Hidroscopía/Higroscopía is an ‘Active Installation’ composed of 3 humidity iron collectors and a salt pyramid, interconnected each others by transparent rubber tubes – which allow the water to move through the simple hydraulic principle of communicating vessels.

Salt (hygroscopic element) absorbs water up to its maximal swelling capacity, reaching an equilibrium point of saturation beyond which we assist the gradual collapse of the pyramid.

During the night, we will record a sound registration of dripping water and the crunch of salt, through some piezos (micros) located in different parts of the work.

«salt sound generator«: transforming electrical resistance of humid salt into sounds.

There are 4 sound generators with 2 resistance electrodes each. The first electrode controls the rate of sound pulses: high humidity means high repetition rate. The 2nd electrode controls the pitch of the sound: high humidity transforms to high pitch. Beside the humidity parameter, other physical properties also influence the electrode resistance: mechanical pressure (be careful not to break the glass window of the light box) or the amount of salt covering the electrodes.

The viewer can interact with the ‘Salt Sound Generator’, to compose its own sound map, moving the electrodes in the salt bed, or by moving salt to and from the electrodes with the painters brush.

Materials: recycled glass window, wooden boards & stones from the beach, Es Trenc salt, recycled cables, electronic components built during 3 days of Mallorca holidays by : Wolfgang Dorninger (A), Jördis Drawe (D), Gabriele Kling-Dorninger (A), Uwe Schüler (D) with the kind help of 2monos (E) and Diego Álvarez ‘Basajaun’