"Magnetic Resonance" is inspired by how migrating birds sense the Earth’s geomagnetic field to
navigate; a process thought to involve quantum entanglement within light-sensitive proteins in
their eyes.
An array of illuminated pendulums are set in motion by the push and pull of invisible magnetic
forces, moving with a high degree of indeterminacy. Each pendulum acts as a light-sensitive
instrument, casting sound in the direction of its swing to create an immersive, constantly shifting
soundworld based on radio waves, static electricity and signals from the Earth’s magnetosphere.
Kathy Hinde on her work:
“I’m fascinated by these extremes of scale - how phenomena at the subatomic scale might
allow a bird to sense something as vast as the Earth’s magnetosphere.”
“I am interested in creating a sense of ‘atmospheric electricity’ through a constantly shifting
electronic soundscape, moving across 27 speakers. I became fascinated by the way bees
communicate with flowers through static electricity, and how this suggests a perception of
space that is much more attuned to the electrical charges present in the atmosphere.”
Commissioned by Instrument Inventors Initiative, KONTEJNER and Overtoon, in 2026, co-produced as
part of New Perspectives for Action, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union.
Software by Matthew Olden
Scientific consultants: Alice Wong, Sam England and Daniel Robert
The performance at the opening is part of the Annual Performance Program at KONTEJNER.
