Black Smoker, 2025

Black Smoke, 2025. Installation view: Midnight Zone, Museum Tinguely, 2025. Photo by Jens Ziehe

An auditory and bodily descent, Black Smoker brings together the primordial presence of underwater volcanoes, hydrothermal vents, and the magmatic currents surging beneath the seafloor. Using field recordings from deep-sea hydrophones and live data feeds, the work renders these often imperceptible frequencies to the surface through a multidimensional and haptic sound system. By amplifying the unseen dialogue with the deep sea, oceanic crust, and Earth's molten core, the installation plunges the audience into this mysterious realm, laying bare the energetic forces that govern it.

This project was developed in close collaboration with Victor Mazón Gardoqui, Felix Deufel, and GRAPES 3D Audio Control.

Live seismic data feed, self-generative composition.

All images are © Julian Charrière / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

Inferno Vent with chimlets at ASHES Hydrothermal field with sulfide worms. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/WHIO; V19

Thanks to the many scientists and institutes that contributed invaluable knowledge and support along the way: Aaron Micallef and John Ryan (Monterey Bey Aquarium MBARI), Susan Casey, Shima Abadi, Joe Dubrey, Deborah Kelley, Orest Kwaka, Bret Nestor and William Wilcock (University of Washington), Ocean Observatories Initiative, Ocean Networks Canada