Electrical Walks
Samples of raw sounds
Christina Kubisch
In 2003, Berlin-based sound artist Christina Kubisch began an ongoing project called Electrical Walks. This project employs specially built headphones that receive electromagnetic signals from the environment and convert them into sound. Kubisch maps a given territory, noting hot spots (ATM machines, security systems, electronic cash registers, subway systems, etc.) where the signals are particularly strong or interesting. She then loans the headphones to the public, allowing participants to undertake an auditory dérive through the invisible network of electromagnetic information. To date, Kubisch has undertaken her own personal walks in Germany, England, France, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Spain, Taiwan, and the United States, and has held public walks in Berlin, Cologne, Karlsruhe, Bremen, Oxford, and London. To accompany the interview with Kubisch in Cabinet no. 21, she has provided us with thirty sound samples gathered by her while walking through various cities.
1. Light advertisement in Sendai, Japan
2. Post office in Bremen, Germany; source unknown
3. Subway in Taipei, Taiwan
4. Between two security gates at the entrance of a shop; location unknown
5. Minicomputer at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM), Karlsruhe, Germany
6. Bavaria, Germany; source unknown
7. Tram in Bratislava, Slovakia
8. Electrical transformer at a farm in Bavaria, Germany
9. Tram in Karlsruhe, Germany
10. Thunderstorm in Bavaria, Germany
11. Object (magnetic field) in the Science Museum, London, England
12. Sounds in an underground passage, London, England
13. Security system in Oxford, England
14. Heathrow airport, London, England
15. Light systems in Paris, France
16. Subway in Taipei, Taiwan
17. Security gate in Bremen, Germany
18. Religious service heard through an induction system in a small church in Lucerne, Switzerland
19. Security gate, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
20. Induction system in a church in London, England
21. Signals at a subway station in Taipei, Taiwan
22. Sounds in the exhibition room at the ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
23. Security gate; location unknown
24. Tram in Bratislava, Slovakia
25. Electrical flame (decorative object); location unknown
26. Gare de l'Est, Paris, France
27. Paris, France; source unknown
28. WLAN, London, England
29. Security gate in the Musée de la Science, Paris, France
30. Tower, Heathrow Airport, London, England
All tracks copyright Christina Kubisch
Christina Kubisch is a Berlin-based sound artist. A pioneer of sound art installation, she is one of the most prominent European sound artists working today. Trained as a visual artist, musician, and composer, she studied painting, flute, and piano before turning to electronic music in the mid-1970s. Since 1980, she has focused on sound sculpture and sound installations that often involve ultraviolet light, solar energy, and electromagnetic induction.