Christina Kubisch, born in 1948, is a Berlin-based, first generation sound artist. Kubisch served as professor of sound art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Saarbrücken, Germany, from 1994-2013 and has been a member of the Academy of Arts of Berlin since 1997.1 Kubisch’s career corresponds with the rise of sound art as a recognized category in art, and she participated in what was likely the first exhibition consisting of solely found art, Berlin’s “Für Augen und Ohren” (“For Eyes and Ears”) of 1980.2 Kubisch specializes in multimedia installations, performances, and participatory experiences that incorporate electroacoustic audio with visual arts. That being said, many of Kubsich’s works focus on the synthesis of different forms of art, such as the physical and visual exploration of acoustic dimensions of time and space.1

Out of her interest in exploring sounds produced by objects not normally considered “musical,” sonification methods play an important role throughout Kubisch’s oeuvre.3 For example, Kubisch is most well known among the soundscape composition world for her Electrical Walks of 2003. In these works, a unique combination audification with soundwalking, Kubisch guides participants through city streets wearing specially-designed headphones that “amplify electromagnetic fields into the range of human hearing.”2 Interesting, unexpected sounds arise from just about anywhere and anything that uses electricity – from lighting and wireless networks to antitheft security devices and cell phones.1

Kubsich has presented her Electrical Walks across the globe, including Germany, England, France, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Spain, Japan, and the US.1 She has noted that each presentation is local to its given environment, with timbre and volume of the electromagnetic noise varying from site to site. However, the work is simultaneously a global phenomenon. Kubsich has found that while some sounds are unique to their site and others alike across the world, in all places, these electromagnetic noises are ubiquitous, and pop up in the most unexpected of places.1

Additionally, the participant holds a large degree of agency in determining the outcome of the composition they hear. Following Kubisch’s prescribed route is only optional, and by adjusting their proximity and position relative to objects the participant can alter the timbres, intensities, and rhythms they hear, a freedom that Polli describes as “an opportunity to reestablish an ecological link with the source of information.”2,4 From this new link, Kubisch emphasizes a discovery of music in what might normally be cast off as meaningless noise. She describes the electromagnetic sounds revealed as “complex layers of high and low frequencies, loops of rhythmic sequences, groups of tiny signals, long drones and many things which change constantly and are hard to describe,” intricate worlds that demand attention and investigation.1 Kim-Cohen notes that by providing participants with these new, incricate worlds, Kubisch’s role becomes one typically assigned to a scientist rather than an artist, alerting the participant of “previously undisclosed facts.”2 But rather than merely notify participants of information, Kubisch has stated that she through Electrical Walks she aims to emphasize the shift in our perception of everyday reality that comes when one listens to a familiar environment through the unfamiliar context of the electromagnetic spectrum.1 While Electrical Walks does not explicitly explore human relationships to the natural soundscape, the work’s themes of reconnection and interrogation of our perspectives of the environments we situate ourselves in resonates with and also highlights challenges in the aims of other greenworks composers we’ll be exploring. Stay tuned…

You can learn more about Christina Kubisch and her work at her website, http://www.christinakubisch.de/en/home.

Works Cited

1. Kubisch, Christina. “Biography.” Christina Kubisch website, Web.http://www.christinakubisch.de/en/home. (Accessed 7 July 2016).
2. Kim-Cohen, Seth. In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art. London: Continuum, 2009. Print.
3. Orens, Geoff. Christina Kubisch Artist Biography. AllMusic.com, Web.http://www.allmusic.com/artist/christina-kubisch-mn0000048852/biography. (Accessed 7 July 2016)
4. Polli, “Soundscape, sonification, and sound activism,” AI & Society, vol. 27, pp. 257–68, 2012.