DEMO:POLIS – Decentralized Music "Electrical Walks Berlin" by Christina Kubisch

For nearly 30 years Christina Kubisch has been working with the system of electromagnetic induction. The “Electrical Walks”, a further development of her sound installations, are a work in progress, and an invitation to take part in city walks of a special kind. In this case the acoustic perception of aboveground and underground electromagnetic fields are not suppressed, but instead become amplified and audible with particularly sensitive electromagnetic wireless headphones.

The palette of these noises, their timbre and volume vary from site to site and from country to country. They have one thing in common: they are ubiquitous, even where one would not expect them. Light systems, transformers, radar systems, anti-theft security devices, surveillance cameras, power lines, computers, wireless Internet, streetcar cables, antennas, automated teller machines, neon advertising, mobile navigation systems, etc., create a spectrum of electrical fields that are as if hidden under cloaks of invisibility, but of incredible presence. In addition to its “global players,” every nation and every city has completely individual electromagnetic sound landscapes.

The “Electrical Walks Berlin” takes in the Hansaplatz and its immediate surroundings: two locations, which could not be more disparate despite their geographic proximity. While the environs around the Academy send out dense but constant electric fields, “ elements of the new mobile society” are also electromagnetically tied to the central station.

The Walks are part of the music programme "Decentralized Music" in the frame of the exhibtion "DEMO:POLIS - The Right to Public Space".