The New Town of Almere was buil
 t in 1976 on land reclaimed fro
 m the sea in the 20th century.
 It is a city in progress that i
 s constantly changing and endle
 ssly reshaping.

 Transformation is movement and
 movement is sound, especially i
 n contrast to the underwater wo
 rld of the historical Almere. S
 ound makes space measurable, e.
 g. when sonar equipment is used
  to determine nautical distance
 s and measurements.

 Ever since the first human sett
 lement, sound has been an essen
 tial element of the city: by wa
 lking with closed eyes through
 urban environments, complex ima
 ges arise from our acoustic imp
 ressions. These personal images
  emerging solely from sound pat
 terns interpreted by nature rem
 ain hidden from the public.

 Graphic designer Niels Schrader
  and musician Tanja Keilen ente
 r the public space with seven a
 coustic posters. For this purpo
 se, seven outdoor locations in
 the new city centre of Almere w
 ere selected according to their
  urban significance. The site’s
  specific sound was recorded an
 d subsequently filtered to obta
 in the acoustic essence. By fin
 ally rendering this tonal compo
 sition in an abstract computer
 image, the inherent visual appe
 arance of a digital sound file
 is exposed.

 Posters refer by nature to some
 thing beyond their immediate en
 vironment. Unlike ordinary post
 ers, the posters in the Urban H
 ymns series have been made to r
 eflect on their individual surr
 oundings and mirror their acous
 tic context.