(C)ynthesizer is a DIY synthesizer that turns air pollution into sound in real time. Mounted on a bicycle, it reads air quality as the rider moves through the city and translates each measurement into tone, so that the air one is breathing can also be heard. Built from low-cost components and open-source code, it was never meant to remain a single instrument.
During the CYCLE UP! residency at ZK/U in Berlin, the synthesizer became the basis of a tool-making workshop with residents of Moabit, a neighbourhood that lives in the shadow of a coal-fired power plant. Together, participants assembled their own sensing devices and learned to read the air around their homes, shifting air monitoring from institutions to the people who breathe that air every day.
