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Life under the sky [leven onder het luchtruim]

2024 | 'Schiphol is blocking the spatial development of an area that is more than five times the size of Amsterdam. Shrinkage of air traffic is now high on the political agenda, but according to the landscape beneath the sky no one cares.

Photographer Theo Baart and journalist and urban researcher Tijs van den Boomen focus on the area around the airport: what can be gained if you close one or more runways? Using reports, essays, cycle routes, maps and photos, they provide a surprising picture of the region around Schiphol.'

The photography consists of three parts. For each runway there is a survey showing how the claim of the airport influences the design and use of the environment. The other two photographic series are about how the nuisance of flying is tamed with adequate or inadequate measures.

First of all, there are the Handhavingspunten (enforcement points. These are points (coordinates) in the vicinity of Schiphol for which the limit value of the amount of noise has been established. The noise of overflying aircraft is not measured but calculated using models. This system with 35 enforcement points has a legal basis and is used for the use of runways. They are invisible points in the landscape.In the series Calculation landscape this invisible system is made visible by placing a dot on the coordinate.

'Measuring is knowing', according to concerned and bothered citizens, and so a measuring system of microphones in residential areas (NOMOS) was created, piad by the airport Schiphol. The series Measuring landscapes shows the forty microphones on roofs of swimming pools, schools, and hidden in municipal greenery. This system has no legal basis and plays no role in the choice of track use. It measures and the information can be consulted online.

The two series provide an image of the everyday Dutch landscape. Not selected on properties and/or qualities but as part of an attempt to combine two great things: a large airport in the middle of a metropolis. These are also cultural landscapes.

for more information, maps and photographs see: www.levenonderhetluchtruim.nl

Calculation landscape

Measuring landscape

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Greater Amsterdam

Metropolis in development