Public subject Bratislava 5-22 . 10. 2000
Lullaby of the Earth: Novi Most
by Danica Dakic

This sound installation (intended for passers-by) is concerned with rethinking of our relationship to the built enviroment. Over the past year I have been collecting audio recordings from people of different ages and nations singing lullabies from all over the world.
I propose setting up loud speakers along the pedestrian corridor of the Novi Most? (New Bridge). The bridge sings lullabies and becomes an architectural body for 64 human voices.
For a duration of two weeks the singing voices will become 'evening inhabitants' of the bridge area. The multitude of the voices, their melodies and the singling out of individual voices creates a complex sound structure while the pedestrian goes along the bridge. A passer-by will enter an unique sound-architectural enviroment, which changes as his direction through space changes.
The work deals with human versus urban space by contrasting the basic intimate space of lullabies and the architecture of the 'Novi most'.

' ' Today we would say such a person keeping his or her balance in the world is 'centred'. A city ought to be a school for learning how to lead a centered life. Through exposure to others, we might learn how to weigh what is important and what is not. We need to see differences on the streets or in other people neither as threats nor as sentimantal invitati- ons, rather as necessary visions. They are necessary for us to learn how to navigate life with balance, both individually and collectivelly.' from 'The Conscience of the Eye' by Richard Sennett