Echoes of Silence

What does space sound like? In fact, like nothing at all—sound waves can’t travel through the interplanetary void. But there’s one place where space does have a sound: in the audiovisual universe of film and television. And until Star Wars became internationally popular and dominated how we imagine space, the way it sounded in different parts of the world varied enormously. Does the angle from which you view the stars influence what you think they sound like?

Echoes of Silence is an audio experience with dome projections that takes the viewer on a trip into space as it’s seen from different points on Earth. The stylized animations and images of starlit skies as they are observed from various parts of the world are accompanied by the sound of space used in films and television series at each location. In this way the project implicitly questions the predominant Western view of space. But most of all it highlights the universal sense of wonder about what lies far beyond our atmosphere.

Winner of the 2020 Netherlands Film Fund DocLab Interactive Grant.