Christina Kubisch

After watching the videos on Christina Kubisch’s Electrical Walks, I was absolutely mesmerised by this project! It is such a dynamic and engaging work, and I really hope I have the opportunity to partake in one of her Electrical Walks someday. There are several aspects of this work of Kubisch’s that I found to be very interesting, which are the involvement of the audience in acting as composers in the initial iterations of this work, the process of unveiling the sounds of the city and constructing the paths for the walks, the potential for these walks to unify cities across the world as well as provide them with distinct sonic personalities, and finally the dynamism of the Electrical Walks as a reflection of the evolution of infrastructure and technology.

Kubisch mentions that in the 70s, she developed an interest in permanent sound installations, and began experimenting with electronics. It is at this time that she discovered amplifiers and transformed them into rudimentary “headphones” for her installations. These installations consisted of cables with electric currents running through them, and when the audience would step close to the cables, they would be able to hear the electromagnetic waves being emitted by them. She states that the layout of these cables enables people to “become composers within the installation” which is such an interesting idea to me. By having such direct control over the composition of sound that is heard, the audience become artists in their own right who are employing their intuition to also in some way “perform” within the installation. Moreover, it was even more exciting to see the sense of surprise and awe that is reflected in the expressions of her audience’s movements and expressions as they traverse the hidden landscape of sounds that Kubisch has constructed in different locations like fields and creeks (i.e. the shallow pool that was shown in her video on Electrical Walks). In this way, the auditory experience of the installation turns into a more deeply involved sensory one, as visual, tactile, and possibly even olfactory elements are integrated together. 

The process of designing the paths to be used in the Electrical Walks series is also quite an interesting one. In the 90s Kubisch discovered that her audience was hearing subtle disturbances in their headphones that didn’t come from her own installations. Upon investigation, she learnt that these sounds were emanating from the city, as a result of the incredible increase in electromagnetic waves being generated. I so wish I was alive at the time and able to participate in this moment, as I can’t imagine how fascinating it must have been to hear these sounds coming from the city for the first time. I suppose it must have sounded like the city was alive in an secretive, intangible way, and through her self-designed headphones, Kubisch was able to reveal this hidden life to the world. She mentions that she develops the routes for the Electrical Walks by putting on her headphones and traversing through a city, and charting a hand-drawn map of interesting locations as she walks (Fig 3). This process is quite intriguing to me as it reflects quite a primitive experience of discovery. There is an unknown space of sounds that lies before and Kubisch simply delves into it and undertakes the arduous task of manually mapping out what it contains. This lack of planning or preparation reflects a very humanistic quality and approach towards an “installation” that relies primarily on electricity.

Additionally, I believe this work also unites the cities of the world by outlining the auditory commonalities between them but also identifies their unique personalities in sound. Kubisch mentions that the noise generated by the electromagnetic waves allows her to identify “individual sounds [of cities] and global players” i.e. sounds that are universally identifiable in major cities, citing security systems as one example. I think this is a strong testament to the increasing globalisation of the world, and the gradual homogenisation of the systems that we use to sustain society. Moreover, Kubisch also notes that in her process of developing the routes, she attempts to find unique sounds to hear, but avoid making everything sound the same, while also trying to highlight interesting things to see as well. Personally, this seems almost like constructing a sensory portrait of a city through the sights and sounds that it contains, and gradually revealing this identity through the walk. While listening to the sounds in the video on Electrical Walks, there were even moments that sounded like a heartbeat to me, which furthered this idea that her walks capture a very intimate portrait of the personality of a city. 

Lastly, the facet of the Electrical Walks that is undeniably the most interesting is how the sounds that emanate from a city evolve along with the city itself and its infrastructure and technology. Kubisch provides the example of how the construction of a mall in a location that previously contained only homes completely transformed the sonic experience of walking along the route. Moreover, she recalls how with the evolution of TVs into LED screens, the sounds that they produced in homes changed as well. This is such a beautiful aspect of the Electrical Walks to me, as it is this intangible marker of how civilisation is constantly in a state of flux. Along with the “rise in noise” there is also a change in the “variety and density” of sounds. To me, this is further symbolic of how society is becoming increasingly reliant on electricity to sustain ourselves. It also raises the question of whether eventually, at some point, the sounds will become deafening? It would pose a stark contrast to John Cage’s 4:33 (I think it might be an interesting experience to watch his piece while wearing Kubisch’s headphones!). Kubisch also affirms that the technology of her headphones also changes in accordance with the demands of changing technologies in order to produce a more well-rounded range of sounds, demonstrating that everything from the medium to the final product of this work is never static.

Overall, this was another one of my favourite Daily Vitamins to learn about, right alongside Mary Reid Kelley’s This is Offal. I am awed by Kubisch’s work that at first glance seems simple, yet contains layers of meaning that are slowly unravelled for the audience. I think she generates a very unique experience for the listener that cannot really be accessed any other way, by disclosing to them the sonic secrets of locations around the world.

Provided References:
Christina Kubisch
A First Generation Sound Artist
Tesla’s Dream

Work from:
1st Dec 2020 – Daily Vitamins Assignment
Time with Professor Mike Rader