Profiles
In 2003 to commemorate of the hardships of the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in Highampton, Devon, Marcus Vergette made what is thought to be the first public access bell in the U.K.. In order to create a democratic bell that could be rung by anyone, there were many legal obstacles that had to be overcome.
The idea to try to remold this ancient communication device came while observing “My Feet in Earth” (the FMD bell) a traditionally cast bell being tuned at Whitechapel Bell Foundry. In this process a lathe is used to remove dissonant frequencies from the form. Working with Dr Neil Mclachlan (MIT Australia) using the latest technology of finite element analysis, a new bell form was invented that includes those dissonant frequencies. This bell rings multiple notes from a single strike. This design became the Time and Tide Bell, which is at present is becoming a permanent installation during 2009-2010. This multi-tonal bell is being sited at the high tide mark at a number of diverse sites, from urban centres to open stretches of coastline. from the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, the Meridian Line in London, to Appledore in Devon. The rise of the water at high tide moves the clapper to strike the bell. Played by the movement of the waves, the bell creates a varying, gentle, musical pattern. As the effect of global warming increases, the periods of bell strikes will become more and more frequent, and as the bell becomes submerged in the rising water the pitch will vary.
The discovery that we could design new sound relationships and actually physically reproduce what we had designed on the computer has opened up a number of new possibilities. Marcus Vergette has been exploring ideas for individual bells, why they are rung, and how they sound. He is presently working on the Robert Hooke Bell for the Mass Extinction Observatory in conjunction with the Royal Society. Cast in Roach stone from Portland, it’s surface containing all the detail of the fossils in this stone. This bell will be the size of the great bell of St Paul’s Cathedral. This bell has holes down one side, visually and acoustically creating gaps or missing elements in the frequencies of the ring and in appearance.