AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Every object around us has the potential to make a noise. And artist Bill Fontana has made a career out of exploring these hidden sounds, from ancient sequoia trees to glaciers to, now, silent bells. Buffy Gorrilla reports from a new installation at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
BUFFY GORRILLA, BYLINE: At the top of Grace Cathedral's bell tower, the city of San Francisco rumbles below, but the 44 bells up here are at rest right now. Some are the size of soccer balls, and the largest is over 6 feet tall. Obviously, when they're not being rung, they don't appear to make any sound. But artist Bill Fontana has rigged a complex system to capture the subtle sounds that are being made by a few of these bells - sounds that are undetectable to the human ear.
BILL FONTANA: And there are vibration sensors mounted on each of these bells.
GORRILLA: The sensors, or accelerometers, are attached to the bells with gaffer tape. Fontana says they look like silver thimbles. These listening devices pick up the tiny vibrations the environment makes on these bells, like wind, construction or San Francisco's cable car.
FONTANA: And then you connect the accelerometer with a cable to an amplifier that's designed to handle the vibration signals and turn those into an audible sound.
GORRILLA: The result is a live transmission of a soothing soundscape that issues from the speakers within the church.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL VIBRATIONS RESONATING)
GORRILLA: Exposing this kind of invisible resonance is what Fontana has been doing with his work for the past 50 years.
FONTANA: So everything in the physical world has a resonant frequency. And potentially, then, everything in the physical world, every structure, is potentially a kind of listening device.
GORRILLA: He's captured the sound of glacial melt in Austria and the vibrations on the Millennium Bridge in London. He brought his work to Grace Cathedral through their artist in residence program, overseen by Rebecca Nestle. She says Fontana's work asks listeners to think about what they are missing.
REBECCA NESTLE: What are we not seeing? What are we not hearing as we go about our busy lives? All around us, there is sound. All around us, there is resonance. And it speaks to can we be more aware of what's happening around us? Can we be present?
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL VIBRATIONS RESONATING)
CHRIS KALLMYER: I noticed one sound first, and as I sat for longer, I noticed another sound within it, and it was like an onion.
GORRILLA: Artist Chris Kallmyer is from Petaluma, California. Also wandering through this space is Jonathan Buford from Phoenix, Arizona.
JONATHAN BUFORD: This is just wind blowing through a bell. But as you walk further, you're almost hearing waves of sound. Like, it's, like, at the edge of the ocean and sounds crashing towards you. And an hour in, you're all of a sudden, I think I'll miss this sound through the rest of the day. It's almost like an addicting calmingness (ph).
GORRILLA: Alexa Stevens stopped by Grace to remember someone she'd lost. She found comfort in listening.
ALEXA STEVENS: And so being able to slow down enough to pay attention is really, really vital. I think sometimes just taking a moment to stop thinking and not be in my head, but to actually, you know, look at what - look up when you're walking and not down at your feet, to stop the constant narration and try and hear what's happening around you.
GORRILLA: Fontana's bell installation will be ringing in this cavernous Cathedral until late September.
For NPR News, I'm Buffy Gorrilla in San Francisco. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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