People generally go for walks in the woods to enjoy the peacefulness of nature. How wonderful it would be if the fine sounds of the forest could be heard loud and clear.
This is an experience that can now be had at Pähni Nature Centre in Estonia, where art academy students have developed and set up huge wooden megaphones to make the never-ceasing but scarcely noticeable calls and movements of forest inhabitants completely audible. The student Birgit Õigus designed the funnel-shaped megaphones for a project in the "Outdoor" auditorium at theacademy. Hannes Praks, Head of the Interior Architecture Departments, explains, "Being three metres in diameter at their widest point, the megaphones create a bandstand for the sounds that the forest produces." Visitors can settle down comfortably inside the megaphones to enjoy the surreal backdrop of sounds. The installation was completed in mid-September and as time passes by will go the way of all things, rotting away slowly but surely until completely absorbed into the forest floor.
