If you drive along the south coast road past Dymchurch and into the windswept Dungeness peninsula, you might catch a glimpse of one of Britain?s defunct inter-war acoustic defence experiments. Just below the brow of the hill, the relic of a rejected early warning system stands silent and forgotten, its giant curved concrete receiving dish now deaf to the sky. Known locally as the ?listening ear?, the derelict acoustic mirror, which was designed to detect sounds of airborne invasion, was doomed to be overtaken by the invention of radar. It was never used in wartime but, like the other abandoned listening posts scattered along the Kent coastline, stands testament to a spirit of invention that survives. For now almost seventy years on, as Stephanie Fuller explains, these early acoustic experiments have become the inspiration for a unique international public art project.
Danish-born artist, Lise Autogena, is working towards creating Channel communication amplifiers. In 1999 she was awarded a £15,000 research and development grant by the Arts Council of England ? and South East Arts has to date given two grants of £8,000 and £18,0000 from strategic funds. A further £10,000 has been awarded by Art for Architecture Scheme. Twin acoustic mirrors ? one in France, the other in England ? will be perfectly aligned to receive and transmit not only sounds of the sea, but also the human voice across 25 miles. Although the original mirrors were handcrafted with skills and data now lost, the two new mirrors will be pre-fabricated in reinforced concrete. Advanced acoustic technology, pioneered in the US, will allow transmitted sounds from one mirror to be heard at a particular point in front of the other. Listeners standing on a platform at this focus point will hear a complete ?holographic? binaural sound image, which will seem to surround them from the empty air. Unlike the original trained listeners, straining to hear distant enemy aircraft approaching the Kent coast, twenty-first century mirror users will be able to enjoy a sculptural work of art, as well as a unique communication device using blue skies technology.
Planning permission has already been granted by Shepway District Council for a seven-metre diameter white, concrete hemisphere, with sculpted steps and platform rising gracefully out of the landscape, to be erected below the promenade on the Lower Leas coastal park at Folkestone. Negotiations for the site for its French counterpart are underway with the assistance of the Danish and French cultural ministries.
Long forgotten defence technology is being transformed into a friendly instrument for communication and a striking architectural landmark, through a fusion of art, engineering and acoustic science. The project, which contributes to the regeneration of Shepway, will attract visitors to the coastal park, and is a concrete affirmation of Folkestone?s cross Channel connections.
Stephanie Fuller is Public Art and Architecture Officer for South East Arts. t: 01892 507215; e: stephanie.fuller@seab.co.uk