Installation/performance Otago Polytechnic Art School 2009

Activation involving electrodes placed in the ground to pick up pervasive electrical pollution induced by mains electricity. The resulting signal is then fed into a hand made oscillator circuit forming a playable instrument. Public and advertised event at Dunedin Polytech Art School

My interest in naturally occurring signals occurred when remembering a simple experiment I did years ago. At the age of sixteen I built an earth battery with plates of lead and zinc buried in the topsoil to create a small but permanent voltage. Recently I was thinking about that experiment and considered for the first time that that voltage may have already been present. I went out into the backyard and inserted two iron rods into the ground. When I measured these with a voltmeter I was amazed to discover about 0.3 volts just pouring out of the ground. I moved these makeshift electrodes around a variety of places in the back yard and found the voltage was present at about the same strength everywhere. I constructed a small preamp circuit and hooked it up to a small 1watt battery powered speaker and amplifier and a quite loud and rich textured hum was heard. Inspired, I hauled out a 300 watt PA system and mains cable and really gave it voice. This really constituted the first Mains Hum installation although the neighbours probably didn’t recognise it as such.

First Mains Hum sonification Same signal, more amplification
Mains Hum in the back yard
	photo by Ted Whitaker
video documentation by Max Bellamy