Spiral of Time

The spiral-shaped interface of Spiral of Time - photo © Edwin van der Heide

The artwork Spiral of Time makes exactly every hour a one-minute sound recording of carefully curated sites in the world. The recordings are archived in an ever-growing library. With a dedicated spiral-shaped interface the audience creates time-based connections between the recordings and thereby reveals and perceives sonic patterns, changes and exceptions that would otherwise remain undiscovered and unnoticed. Spiral of Time is both presented as online artwork (see links below) and as gallery space exhibition.

Since July 17, 2024, the work has been recording the soundscape of the Plaça dels Àngels, the square in front of the MACBA museum in Barcelona, Spain and since February 11th, 2025 Spiral of Time has been installed at the Amazon Rainforest surrounding The UFAM (Federal University of Amazonas) in Manaus, Brazil.

Plaça dels Àngels - MACBA

Installed on the façade of MACBA’s Research and Documentation Centre, a microphone setup has been recording the ambient sounds of the Plaça dels Àngels since July 17, 2024. The square brings a diverse, and vibrant urban space with many different situations a perspectives. The resulting sonic archive, organized by time intervals, offers multiple ways of understanding the idiosyncrasies of the museum’s immediate surroundings through cyclical sound patterns shaped by both natural rhythms and human activity. This archive constructs a sonic portrait in which patterns—often imperceptible in real time—are revealed through sounds captured across different moments.
Experience the work online at: https://www.macba.cat/en/spiral-of-time-placa-dels-angels/

Amazonas Brasil - UFAM

Since February 11th, 2025 Spiral of Time has been installed in the Amazon Rainforest surrounding The UFAM (Federal University of Amazonas) in Manaus. It is home to one of the world’s largest urban forest fragments. Completely surrounded by the dense urban matrix of Manaus, this forest has been isolated since the late 1980s. The forest retains rich ecological features, including areas of mature terra-firme forest, late-stage secondary vegetation, and small patches of white-sand forests. This unique setting offers a rare opportunity to study tropical forest dynamics within a metropolitan environment. Spiral of Time – Amazonas Brasil – UFAM immerses the listeners in the acoustic life of one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. This contrast between the natural rhythms of the forest and the human-made patterns of the city enriches the broader narrative of the Spiral of Time, offering a deeper reflection on coexistence, change, and continuity across different environments.
Experience the work online at: https://www.evdh.net/spiraloftime-amazonas-brasil-ufam