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Telescopic Ear
2009

Copper "headphones" with extension parts 
Plastic hearing horns

Sound localization refers to a listener's ability to identify the location or the origins of a detected sound in terms of direction and distance. The human auditory system uses several clues for sound source localization, including time - and level - differences between both ears, spectral information, timing analysis, correlation analysis, and pattern matching.
Sound locators were used from mid-WW1 to the early years of WW2 for the passive detection of aircraft by picking up the noise of the engines. They were rendered obsolete towards the end of WW2 by the introduction of radar.
The work concerns listening as a creative act in an unpredictable acoustic environment, through intense listening to the external and internal acoustic space. Listening is considered an act of cognition that can filter or shape perception.

The project is based on my ongoing research focused on hearing aids and devices for the detection of sound.

Copper "headphones" with and without extension 

'Let if be tried, for the help of hearing... to make an instrument like a tunnel; the narrow part whereof may be the bigness of the hole of the ear; and the broader end much larger, like a bell at the skirts... And let the narrow end of it be set against the ear; and mark whether any sound... will not be heard distinctly from further distance than without that instrument; being (as it were) an ear-spectacle.'

Francis Bacon (1521-1626), published posthumously in 1627.

Hearing horns in actual use in Athens School of Fine Arts, 2009.
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