PIFcamp

A sonic study of a temporary ecosystem

Dmitry Surugin, also known as Van Sur Les, is an Amsterdam-based composer and producer working across electronic music, theatre and narrative sound. His background in renewable energy and sustainable technology shapes his interest in how people, landscapes and technological systems interact.

For seven days, PIFcamp becomes a temporary ecosystem of nature, people and technology. Dmitry will collect sounds from the Soča River and surrounding forest, the stories people carry with them, and the hidden voices of the machines they build. Using Ableton, Norns scripts and Max for Live devices, he will shape these recordings into an evolving sound piece. Sounds and environmental data gathered during the week may also become control signals, influencing the sequencing, texture, spectral character and balance between the sonic layers.

The project plays with the fluid roles of composer, performer and instrument. Dmitry chooses the material and sets the rules, while natural processes influence how it is arranged and transformed. Nature would not remain a passive subject of the recording: its own rhythms and cycles would influence how the music unfolds.

The outcome may become a listening session, a live piece or a sonic diary. Other participants are welcome to contribute recordings, voices, musical gestures, unusual sounds or environmental data.

Lea Binsfled is fascinated by fungi and microorganisms and excited about every moment they teach us something new. In the past, she has grown molds and mushrooms to include in the process that guides her design work and artistic projects. Currently, she is learning about fermentation and making a lot of kombucha. At PIFcamp, she’d like to explore how kombucha cultures can be used in creative work, computing or creative computing. How can we use kombucha leather to build de-composable server cases? Could a dried SCOBY mat be used to replace a printed circuit board? Can we get electricity from the fungi and bacteria that are mingling in an active culture? How could we use the heat emitted by our computers to boost our home made ferments in the cold seasons? There is no clear plan for an activity yet, but a lot of openness for sharing ideas and bubbly drinks.

Fransisca’s year #4 at PIFcamp will go like this: Come by to experiment, chat or document together! Whether it is a sensory meditation, a spontaneous taste test, fermenting session, or a casual conversation about food and life. Everyone is welcome to partake, play and create!

Fransisca is a food experience designer and artist, she uses food as a multisensory canvas to explore community and ecosystem thinking.

Photo by Katja Goljat.

Boštjan Čadež aka FŠK explains it like this:

Vodolivka is a low-cost automated system for watering up to 16 plants, each on its own schedule. It’s my second attempt at solving this problem.

The usual way to build something like this is with one solenoid valve per output. They work, but they get expensive at 16 channels, they need more electronics to drive them, and in my experience, they don’t always close reliably, which is a real problem when a leak means an overwatered plant or an empty tank.

So Vodolivka tries a different approach. The 16 lines run through 3D-printed pinch valves arranged in a circle, each squeezed closed by default. In the middle sits a stepper motor with an arm that rotates to point at any one of them, pushing that valve open while the rest stay shut. One motor operates all sixteen valves instead of sixteen solenoids.

The rest is straightforward: an ESP32 for the brains, a DC pump to move the water, and a flow sensor that confirms water is actually moving, so the system can tell if the tank is empty or the pump has failed rather than quietly watering nothing. Everything is configured through a web interface served from the ESP32 itself, where you set the amount and interval for each output. No app, no cloud.

It’s still very much a plan rather than a proven system. The whole point is to find out whether one cheap actuator and some clever geometry can do the job more reliably than a pile of solenoids. That’s the experiment. And if it works, I won’t have to bother my friends to water my plants next year. ;)

One project by Thomas Gibbs explores a new approach to making sound from 2D data. Past approaches either yield rather noisy unwieldy audio and/or a dense frequency spectrum. The engine he is currently building can create more predictable oscillators. They can be controlled via MIDI or OSC and could work nicely in live coding environments.

The other project explores the synthesis of insect sounds. Many sounds in sound synthesis are constructed from idealised, mathematical building blocks like sine waves or delay lines. This creates a certain timbre. Insects on the other hand produce sounds often using mechanical approaches, thus incorporating imperfections in their waveforms. Thomas aims to explore these imperfect audio synthesis paths.

Thomas Gibbs spens too much time with technology and now tries to make machines behave themselves.

Rasinger family will once again host a soldering workshop where you can an Elektrosluch Mini City – a DIY kit of Elektrosluch, an open-source device for electromagnetic listening. It allows one to discover sonic worlds of electromagnetic fields, surrounding our every step. Just plug your headphones & explore. Concept & electronics by Jonáš Gruska.

In their humble opinion the Elektrosluch Mini is one of the coolest and fun DIY devices out there. It is an easy build and unveils the hidden acoustic beauty of electromagnetic fields. Either you are at the beginning of your soldering career or already a soldering wizard endboss. The Elektrosluch Mini will intrigue you either way. The workshop will be held by the siblings Runa and Oskar with their assistant Bernhard. Be sure to bring headphones with a TRS connector!

On the other topic Bernhard will investigate the Laser Dusting Sweeper. The plan is to combine state of the art laser technology with a household known cleaning device, which collects dust like a magnet with electrostatic charge. The laser will highlight dust on the floor to visualise chaotic patterns in the dust and lets you see where cleaning is still necessary. Plus having a laser on a broom makes the use of the broom so much more sophisticated and fun and therefore leading to a cleaner home.

We are constantly surrounded by invisible electromagnetic activity. Laptops, power supplies, routers, lights and countless electronic devices quietly emit signals that shape our environment, yet remain beyond our natural senses. This project explores simple DIY tools that extend our perception by making these hidden signals audible. Together, we will build electromagnetic microphones, learn how they work and use them as listening devices to explore the electromagnetic soundscape of PIFcamp.

Rather than collecting recordings as documentation, Moira Muñoz Perez imagines a series of collective listening walks: wandering through the camp, following invisible traces, sharing discoveries and comparing what participants hear. Every object has its own electromagnetic voice waiting to be noticed. The sounds, conversations and observations gathered along the way may evolve into a shared archive, simple experiments or other unexpected collaborations. Collaborators may also experiment with translating some of these signals into generative visuals using TouchDesigner, but the focus of the project is not the technology itself – it is curiosity, attentive listening and expanding the perception of the world around us. The microphones are simply an excuse to discover that the invisible is already speaking.

Moira Muñoz Perez is an artist fascinated by hidden signals, forgotten technologies and expanded perception. Through electronics, sound and generative media she creates situations where invisible phenomena become audible, visible and shareable. She is particularly interested in collaborative learning, open experimentation and the moments of wonder that emerge when technology changes the way we experience the world.

Maša Knapič, Marisa Satsia and Jessica Stanley are interested in exploring ways to augment the body, particularly hands and nails, to create sonic and communication interfaces. Inspired by telegraph technology for morse code and record player needles, they will investigate hand-and nail-worn electronics to convert electrical signals into sound, or create patterns that can communicate information. At PIFcamp they will experiment with making prototypes and share these with other participants.

Jessica Stanley is a researcher and lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, working with flexible electronics and e-textiles, with a particular interest in tools and materials for open source hardware and democratising technology. Maša Knapič is a visual artist who interweaves painting practice with elements of technology and experimental electronics, drawing on a fixation with the image – as a legacy of the painting medium – on one hand, and on the construction of alternative mark-making machines on the other. Marisa Stasia is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher specialising in medical and biological arts, based in Nicosia, Cyprus.