The Story

I am artist who works with sound. In 2006 when I was wondering along the left bank of Paris I had the random thought that it would be cool to make a sound piece based on the acoustics of La Tour Eiffel. Well, it is now a year later and I have just come back from my trip to Paris where I succeeded in recording the Eiffel Tower!

The organization in charge of running the Tower gave me access to the monument to document it's ambient acoustics and vibrations - the intrinsic sounds of 7300 tons of 2,500,000 rivets and 18,038 pieces of steel moving in the wind and in response to environmental changes, as well as the sonic environment of the 30,000 people who visit it daily as they move from the ground to the pinnacle. With the enormous help of the onsite consultant and Chief Technical Officer, Seth Horowitz, PhD., who headed the technical team, we succeeded in not only recorded from the publicly accessible regions, but our guide, Olivier Picard, took us to the machine room, home of the enormous 100 year old gears and motors that carry the visitors up and down the tower and the security stairwell just under the top level from which we found sound and vibrations from the elevators and the wind against the structure.

The scientific technology used to record the structure was a combination of in-ear binaural microphones and custom designed seismic microphones.  The recordings that we captured are indeed fascinating as they represent both the physical nature of the structure as well as the human experience. With these resources I have been able to documented the sound of the wind against the surfaces of the steel, the intermittent rumbles as the elevators moved up and down as well as the vibrations from people walking. With the binaural in-ear microphones I captured the ambient soundscape. One great moment was in the machine room. There I was able to record the situation when one of the elevators briefly broke down! In that segment you can hear the alarm go off and the men rushing to the scene! (Seth said I broke the Tour Eiffel!!) On the top of the tower you can hear the comments eg: holy crum!

France Languérand was able to make some exquisite photographs of the project over all and Cyril Lecomte-Languérand, made the video (I am currently waiting for rushes). Some of the images are unique because no one has ever been allowed in these areas before.

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Pictures and Sound Samples

China Blue Recording on the top photo by Seth Horowitz	The Team Cyril Lecomte-Languérand, Tony Regazzoni, Matthieu André, France Languérand, Seth Horowitz, Sylvain Daval, Florian Sumi photo by China Blue	Seth Horowitz, PhD. Recording on the top photo by China Blue

Ground level, in front of the Jules Verne Restaurant.

We recorded in two methods, one with binaural microphones. These microphones fit into the ear and capture the acoustics from the viewpoint of the person recording. The other method is with geophone microphones which record the vibrations of structures. In this case we recorded the vibrations of the elevator by placing them on the steel of the structure.

Ambient Sounds	Vibrations of the elevator quiet recordings, listen with headphones for full effect

Seth Horowitz testing photo by France Languérand	Recording equipment photo by China Blue	China Blue recording photo by France Languérand

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In the Machine Room

In the machine room we found the sounds of the chariot moving on the piston as it pulls the cables of the elevators and we were fortunate to capture an emergency stop of the equipment. Seth said I broke the Tour Eiffel! :-)

Ambient Sounds	Vibrations of the metal and emergency stop quiet recordings, listen with headphones for full effect

Chariot pulling the cables photo by Seth Horowitz	Gears & Accumulator photo by France Languérand	China Blue recording photo by Seth Horowitz

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On the Summit and in the stairwell just below the summit.

Two recordings were done in this area. One on the Summit (right) over looking the Champs de Mars (center)and the other in the stairwell directly under the top level (left). The geophone (center) captured the vibrations created by the wind agains the structure.

Ambient Sounds it was a very windy day	Vibrations of the metal quiet recordings, listen with headphones for full effect

Seth & China Blue in the Stairwell photo by France Languérand	Geophone (microphone) photo by China Blue	China Blue Recording photo by Seth Horowitz

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The Team!

Cyril Lecomte photo by France Languérand	Dr. Seth Horowitz, Tony Regazzoni, Matthieu André, photo by France Languérand	France Languérand photo by China Blue

Florian Sumi photo by France Languérand	Sylvain Daval photo by France Languérand

For more images go to: Flickr

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News

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD	The Providence Journal
New York Times

 

Tour Eiffel guide:
Olivier Picard

Consultation & Equipment:
Andrea Megela Simmons, PhD.
James A. Simmons, PhD.
Seth Horowitz, PhD., Simmons Multisensory Laboratories, Brown University, Providence, RI USA

Photography:
France Languérand

Videography:
Cyril Lecomte

Technicians:
Matthieu André, Sylvain Daval, Tony Regazzoni, Florian Sumi and Paul Welsh