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In the section "Sound Artists," Prelude speaks with individuals who use their ears in a unique way in their daily lives. This month: artist Harm van den Berg.

What does listening mean to you?

"At art school, everyone, including myself, was very visually oriented. At some point, I began to listen, to everything, to my surroundings. A whole new world opened up to me. What if I could evoke images with sound? I interviewed people and asked them to describe their favorite and interesting colors and why. I recorded their different responses and incorporated them into a sound installation that emanates from invisible speakers behind a white screen. Imagine standing in front of a large white canvas and hearing someone talk about blue, green, or yellow. This challenges you to imagine your own images. You hear the colors being described, but you can't see them, creating a cognitive dissonance that leads to a new kind of experience."

Do you listen differently than others?

"I am a sensitive listener. When I'm in the forest, I often stop to listen. In the distance, I hear a few birds, leaves rustling, a tree branch creaking, an insect flying – all very obvious, but when you listen closely, it creates a whole space around you. I feel like I'm entering a different domain. I'm very aware of that spatial experience, how sounds define space. Sound is all around you, invisible, but it delineates the space."

What do you enjoy hearing?

"In addition to my drawing work, I perform musical pieces with semi-modular synthesizers. Through electronics, sound waves are generated that you can change and adjust. The sounds that emerge can be manipulated to become self-reinforcing and organized. I enjoy it when sound becomes a self-contained entity and takes on a life of its own. In performances with synthesizers, I collaborate with the singer Junko Murakawa; she has a beautiful voice. We push the boundaries. It doesn't matter if something sounds out of tune or if you hear extreme dissonance or something soft, sweet, and subtle. It's all about the pure experience of sound."

What do you prefer not to hear?

"Leaf blowers, they make a terrible, loud, and unnecessary noise. You can just use a rake. I have a pair of headphones nowadays that isolate you from ambient noise, the best invention ever. It's remarkable that when you take them off, you hear better. When I'm drawing, I often listen to abstract electronic music or classical music. No Radio 1, as hearing the human voice activates brain regions that make it difficult for me to draw effectively."

What's the most beautiful thing you've ever heard?

"There's a rover on Mars now, the Perseverance, and it captured the sound of the wind with a microphone, stunning. Hearing the wind blow on Mars is magical. The wind there is different from here because the air is thinner; it all sounds a bit more metallic."

What would you like to make heard someday and to whom?

"The Longest Distance is a piece I've created but haven't exhibited yet. I combined the cosmic background radiation, a relic from the birth of the universe, with the beating heart of an unborn baby. I brought together what is closest, the baby's heartbeat, and what is farthest away: the sound that remains from the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago. Here too, I make use of the white screen, and you can hear the heartbeat in a very specific location. The cosmic sound is all around you in the space."

Frederike Berntsen

Who is Harm van den Berg?

Artist Harm van den Berg works in various disciplines. He draws, creates sound installations, and performs. Sound is an important part of his artistic exploration. Van den Berg builds a database of people he interviews, asking them about the colors they find fascinating. He also records the sounds of the synthesizers he uses. Perfecting the presentation of sound is a permanent challenge for him.