EOD02

EOD 02
Electric Organ Discharge

2006, ed.1 1 4 taintless mirror aquariums 40x40x60 cm on pedestals 40x40x120cm with integrated sound and light low-voltage electric fish 1 computer, basic & C programming Total size of the installation: 250 x 350 x 180 cm

EOD 02 is an installation from Frederik De Wilde created in collaboration with LAb[au]. The project works with low-voltage electric fish that perceive their environment and communicate with each other by emitting electric discharges in the surrounding water and by measuring the resulting electric field.

The installation explores the electro sensing of these fish by the means of four taintless mirror aquariums, each presenting a specific school of fish. In each aquarium antennas which are directly related to four speakers translate the fish’s electric discharges into sound. What we hear is the fish's signals; their communications. In addition, under each aquarium a light bulb is placed which pulses according to the intensity of the emitted signals. In this manner the electrical pulses of the fish, their 'vision' of the otherwise 'blind' fish, becomes tangible in the form of light and sound.

Technological progress has given man similar abilities to perceive and communicate by means of electricity and electro-magnetism. Seen from this point of view the fish are natural predecessor of modern man enhanced with new senses due to technology. Further the translation of the fish's electric discharge in form of light and sound references the telegraph and the Morse code; themselves traces of the emerging information society based on the coding and decoding of information into immaterial signals.