Threshold Receiver Workshop at KEITH, Berlin, 12 December 2026
70,00 €
incl. VAT plus Shipping Costs
Build your own electromagnetic receiver in one afternoon, and hear the hidden signals around you.
Saturday 12 December 2026, 14:00–18:00
Keith Bar, Schillerpromenade 2, Berlin-Neukölln (Schillerkiez)
12 spots
Power lines hum, chargers chatter, phones and wifi burst, and on a quiet night lightning crackles from thousands of kilometres away. All of it is electromagnetic, and none of it is audible, until you build a receiver. In this four-hour workshop you solder your own Threshold Receiver, a receiver I designed for listening to the electromagnetic spectrum. Once it works, we use it to listen to the room, the bar and the Schillerkiez around Keith, Tempelhofer Feld, just around the corner is a perfect place to pick up many different radio frequencies, ranging from active radar, a weather station and VLF natural radio.
Book your spot now, full=full!
The city is full of signals we were never meant to hear. Power lines, transformers, tram cables, phone chargers and shop security gates all leak electromagnetic fields into the air around us. Below them, at very low frequencies, the atmosphere carries the crackle of lightning from storms thousands of kilometres away. Even solid matter has its own voice: railings, windows and bridges vibrate with the life of the street and the wind.
The THRESHOLD RECEIVER is a small, hand-built instrument for listening to this hidden layer of sound. It combines three ways of hearing in one device: an induction receiver that turns electromagnetic fields into sound, a VLF (very low frequency) receiver for natural radio phenomena, and a contact microphone, sensor and probe input to capture the vibrations inside materials. All of it comes together in a headphone output so you can listen while you explore.
Sound samples
VLF/Natural Radio (and statics from my sweater picked up by antenna):
VLF Receiver section heterodyning sounds, feedbacking with the headphones:
The internal sounds from my recording device (induction coil pickup):
A piezo microphone connected to the Input, in a bit of straw, with character engaged:
Building and listening
Each participant solders their own receiver from a kit designed especially for this workshop. No experience with electronics or soldering is needed: the kit is deliberately simple, and every step is explained on the board and by Wouter in person. Once the receivers are working, we take them out into Schillerkiez and Tempelhofer Feld and listen to the city as an electromagnetic landscape.
Dates and tickets
The workshop takes place on Saturday 12 Dec 2026 at Keith in Berlin in the afternoon from 14:00 – 18:00. The workshop will be taught in English (with occasional German, Dutch or Basic Portuguese when needed). Ticketprice for the workshop is €70 (incl. 19% MwSt), which includes the Threshold Receiver kit, contact microphone, antenna and instructions. The workshop is limited to 12 participants, tickets must be bought in advance via this webpage, full=full!
Once you signed up and paid you get confirmation of your spot via email!