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Meander Tapes – Tender Sounds for Brutalist Architecture

Moonband

2018/19, Sound installation

Ruhr University Bochum

In the context of Big Beautiful Buildings, StadtBauKultur NRW

The astronomical observatory Bochum was the first station on the earth’s surface to receive the Sputnik signal on 04.10.1957 before NASA. It was the space newsroom in West Germany. The tapes of NASA’s moon missions stored there are contemporary witnesses to a positive way of thinking about the future that was widespread in the Ruhr region in the 1960s. Bochum, the city of the future was the slogan.

The tape recordings of the communication of the observatory with Apollo 8 (1968) and Apollo 11 (1969), which are available at the observatory in Bochum (IUZ – Institute for Environment and Future Research), serve as source material for the space-sound installation “MEANDER TAPES – MONDBAND Session.