Client
StadtPalais Stuttgart – Museum für Stuttgart
D-70173 Stuttgart
www.stadtpalais-stuttgart.de   

Design
Klangerfinder GmbH & Co. KG
D-70176 Stuttgart
www.klangerfinder.de     

Jangled Nerves GmbH
D-70376 Stuttgart
www.jn.de  

For seven months, the interactive sound exhibition resided in Stuttgart’s new StadtPalais as an addition to the museum’s permanent presentation of the city’s history. The show was designed to surprise visitors at both an acoustic and emotional level – and to heighten awareness of typical sounds from the Stuttgart cityscape. The concept was based on a heavily darkened, neutral space with soft and acoustically active materials. The graphic elements were reduced to a minimum, and there were walk-in boxes containing various sound stations that were supplemented by “ear trumpets” on the walls. The deliberate exclusion of visual stimuli heightened visitors’ hearing and opened their ears to a very different perception of the everyday world.
The show ended in a totally white room that served as a counterpoint and invited visitors to actively conduct their own sound experiments.

Jury
A scrupulously thought-through exhibition concept that enables a city’s acoustic signatures to be experienced in a new and very intense way. Both the darkening of the room and the pared-down graphics enhance visitors’ acoustic awareness; digital tools are only used when they provide meaningful support for the subject matter.