Porcelain Membrane Wall

2022

In collaboration with artists Adi Hollander, Andreas Tegnander
and Sungeun Lee

As part of “Haptic Room Studies”, presented at the exhibition of the Embassy of Inclusive Society in Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week 2022

Featuring the film Summer Camp (2007) by Yael Bartana with kind courtesy of Van Abbemuseum and the artist


Haptic Room Studies are experimental installation spaces that offer another way of experiencing sound: “haptic listening” explores complex textures and layers of the world of sound through somatic perception when a body is in contact with a room’s interior surfaces, be it a wall, floor, seat or bannister.

In the haptic room Porcelain Membrane Wall, we restore film audio cues through touch. Mapping the human body's sensitivity, we created a spatial haptic system where various sounds are experienced in different locations on the body, making decoding easier for the brain. The perception is similar to how an ear can differentiate between various simultaneous frequencies without them blurring into a single sound.

Concept and production: aHoll Studio
Sound engineer and software design: Andreas Tegnander
Architectural design: Yonatan Cohen
Curatorial advice: Eva Fotiadi
Finances: Albert Manders
Text editing: Zoë Dankert

Photo documentation: Konstantin Guz

Building team: Miroslav Zach, Giorgos Gripeos, Máté Kohout, Willem van Erven Dorens, Aimée Phillips, Oscar van Leest, Julia Lok

Supported by Embassy of Inclusive Society, World Design Embassies, Van Abbemuseum, Creative Industries Fund NL, AFK, Mondriaan Fund, Caradt/Avans University of Applied Sciences, Stichting Stokroos, Amarte Fonds, Woojer, Sound Imports