EDINBURGH'S One O'Clock Gun is a timely daily reminder for tourists and residents – but next month an alternative version will ring through the city.
This week will see initial trial runs of the first major work in Edinburgh by Turner Prize-winning Scottish artist Susan Philipsz when large speakers will relay a "siren's call" across the capital each day at 1pm.
As an artistic reaction to the One O'Clock Gun at Edinburgh Castle, Philipsz, originally from Glasgow but now based in Berlin, will install speakers between Calton Hill and the Castle which will play, in sequence, short recordings of her singing voice.
The recordings by Philipsz, who was the first "sound artist" to win the Turner Prize in 2010, will create an aural domino effect from the speakers. Cone speakers will be stationed at the Nelson Monument on Calton Hill, Old Calton Cemetery, North Bridge, Waverley Bridge, on the National Gallery of Scotland on the Mound and in a tree in West Princes Street Gardens.
Philipsz, whose installation will be heard every day from August 2 to September 2 as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival, said: "I hope people will get a sense of the scale of the city.
"The installation is designed to make people think about the connection between Calton Hill and the Castle and all the spaces in between. There is an amazing vista from Calton Hill across the city and I wanted the work to address that space in some way."
The project was also inspired by a Time Gun Map first printed in 1879, which shows how the sound waves of the gun travel through the city and the installation, in 1861, of an electrical cable between the master clock at the Nelson Monument and Edinburgh Castle – three-quarters of a mile away – to ensure the timing of the gun's report was accurate.
The sounds made by Philipsz, recorded in her home studio, not only refer to the mythic sirens which lured sailors to their deaths but the more conventional sirens, the first of which was invented by John Robison, the physicist and mathematician who lived in Edinburgh between 1739 and 1805.
Sorcha Carey, director of the Edinburgh Art Festival, which commissioned the work supported by the Henry Moore Foundation, said: "We will hear her voice calling out to the city at 1pm every day of the Edinburgh Art Festival. It is her first major work in Edinburgh and it is also the first major sound piece to be installed in Edinburgh.
"People will be able to hear a work of art that is not only incredibly contemporary but one that is engaging with a really interesting part of the history of the city."
This year the visual art festival, with 45 exhibitions in total, features a focus on Rose Street, with exhibitions in shop windows and films projected onto the back of the BHS store, and new venues such as the Rhubaba Gallery and Superclub.
Previously advertised exhibitions include Picasso at the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art and the Van Gogh show at the Scottish National Gallery.
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