“Solar Critters” is a sound-installation by Andreas Zißler, Fabian Lanzmaier and Klemen Kohlweis. Sounds are created by light-sensitive primitive electronic circuits which respond dynamically to the traveling sun, subtly shifting through various states and thereby changing their sounds and behavior throughout the day. The sounds are amplified through three parabolic audio reflectors. These speakers create a narrow sound beam which gets reflected, absorbed and redirected by the topology of the surrounding landscape with its forests, hills, bushes and pits. In this interplay, the entire environment transforms into an instrument. Moving shadows, weather conditions, sun position and change of seasons become parameters in a long-lasting generative composition. Visitors are invited to wander around in the field and thereby actively engage with the sonic environment of the solar critters.

Andreas Zißler, Fabian Lanzmaier and Klemens Kohlweis are transdisciplinary artists based in Vienna. Sharing an experimental approach and coming from different backgrounds their collaborative work operates in the intersections of architecture, sculpture, sound and media art, resulting in site specific installations and performances.

Andreas Zißler webpage
Fabian Lanzmaier webpage
Klemens Kohlweis Instagram