EM Grid (Sachsen-Anhalt) | 2025

Set of 2 Porcelain Microphones, 4- Channel Sound Installation, Photographs

The electrical grid and the various infrastructural and relational networks that compose it are pervasive, reaching across almost every facet of modern life. Yet all too often much of its integral components recede from view, banalities we glaze over in the landscape. Can we learn to see it, and hence better understand our relation to it by making its machinations more tangible? 

These antenna microphones convert electromagnetic waves into sound, allowing one to perceive the fields of electrical activity that surround us. The microphones were inspired by the material properties of the porcelain insulators used on high voltage power lines, from the exposed copper wiring to the clay and glaze choices. 

These were shown alongside photographs taken in locations relevant to modern lighting and energy production in the Bauhaus and the local region of Sachsen-Anhalt, in addition to 4-channel sound installation composed of electromagnetic recordings made with the microphones in the same areas.

Credits:

Assistance with firing and studio: Valena Ammon

Shown at After Modern Brightness, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation