Sound Track 1997-2004

In 1997, I drove with Jeroen Hoogstraten and René Veenhuizen from Utrecht to Oslo where, at that time, we had an exhibition in the ROM gallery. The journey was part of the exhibition.  As we drove I was thinking about using the alert strip that marks the side of the road as a way to make ‘music’. All one had to do was to vary the frequency of the pattern of this alert strip and the car would turn into a musical instrument.  In this proposal I worked out a plan generating ‘Happy Birthday’ by driving the proper speed. One can sing ‘Happy Birthday’ with the tones C D E F.   For the first bar with six measures one needs: C C D C F E. Taking parts out of the strip creates the ‘rest’ in the measure. Tempo is an important part in the piece.  In this case the car must drive 100 km per hour (62,14 mph).  The length of the piece in this case would be 166,8 meters (1,036 miles) taking six seconds to complete.