Waves-Made-of-Nothing

Presented at Klang Moor Schopfe 2025

In Waves Made of Nothing, electromagnetic transduction transforms the oldest Schopfe on the moor into an environment where sound, light, heat, and electric fields intersect and interact.

By embedding DIY sound objects and optical devices throughout the structure, the piece exposes the subtle and often hidden processes of energy transfer, making them both visible and audible.

Waves Made of Nothing (Glass Rijke Tubes) – Klang Moor Schopfe, Gais, Switzerland [Image: Christian Schroeckel, 2025)

Glass Rijke Tubes convert heat from a wire at their base into sound through thermal-acoustic instability, with each tube size sustaining a different tone.

Copper wire coils positioned around glass vessels are set in motion by a self-made magnetic resonance feedback device. This induces small magnets to vibrate, producing sound while casting reflections of light across the Schopfe’s inner surfaces.

Waves Made of Nothing (Copper wire coils) – Klang Moor Schopfe, Gais, Switzerland [Image: Christian Schroeckel, 2025)

A camera obscura channels beams of light through a narrow aperture, projecting shifting images of the outside world into the space.

Waves Made of Nothing (Camera Obscura) – Klang Moor Schopfe, Gais, Switzerland [Image: Tim Shaw, 2025)

Together, these devices trace the direct transformations of light into image, heat into sound, and electricity into movement, connecting scientific observation with sensory experience.

Waves Made of Nothing considers the perception of electromagnetism and the ways it shapes our understanding of energy, communication, and the unseen forces that surround us.

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Waves Made of Nothing (Copper wire coils) – Klang Moor Schopfe, Gais, Switzerland [Image: Christian Schroeckel, 2025)

Waves Made of Nothing (Copper wire coils) – Klang Moor Schopfe, Gais, Switzerland [Image: Christian Schroeckel, 2025)