Embraceable Silence / Disappearing Mirror #20 – celebrating Sun Dial I (DCF77)

For the 20th episode, I’m celebrating the upcoming release of Sun Dial I (DCF77)! Sun Dial I (DCF77) is the documentation of a site responsive land art installation which challenges the current measurement of time. DCF77 is a long wave transmission station located in Mainflingen, Germany. This array of broadcast antennas sends out a powerful pulse each second at the frequency of 77.5khz.

I secretly installed a Sun Dial in the field where DCF77’s antennas are located. The juxtaposition of these time keeping methods (one ancient, local, dependent on nature and the other ultra-modern, trans-national, and machine based) creates a site responsive environment. Inaccessible behind a barbed wire fence, the sun dial stands alone, quietly generating its own fragile frequency, questioning our relationship with time.

It's a sort of kaleidoscopic release, via cassette, digital, photography, film, and NFT. Experimenting to share a work that basically no one can visit unless they're willing to jump a barbed wire fence (if it even still exists).

Time, like sound, is invisible, fluid, without body. We can measure it, try to capture it in a wristwatch or an mp3 – but these are just representations of an event already past. We are living in the echo of the industrial revolution, and the world is becoming a carefully regulated factory. Through experiencing other modes of time perception, we can become less efficient and more human.

In addition to the Sun Dial I pieces, I also share a variety of unreleased material, weaving the songs in and out of DCF 77’ pulse. Even better than that, my daughter, Alma, makes a surprise appearance.