In december last year Frans van Lent sent a request to a number of colleagues to partake in a new project of his: sī′ləns. He formulated the request as follows:
On the first day of 2026, please make a one-minute sound recording of silence. You are free to decide what the concept of silence means to you. My intention is to combine all the recordings into one sound collage. I will consider the result to be a collaborative work that everyone is free to present as such.
Most (or all) of the artists he sent his request to answered positively. The result can be listened to on his site on the page linked to his name underneath. Artists made recordings all over the world. You can find the names and situations on Frans’ website page. I myself recorded a minute during the first of January. My wife and me were reading our new books in our living room, the heating gave some noise and you can hear the wind blowing around the chimneys.