Pluviophone | Biophony of Het Loo

Paleis Het Loo’s long relationship with nature reflects historical systems of hierarchy and control over natural elements and more-than-human life. Like many museums, it has preserved nature primarily through lifeless specimens. Biophony of Het Loo challenges this paradigm by foregrounding the vitality of living ecosystems and proposing a different mode of encounter.

Biophony of Het Loo transforms the Grotto – once an aviary for captive birds – into a resonant chamber for the palace’s surrounding environment. Through an environmental monitoring station and a network of sensors, the installation transmits a live acoustic broadcast of the palace grounds into the space. Birds, wind, and rain enter the former site of containment as dynamic presences, moving through the architecture of the Grotto as they unfold in a spatial multichannel audio installation.

Central to the installation is the Pluviophone – an acoustic rain monitoring station designed as a large-scale resonator.
It monitors precipitation as both scientific device and sonic instrument. Microphones and glass elements capture the acoustic imprints of raindrops, allowing rainfall intensity and duration to be studied through sound. At the same time, these signals unfold as evolving soundscapes. Rain becomes both data and presence – an atmospheric event that can be heard, felt, and contemplated upon in real time.




[The Pluviophone and Biophony of Het Loo are co-produced by Jan Christian Schulz & Mauricio Valdés San Emeterio and are partially developed during a residency with V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, PiNA - Kulturno Izobraževalno Društvo and HEKA as part of Summer Sessions art and technology residencies.
All photos by Til Schulz]