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Event

Reconstructing Harald Bode

A Synthie Lovers Festival

Fri, April 25 – Sat, April 26, 2025

Location
Media Theater
Cube
HfM | Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe
Language
German
English

Harald Bode (1909–1987) was a German engineer and pioneer of electronic musical instruments whose many inventions had a significant impact on electronic music.

His extensive archive with numerous notes, construction plans, circuit diagrams and prototype documentation has been part of the ZKM since 2019. Based on this archive, the SYNTH-Werk Munich, the ZKM | Karlsruhe and the HfM | Karlsruhe University of Music have reconstructed Bode's last completed instrument, the so-called Barberpole Phaser, an effects device that was only built three times. It is now available to a wider audience and can be used by artists and musicians worldwide.

In order to approach Harald Bode's extensive oeuvre from different perspectives and to celebrate the successful reproduction of the Barberpole Phaser, ZKM and HfM are organizing a festival dedicated to analog synthesizers and electronic sound converters.
The festival is aimed at artists and musicians, experts and scientists of the history of electronic art, friends and enthusiasts of analog synthesizers, as well as the interested and curious. 

The event begins on Friday with a symposium at the ZKM Media Theater with lectures and performances on Harald Bode's life and work from a scientific and artistic perspective, his inventions, compositions, and collaborations with musicians. 
In the evening, the event will move from the ZKM to the HfM. With reference to Harald Bode's own compositions and with the help of the reconstructed Barberpole Phaser, the newly created or rediscovered sound possibilities will be explored in concerts and performances. 
On Saturday, numerous workshops offer the opportunity to work with the instruments and analog synthesizers, to experiment, to tinker and to exchange ideas with like-minded people. 
The big concert in the evening with Afrorack and Siri Thiermannat the ZKM Kubus will close the festival.

A festival with artworks, workshops, lectures, concerts and an artist talk with:

 

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EN Programm Harald Bode Festival
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Program

  1. Admin Title
    EN Program FRIDAY 1
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    Symposium on Friday, April 25, 2025

    at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe

    10:00 – 10:15 amWelcome and opening words
    Alistair Hudson (ZKM) / video message, Matthias Wiegandt (HfM)
    10:15 – 10:30 amWelcome and opening words
    Peer Bode (Son of Harald Bode, Videoartist)
    10:30 – 11:00 am

    The Harald Bode Archive at ZKM
    Felix Mittelberger (ZKM)

    lecture

    11:10 – 11:30 am

    A Closed Circuit, Harald Bode
    Rebekkah Palov (former Archivist of Harald Bode, Sound-/Videoartist)

    performance

    11:40 – 12:00 am

    The book Reconstructing Harald Bode
    Ulrike Havemann (ZKM), Jens Lutz (ZKM)

    book presentation

    12:00 – 01:00 pmLunchbreak
    01:00 – 01:25 pm

    The project Reconstructing Harald Bode
    Felix Mittelberger (ZKM), Christoph Seibert (HfM)

    lecture

    01:30 – 01:55 pm

    Towards an experimental performance of Harald Bode’s Phase 6
    Juan Parra Cancino (Orpheus Institute)

    lecture performance

    02:00 – 02:25 pm

    Illusion in non-linear space
    Luís Antunes Pena (HfM)

    lecture performance

    02:30 – 02:55 pm

    Working on Harald Bode
    Gerhard Mayrhofer (Synth-Werk), Luís Antunes Pena (HfM), Juan Parra Cancino (Orpheus Institute)
    Moderation: Felix Mittelberger (ZKM)

    panel discussion

    03:00 – 03:20 pmBreak
    03:20 – 03:30 pm

    to be announced
    Suzanne Ciani (Artist)

    video

    03:35 – 04:00 pm

    Harald Bode – instrument to studio
    Florian Zwissler (HfM Köln)

    lecture performance

    04:00 – 04:30 pm

    Working with Harald Bode
    Senta Hirscheider (Artist), Svetlana Marasz (FHNW), Florian Zwissler (HfM)
    Moderation: Christoph Seibert (HfM)

    panel discussion

    05:00 – 07:00 pmBreak
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    EN Program FRIDAY 2
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    Concerts on Friday, April 25, 2025

    at HfM | University of Music Karlsruhe

    07:00 – 07:30 pm

    Listening through the Archive: Harald Bode and Suzanne Ciani
    Senta Hirscheider (Artist)

    performance

    07:30 – 08:15 pm

    Parallel Realities
    Julian Brandhofer, Francisco Durán Del Castillo, Joanna Friedrich-Sroka, 
    Felix Horn, Andres Kaufmes, Negin Mozafari, Luís Antunes Pena

    concert

    08:15 – 08:30 pmBreak
    08:30 – 08:50 pm

    to be announced
    Juan Parra Cancino (Orpheus Institute)

    concert

    08:50 – 09:10 pm

    to be announced
    Marieke van de Ven

    concert

    09:10 – 09:30 pm

    Mapping Ambiguities 
    Florian Zwissler (HfM Köln), Luís Antunes Pena (HfM)

    concert

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    EN Program SATURDAY 1
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    Workshops on Saturday, April 26, 2025

    11:00 am – 2:00 pm»Theremin@ Synthie Lover Festival«
    with Max Kosorić
    37 €
    Meeting Point: 10:45 am at the Information desk 
    11:00 am – 3:30 pm»Making: Midi Madness« 
    with Michelle Vossen
    30 €
    Meeting Point: 10:45 am at the Information desk 
    11:00 am – 4:30 pm»Resonant Networks: Ideate, Code, Build, Perform« 
    with Chris Spatschek
    15 €
    Meeting Point: 10:45 am at the Information desk 
    2:00 pm – 5:15 pm»The BODE Barberpole Phaser and a legendary MOOG sound source...«
    with Gerhard Mayrhofer & Uwe Rottluff
    free of charge
    Meeting Point: 1:45 pm at the Information desk 
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    EN Program SATURDAY 2
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    Concert on Saturday, April 26, 2025

    7:00 – 9:15 pm

    TURNS x Synthie Lovers Festival: Sonic Kinships – Patch, Plug, Mod

    Preact: Siri Thiermann
    Main Act: Afrorack aka Brian Bamanya

    10 € / 7 € (reduced)

    Kubus
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EN Who was Harald Bode?
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Who was Harald Bode?

Harald Bode was a physicist and engineer. After working at the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Oscillation Research at the Technical University of Berlin, he emigrated to the USA in 1954. He is considered one of the fathers of the modern synthesizer. His Modular Synthesizer and Sound Processor of 1961 and its concept formed the basis for the later Moog synthesizer. In the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, Bode designed and built numerous instruments, electronic sound generators, and organs, including the Melochord, Europe's first postwar electric musical instrument, which was used by Karlheinz Stockhausen and others. In the 1960s, Bode developed ring modulators and his Frequency Shifter, followed by his famous Vocoder in the 1970s. The Barberpole Phaser in the early 1980s combined many concepts and ideas from previous instruments and aimed to revolutionize the musical landscape.

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EN What is a Barberpole Phaser?
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What is a Barberpole Phaser?

The Barberpole Phaser is based on the psychoacoustic principles of the Shepard scale and the Shepard-Risset glissando discovered in the 1960s. A note or sound fed into the Barberpole Phaser appears to have an eternal glissando up or down as long as the note is played. Harald Bode decided to create a device that would produce this effect and add useful filters like fuzz. He called it the Barberpole Phaser because of its acoustic resemblance to the look of a barber pole outside a barbershop, which seems to go up and down indefinitely. Only three Barberpole Phasers have been built. The first was completed in 1981, the last in 1983, at the dawn of the PC era. However, their memory and processing speed were too limited for Bode's sound ideas. Nevertheless, he later attempted to emulate the principle on a Commodore personal computer, but this was never presented to the public.

© Harald Bode, ZKM | Karlsruhe, Harald Bode Estate
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Harald Bode Estate

More information on Harald Bode and his estate at ZKM | Archives

© Harald Bode, ZKM | Karlsruhe, Harald Bode Estate

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HfM | Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe

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ZKM | Center for Art and Media

Lorenzstraße 19
76135 Karlsruhe

+49 (0) 721 - 8100 - 1200
info@zkm.de

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