< Lilian Beidler


pol air - hairdryer orchestra 2009/10

played installation for eleven hairdryers, ice and eight loudspeakers

A chunk of ice, black light, 11 hairdriers on metallic pillars around a small table with fluorescent drops: this is the arrangement of the Hairdryer Orchestra. When I control and play the hairdryers with a light desk and elicit the most beautiful sounds out of the coarseness of their voices, they become devoted creatures who melt the ice with their heat. Depending on their position, the glowing drops on the table board produce different rhytmical sounds and patterns that are amplified by eight loudspeakers around the installation.
The audience moves between the hairdryers and the loudspeakers, between the inner conglomerate of mechanical and elementary powers, and the peripheral electronic composition surrounding it. The air rises in temperature, the gleaming puddle grows larger - the sounds intermingle, get wilder, start to rotate, to crackle, to spatter, fizz and hiss and culminate into a large orbital swing - lights on.


The piece is about 15 minutes long. Following an edited version of the performance on the 8th of June 2010:

pol air doku movie

Recording: Franz David Beidler
Pictures: Thomas Reichenbach, Lilian Beidler, Michael Harenberg

OUTNOW! Festival Podcast by Janine Claßen Kulturg.u.t. of pol air

© Lilian Beidler 2023