currently been identified. For instance, up to 100,000 different substances, known as secondary metabolites, are actively used in the root zone. Plant roots and plant shoots detect environmental signals as well as development levels and communicate over long-distance pathways.
The area where a new shoot is coming out of a branch serves as an example for the shape of the sculpture. It can be seen as a metaphor of a natural expanding network, development and growth. The shape of the sculpture is organic but also technically constructed and refers to the architectonical roof construction of the winter garden. The honeycomb cell structure of the skin refers to the cells of a plant but also to modern engineering because of its very strong and light weighted structure. Also every change in day- and artificial light will cause a variety of light and shadow patterns into the skin because of its translucent honeycomb material.
As a metaphor for the chemical signalling of plants, the sculpture is sprayed with human pheromones. The male armpit has been hypothesized to be a source of human pheromones. A pheromone is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting outside the body of the secreting individual to impact the behavior of the receiving individual. There are alarm pheromones, food trail pheromones, attraction pheromones, and many others that affect behavior or physiology. Pheromones also exist in plants: Certain plants emit alarm pheromones when grazed upon, resulting in tannin production in neighboring plants. These tannins make the plants less appetizing for the herbivore.
Arabidopsis is a small flowering plant related to Cabbage and mustard. This genus is of great interest since it contains thale cress, one of the model organisms used for studying plant biology and the first plant to have its entire genome sequenced. Changes in thale cress are easily observed, making it a very useful model. Synaptic Transmission also called neurotransmission, is the process by which signaling molecules called neurotransmitters are released by a neuron, and bind to and activate the receptors of another neuron. Neurotransmitters are used to communicate the signal from one cell to the next.
Materials: PPE plastics, plywood, acrylic paint, steel, pheromones.
Measures: largest diameter: 2,6 meter, total length: 14 meter
Completion: febr. 2011
Location: Europol HQ, The Hague, Netherlands
Client: Atelier Rijksbouwmeester, Rijksgebouwen Dienst Dutch Government, The Hague, Netherlands
Curator / adviser contemporary art: Hans van den Ban
Design and production: Ronald van der Meijs
© Ronald van der Meijs - All rights reserved. Please contact for image reproduction.
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Twenty feet Equivalent Unit ( t.e.u. )
Commissioned by Stadsdeel Amsterdam Oost and Rona Mathlener Projects in the year 2008
This location-based installation is a metaphor for our industry standardization. Everything around us is completely automated. Also the global transportation and container harbours. TEU; 'Twenty feet Equivalent Unit' is the unit of a standard shipping container and is also used to indicate the capacity of a container ship and container ports. The location is a former cargo port in Amsterdam, which disappeared with the arrival of the container. This harbor was not suitable for container vessels. When it gets dark, the container is illuminated from the inside and the transparency of jute skin refers to the vulnerability of the many dockworkers who used to work there. In the background a continuous loop of modern container terminal sounds is being played.
Materials: metal, old jute sacks, polyester, timers, fluorescent lighting, sound system
Measures: 600 x 240 x 260 cm
Completion: 2008 (commissioned for 1 year)
Location: Old harbour area at Cruquiusweg 0, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Organisation / curator: Rona Mathlener Projects
Photography: Titus Brein (picture 1 and 3)
© Ronald van der Meijs - All rights reserved. Please contact for image reproduction.
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