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Between Air and Electricity

Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments

  • Overview
  • Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3
  • Chapter 4
  • Chapter 5
  • Other Examples

Tag: wearable

Posted on February 18, 2019February 18, 2019

Touch Amplifiers by Özgür Erkök Moroder and Steffi Weismann

sandpaper amplification costume contact microphone
The two Touch Amplifiers by Özgür Erkök Moroder and Steffi Weismann. Picture by Georg Klein

By wearing a costume we change what we look like. It is less common to change not only our visual appearance but our sonic appearance … read more

Posted on November 24, 2017April 7, 2019

Loudspeakeroperas by Huba de Graaff

In her opera Lautsprecher Arnolt (2004) Huba de Graaff decided to have most roles played by loudspeakers. Only the main character—the writer, Arnolt Bronnen (1895-1959)—is played by a human actor, Marien Jongewaard. Arnolt himself is literally a  “loud speaker”, screaming … read more

Posted on June 24, 2017March 3, 2019

Speaker Dress by Pauchi Sasaki

Our clothes can be seen as a form of communication between ourselves and the outside world. They give a visual impression of who we are and how we would like to be seen by others. Pauchi Sasaki designs dresses which … read more

Posted on February 22, 2017March 3, 2019

InPutOut by Ute Wassermann

Working with a principle similar to that in Windy Gong Ute Wassermann developed a kind of loudspeaker dress through which her voice sounded (see both pictures above from 1989).

In 2015 she composed a new piece called InPutOut using these loudspeaker … read more

Posted on February 6, 2017February 7, 2017

p. 163 Open Air Bach by Lara Stanic

Open Air Bach (2005) by Lara Stanic:

… read more

Posted on February 6, 2017August 25, 2018

p. 107 Streetwalker by Ellen Fullman

Streetwalker (1980) by Ellen Fullman, amplifying the skirt with contact microphones:

… read more

Posted on January 6, 2017February 7, 2017

p. 3 Audio Ballerina’s by Benoît Maubrey

Audio Ballerina’s by Benoît Maubrey:

… read more

Posted on January 6, 2017February 20, 2017

p. 3 LapStrap by Steffi Weismann

Different Version of LapStrap (since 2010) by Steffi Weismann, all using portable loudspeakers:

… read more

Between Air and Electricity

  • Table of Contents
  • Cathy van Eck
  • introduction

key words

  • (acoustic) feedback
  • (hemi)spherical loudspeakers
  • contact microphones
  • everyday objects
  • flute
  • flying loudspeakers
  • movement
  • percussion
  • phonograph
  • piano
  • pick-ups
  • prepared loudspeakers
  • prepared microphones
  • sound reinforcement systems
  • space
  • tactile transducers
  • ten or more loudspeakers
  • trumpet
  • tuning fork
  • violin family
  • voice
  • walking
  • water
  • wearable

time line

  • 1950s and earlier
  • 1960s
  • 1970s
  • 1980s
  • 1990s
  • 2000s
  • 2010s
  • 2020s

Recent Posts

  • Megaphone Music I

  • A hydrophone synthesiser by Tomoko Sauvage

  • in steps by Ricardo Eizirik

  • Touch Amplifiers by Özgür Erkök Moroder and Steffi Weismann

  • Kkwaenggwari and Bambusoides by Ji Youn Kang

  • acoustic resonators by Jeff Snyder

  • Ohr-Weide — Salix aurita by île flottante | Andrea Gsell & Nica Giuliani and Lilian Beidler

  • Drohnenmusik by Genoël von Lilienstern

  • Echo Moiré by Matteo Marangoni

  • Kropka na Ogonie and Soroka Fruwa by Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman

  • 112 loud-speaking telephone receivers and other early sound reinforcement systems by Ralf Ehlert

  • Transduction and Acoustic Radiator by Kristen Roos

  • Loudspeakeroperas by Huba de Graaff

  • Points of Contact by Erfan Abdi

  • Vestiges of Discomposition and other works by Simon Whetham

  • The Springboard by Eric Leonardson

  • Touche Nature by I-lly Cheng

  • Small Movements by Adam Basanta

  • Speaker Dress by Pauchi Sasaki

  • Apart by Oscar Bettison

  • Sound in a Jar by Ronald Boersen

  • Transducer by Robin Fox and Eugene Ughetti

  • Speaker Feedback Instruments by Lesley Flanigan

  • Fifty years of loudspeakers and ping pong balls

  • Hemispherical loudspeakers for laptop orchestras

  • Doppelbelichtung by Carola Bauckholt

  • Tonewood by Hugo Morales Murguía

  • Klangflug by Lara Stanic

  • A sympathetic piano by Gökhan Deneç

  • An active loudspeaker by Hermann Scherchen

Accompanying website for the book Between Air and Electricity by Cathy van Eck
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