Wolfgang Spahn

a self-sufficient audio and biofeedback installation, 2019

The “Thermal-Acoustic-Seance” is a participatory sound installation. Participants power as well as control by their body temperature an electric headphone concert for up to seven people.

It is based on six synthesizer invented and designed by the artists. The only power source that is needed is provided by the body temperature of the participants in respect to the room temperature. The pitch of the synthesizer will change with the skin resistance and also with differences in the ambient light: Symbiotic Synth.

The “Thermal-Acoustic-Seance” itself is a setup with six of these synthesizer in a circle. Every participant has one Symbiotic Synth with witch he or she can make different tunes and play melodies. But everyone shares the headphones with his neighbor. With that one can hear to his own tunes as well as to the tunes of the person next to him or her. Because all devices are light sensitive one can also control all synthesizers at the same time in playing with the ambient light, one can do so with a torch. Thus a combination of a shared and collective concert is possible.

fotos by Sherezade Siddiqui, 2019

“Thermal-Acoustic-Seance” was shown at the Alliance Francaise Karachi at the Karachi Biennale 2019, Pakistan.
Supported by the Goethe Institute Pakistan

“Thermal-Acoustic-Seance” was first presented at the workshop I, Machine, and Energy Harvesting ( by Mindaugas Gapševičius and Wolfgang Spahn) as part of the exhibition Shared Habitats in MO Museum, Vilnius, Lithuania in May 2019.

Details like manual, schematic and acknowledgment about the Symbiotic Synth one can find on the web-side dernulleffekt.de by the artist.