Merche Blasco: What Hums Beyond
Preceded by a curator’s tour ofWavematters with Brett Mommersteeg
What hums beyond hearing? Live electronics reveal the hidden electromagnetic topography of the Tieranatomisches Theater. A site-specific performance.
What Hums Beyond is a site-specific performance exploring the hidden vibratory topography of the Tieranatomisches Theater building. To create the piece’s electronic backdrop, Merche Blasco moved through the building, including its offices, immersing her body in its electromagnetic activity. Using custom-built antenna-rackets and wearable EMF microphones attached to her fingers, she recorded electromagnetic traces through the movements of her body and hands.
These recordings have been woven into a quadraphonic composition: an evolving landscape of drones, pulses, and hissing patterns. Within this shifting environment, accordionist Luc Vitk / Lucie Vítková and sheng player Li-Chin Li improvise in dialogue with the electronic sounds. A loose score of gestures, spatial cues, and listening instructions brings the three performers into a shared process of attunement to the building and to one another.
What Hums Beyond approaches the building’s architecture as a living instrument, rendering audible the invisible vibrations that sustain its everyday life.
The event is part of our programme for Berlin Science Week 2026, under the theme “In Touch”, and the exhibition Wavematters. Attending to the Spectral. Bodies, Cities, Devices, on view from 2 October 2026 to 13 February 2027.
What to expect
6:00 pm · Guided exhibition tour
Where: Ground floor galleries
Researcher Brett Mommersteeg (Wavematters team) leads a tour through the exhibition, focusing on vibration, transduction, and the movement of waves across sonic, electromagnetic, and sensory registers. The tour offers an entry into the exhibition’s wider research on heat, noise, light, and electromagnetic signals in everyday urban life.
Duration: 30–45 minutes.
7:00 pm · Music Performance: WHAT HUMS BEYOND
Where: Lecture Hall, 1st floor.
A live performance bringing together electronics, accordion and sheng, a Chinese mouth organ. Recordings collected throughout the building unfold through four loudspeakers as the performers respond to the building’s unseen rhythms and to one another.
Related exhibitions and events
-
Wavematters. Attending to the Spectral. Bodies, Cities, Devices
Mehr: Wavematters. Attending to the Spectral. Bodies, Cities, Devices
Credits
- Concept, composition and live electronics: Merche Blasco
- Accordion: Luc Vitk / Lucie Vítková
- Sheng: Li-Chin Li
- Guided exhibition tour: Brett Mommersteeg (Wavematters team)
- Programme curated by: Paz Ponce (TA T)
Partners
Part of Wavematters. Attending to the Spectral. Bodies, Cities, Devices at TA T – Tieranatomisches Theater, within Berlin Science Week 2026.
Easy Read Version
What Hums Beyond
A live music performance at the Tieranatomisches Theater.
Tuesday, 10 November 2026
6:00 pm: Guided exhibition tour
Brett Mommersteeg shows you the exhibition Wavematters.
The tour lasts 30 to 45 minutes.
7:00 pm: Music performance
Lecture Hall, 1st floor.
What happens during the performance?
Merche Blasco is a sound artist.
She recorded electromagnetic signals in different rooms of the building.
These signals come from electrical equipment and networks.
She used special antennas and small microphones on her fingers.
This equipment makes the signals audible.
She used the recordings to create music.
Four loudspeakers play the recorded sounds.
Three musicians perform together:
- Merche Blasco plays electronic instruments.
- Luc Vitk / Lucie Vítková plays the accordion.
- Li-Chin Li plays the sheng, a Chinese wind instrument.
They listen to the sounds and to each other.
They respond by making music together.
The event is part of Berlin Science Week 2026.
This year’s theme is “In Touch”.
It is also part of the exhibition Wavematters.
The exhibition runs from 2 October 2026 to 13 February 2027.