The SENSORium is based on the Radio Cyborg Transmitter RCT, which was and is used in Graz from mid-2020 to mid-2021 in various contexts, mainly to bring radio art into public space and to serve as a sound perception interface for the city of Graz. At the SENSORium there are sensors mounted for measuring the environment such as Geiger counter and radiation in general, temperature or humidity and also fine dust. These sensors provide data in real time, which are either directly converted into sound (oscillators, granular synthesis, etc.) or indirectly serve as triggers for other controllable events (compositions, light control, volume, etc.)
The data measured live is converted into sound and thus the concrete environment becomes audible: a completely new form of soundscape is created and information that would be inaccessible or only very limited to us humans with our senses becomes sensually perceptible. The SENSORium thus becomes a sonic sensorium for the listener and, when implemented as an audio stream, enables the perception of the environment even from a spatial distance.
All software interfaces are implemented with Python and PureData, i.e. everything is programmed in free software and can and should therefore be used and developed further by others. Parallel to the audiostream, the direct MQTT sensor data will also be available online on the computer via a password-protected port, so that I myself have the possibility to extend the code and other artists have access to it and thus further compositions can be created.
The Radio Cyborg Transmitter RCT was produced by esc medien kunst labor Graz in the context of the Graz 2020 Cultural Year, concept: Reni Hofmüller
"I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things." Emma Goldman
Reni Hofmüller
I am a media artist, working mainly with sound (live performance, installation, radio composition) and have been involved with space for a long time.
This includes physical space such as the esc medien kunst labor Graz, where I have been involved in programme conception, design, planning and also in the mediation of this programme since its foundation in 1993. At esc medien kunst labor we concentrate on art in a technological context. This also includes the examination of public space as a social project and a place for artistic intervention.
Embedded in this and equally important is media space, in my case radio and the internet, including an examination of digital tools. Here I am primarily concerned with concepts of free software, open source and open hardware.
I was significantly involved in the development of Radio Helsinki, the free radio in Graz, as well as mur.at (a platform for non-commercial use of the internet for people working in the arts and culture), and I am still active there.
DIY artist, musician, composer, performer, organiser, curator and activist in the field of (new) media, technology, feminism and politics, working with free software and open hardware.