During the war, all the bells of Magdeburg Cathedral were melted down. This necessitated decades of fundraising to finance the recasting of these bells. We were commissioned to create an installation designed to capture the public's interest, thereby attracting visitors and ultimately increasing donations to the church. The installation had to be themed around the bells and incorporate a method for accepting donations. Following the development of a concept, we then had to present the proposal to the board members of the church.
I decided to focus on the unique sound of the bells, as there was a desire to highlight the reason for needing 13 different bells, each with its own pitch and sound. To achieve this, I planned to employ transducer technology to play the tones of these 13 bells, some of which have not yet been recast and are the focus of current fundraising efforts. The technology would cause a layer of sand in a bell-shaped container to vibrate. This container would feature bell-shaped buttons of various sizes, each representing one of the 13 bells. Pressing a button would activate the transducer to play that bell's sound, creating a unique shape in the sand corresponding to its tone.
Additionally, the installation would include a card machine and a coin slot for accepting donations. A light bar along the side would display the fundraising progress from 0 to 100%, indicating how close we are to fully funding the recasting of the bells.
