Electrical Walk Geneva

At the end of the 1970s, after a period of concerts and audiovisual performances, Christina Kubisch (DE, 1948, based in Berlin) decided to stop performing on stage. She chose to create spaces where the audience could move individually between different sound sources, listen in their own time and discover unusual musical soundscapes. She explores the many ways in which sound sources can be placed in space, as well as the specific aspects of architecture. Her large-scale installations are usually created especially for a given location.

KorSonoR presents two works by Kubisch: Cloud at Le Commun, and Electrical Walk Geneva, to be experienced in the city from Le Commun.

Kubisch has been working with electromagnetic induction since the early 1980s, developing it from a basic technique into an individual artistic tool for her sound installations. In 2003, she began a series of Electrical Walks, the one produced for Geneva being number 92. Equipped with special headphones that enable listeners to hear the electromagnetic fields that surround them and with a map suggesting a route through the city, visitors experience an auditory adventure that will alter their perception of everyday reality by giving substance to invisible wavelengths and charges.

Cloud (from 2011) is a suspended structure made up of 1,200 metres of black electric cable, which is both a visual object and a sound sculpture. Visitors are given special headphones that allow them to explore the hidden acoustic world of the sound installation via the electromagnetic induction system. The sources are electrical waves produced by digital communi- cation systems, security installations and other dense electrical fields: data processing centres, server rooms, offices, airports, shopping areas, etc. The twelve sound channels are mixed by visitors as they move around and under the cloud, with the sounds blending into each other in ever-changing ways.