The Styrofoam boat was created as part of an interdisciplinary setup entitled CONTINENT, a collaboration of dancer and choreographer Paul Wenniger with sound artist Nik Hummer and visual artist Leo Schatzl, that was experimentally developed and presented in a factory hall in Liesing, Vienna’s twenty-third district, in November 2008.
The Styrofoam boat was set up as a landmark on the premises of the Central Garden, a non-profit community garden project on the quayside of the Danube Canal. The boat’s hull had four structure-borne sound converters built in which transformed the vessel into a huge loudspeaker. Aside from audio effects, the main attraction were the sound wave-generated vibrations from inside the object.
Using a number of mini phone plugs, passers-by could plug in their own music players (MP3 players, Walkmans) to amplify their own sounds through the object. Simultaneously, the looped playback of material recorded during the opening performance provided a basic soundscape. The sounds were adjusted in such a way as to keep the object resonating. The sound installation had a time switch and was in operation every day from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. The object was also intended for use as an additional loudspeaker for events taking place at the Central Garden.
In the opening performance by Nik Hummer, Leo Schatzl, and Paul Wenninger, the object was put in a selfresonant state through feedback from different sound producers (trautonium, synthesizer, monochord) and Styrofoam sounds (recorded during the production of the boat).