kunrad – Technology Imitates Nature I: Rainfall

In a world where smartphones, tablets, and other modern technologies take over, we tend to disconnect ourselves from the outside world. And not only have we forgotten the ways of nature: we also don’t understand the technology we use in its place.

Dutch sound artist Kunrad tries to find a way to make us more aware of ourselves and our surroundings. The devices presented in this work used to be part of our daily lives. They have lost their purpose, being thrown away by society, treated as disposable goods. Through his fascination of electronics and mechanics, Kunrad has altered the machines into intriguing instruments and lets them interact with each other.

This installation works as follows: a small low-voltage pulse is being triggered by a relay. The pulse passes across the equalizer and then to the speaker, which creates a short ticking sound. The output of the equalizer is routed back as the input of the equalizer, creating a feedback loop. In between, he has placed a variable resistor to control the amount of feedback.

Every time the pulse passes through the equalizer, the characteristics of the timbre – created by the settings of the equalizer – are amplified until the listener eventually hears a tone. By varying the pulse width and other parameters a playful, yet gentle, sound palette is created. The sound palette resembles Kunrad’s artistic view on rainfall: the perceiving tendency to find patterns in the tapping sound the rain creates.

Kunrad is an artist based in The Netherlands who mainly works with sound installations, compositions, and performances.