A bunker acoustic ecology by Nick Sowers

The San Fransisco based Nick Sowers records the sounds in and outside the Atlantikwall’s bunkers. Nick isn’t really interested in the strategic past or bunker archaeology but he researches the re-use of bunkers and their presence in the everyday landscape.

Île de Ré, France
Bunker Type 669 – Double Casemate (the official type number used by the Third Reich)
Antechamber, 1/4 submerged in sand, seawater enters at high tide, reverb 1.7 seconds;
Ammo storage inundated with seawater, reverb 1.4 seconds;
Three pigeons warbling at 12:25 pm;
Soft hands and bare feet of children scrambling on roof;
Graffiti artist spraying between 4:24 pm and 5:13 pm;
Daytime ambience from nearby motorway, attenuates toward evening;
Ceaseless, gentle ambience of ocean eroding concrete.

According to Nick, photographs cannot measure “the living presence across a duration of time captured by the bunker’s interior“, something which sound can.

More on Nick’s work on Places, an online journal of architecture, landscape, and urbanism. Or visit Nick’s website Soundscrapers.