Klangfiguren

A plate that is bowed forms standing waves; sand gathers where the plate is at rest. The crystal field computes exactly these figures: on the nodal lines the crystals remain standing, between them they withdraw into the ground.

Every few seconds the figure changes, and the field moves softly from one pattern into the next. A touch strikes up the next tone and sends a ring of light across the plate.

Crystals grow according to rules, and rules can be made visible: here a tone decides where something grows up and where not. The museum itself is about exactly that: the permanent exhibition “Das weiße Wunder” at the Westfälische Salzwelten leads into underground vaults full of crystals that formed more than 250 million years ago, shows their lattice structure under salt microscopes and tells how brine becomes salt on the Hellweg — Bad Sassendorf is an old salters' town.

“Klangfiguren” can be experienced at the Ferromone family festival “Farbexplosion” at the Westfälische Salzwelten, Bad Sassendorf – on Saturday, 17 October 2026, 6 to 10 pm.

Placement in the post-digital model of positing

Here a tone does the positing, not the hand: the nodal lines of the standing wave decide where crystal stands. An order becomes visible that is otherwise only audible — the form is the trace of a rule, not its depiction.