Architectures of Vibration

Architectures of Vibration is an extended research project—structured in three interwoven parts—that interrogates the epistemic transformations and materialized cosmologies underpinning the phenomenotechnique of vibration from the nineteenth century to the present. Tracing how vibration has been harnessed as both a perceptual and operational force, the project examines its role in shaping scientific thought, architectural experimentation, and planetary-scale infrastructures. By foregrounding vibration as an epistemic and spatial medium, Architectures of Vibration reveals the entanglements of matter, energy, and knowledge production that have co-constituted shifting paradigms of environmental and technoscientific interaction.

updated March 12, 2025

AoV I

Architectures of Vibration

Environmental Control, Seismic Colonialism, and Planetary Epistemology

1898-1928

(Ph.D. Dissertation, Princeton University, 2024)

Historically oscillating between intellectual attraction and existential terror, human engagement with the phenomenon of vibration reveals a deep-seated uncertainty toward the defining marker of environmental conditions at the end of the nineteenth century. This dissertation examines the moment vibration’s environmental impact turned perceptible, measurable, and controllable via the entanglements and intersections of modern architecture, science, and technology. Dissecting discrete moments of this epistemic shift as it materializes in the German project of a seismic survey of the world, the study investigates the specialized designs of modern geophysics’ seismic research stations. Creating spatial buffer zones between vibrating environmental sectors, from epistemic spaces of complete isolation to liminal spaces operating as environmental filters, architecture discerned destructive from creative and obstructive from instructive vibrations. Two parts spanning four intersecting case studies examine the materialized cosmologies of vibration before, during, and after a significant epistemic shift that transformed the passive technoscientific approach to the physical phenomenon into an active phenomenotechnique. 

Part 1, “Seismicity as Design-Technique in Wilhelmine Germany,” traces the evolving spatial complexity of modern scientific architectures in the recently unified nation, epitomizing the unique German engagement with planetary vibrations as an epistemic carrier, design technique, and industrial accelerator. By inhabiting an intermediary space amid theory and application, architecture assumed a significant role in deciphering Earth and transforming planetary epistemology at the turn of the twentieth century. While German seismicity grounded national identity beyond surficial topography in the subterranean geology of the European homeland, it likewise catalyzed imperial aspirations via a novel form of seismic colonialism that marshaled the geophysical properties of Germany’s dispersed colonies and protectorates to revise geopolitical strategies.

Part 2, “Building a Seismic Colonialism in the South Pacific,” examines the alliance between colonial expansionism and pure scientific inquiry in the protectorate of German-Samoa. There, architecture realized novel alliances of planetary-scale technologies, merging the geophysical reception of Earth’s seismic waves with Germany’s expanding broadcasting network of radio waves. Soaring from the deepest depths to the highest heights of the planet, this Icarian ambition underlined the growing international importance of German geophysics while foreshadowing its precarious standing at the edge of global warfare.

Publications

  • [Vibration as Phenomenotechnique in the Environmental Conceptions of Modernism] in: Wahrnehmungskräfte - Kräfte wahrnehmen: Dynamiken der Sinne in Wissenschaft, Kunst und Literatur, edited by Frank Fehrenbach, Laura Isengard, Gerd Micheluzzi, Cornelia Zumbusch [forthcoming ].

  • [Seismic Colonialism, Architecture, and the Triangulation of the World: The Geophysical Samoa-Observatory in Apia (1902-1914)] in: Deutsch-koloniale Baukulturen. Eine globale Architekturgeschichte in 100 visuellen Primärquellen, edited/curated by Michael Falser [TU München Architekturgeschichte, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich, Germany 2023]

  • e-flux Architecture, Sick Architecture series edited by Beatriz Colomina with Nikolaus Hirsch and Nick Axel (May 2022).

  • trans 40: Phantasma (2022): 43-48.

  • react/review, vol. 2, The Sprit in the Shadow (March 2022): 26-41, 42-56.

  • PNYX 65, AA Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, 2019.

Presentations

  • “Planetary Abstraction, c. 1898: Transscalar Frontiers of Vibration”

    »Acts of Scaling

  • “Planetary Survey Architectures, c. 1902”

    M+M Program in Media and Modernity | Princeton University | Princeton, NJ

    invited by Beatriz Colomina, Devin Fore (Princeton University)

  • “Seismic Architectures and German World-Building in Samoa”

    conference – SAH Society of Architectural Historians  Annual Conference | Montréal, CA

    panel: Colonial Surveys | chaired by Samia Henni and Dalal Musaed Alsayer

  • “Vibration as Phenomenotechnique in the Spatial Conceptions of Modernism (From Geotechnik to Kulturtechnik)”

    Center for Advanced Studies “Imaginaria of Force” | Universität Hamburg | Hamburg, DE  invited by Frank Fehrenbach and Cornelia Zumbusch

  • “Environmental Control: Seismicity as Design Technique in Wilhelmine Germany”

    Doctalks x Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Unbuilt Environment | MoMA Museum of Modern Art | New York, NY, US [virtual]

     invited by Carson Chan, Demetra Vogiatzaki, Çiğdem Talu, and Sylvia Balzan

  • “Native by Nature: Designing Planetary Heimat in Oceania”

    conference – GSA German Studies Association, Annual Conference | Houston, TX, USA

    panel: The Visual Culture of German Colonialism | chaired by Mimi Cheng and Joseph Henry

  • “Colonial Waves from Apia to Yap: Technoscientific Architectures in Oceania”

    conference – Para-Colonial – Colonial – Post-Colonial. Influences and Transactions in the Architecture of Oceania (1840–1990) | Auckland, NZ

    panel: German Colonialism in the Südsee and its Encounters (1884–1914) | chaired by Michael Falser and Christoph Schnoor

Exhibitions

  • “German colonialism was a relatively short episode of four decades (ca. 1880-1920), but it spread across gigantic distances on three continents from Africa (German East or Southwest Africa, Cameroon, Togo), East Asia/China (Kiautschou) to Oceania (including German New Guinea). Despite this worldwide expansion, a globally oriented architectural history of the German colonial period has not been conceived to date. Commented by a catalogue with 100 critically illuminated case studies by a total of 60 authors, the exhibition presents colonial-era print sources on the expanded topic of German-colonial building and thus spans the arc from Windhoek to Tsingtau and Samoa for the first time.”

    curated by Michael Falser

    work: The Samoa Observatory

  • “Architecture and sickness are tightly intertwined. Architectural discourse always weaves itself through theories of body and brain, constructing the architect as a kind of doctor and the client as patient. Architecture has been portrayed as both a form of prevention and cure for thousands of years. With Sick Architecture, CIVA and guest curator Beatriz Colomina (Princeton University) highlight a topic that has shaped our lives since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

    curated by Beatriz Colomina, Nikolaus Hirsch, Silvia Franceschini

    exhibition design by OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen

    artist: Clemens Finkelstein

    work: sick world.building syndrome [phonon v.1] (seismic vibrations sensor, installation)

AoV II

The Total Environment of Vibe

Sensory-Substitution Design, Technologies of the Self, and the Technics of the Other

193x-197x

—in progress—

Building on the epistemic reconfigurations of vibration examined in Architectures of Vibration I, this project extends the inquiry into the mid-century moment when emergent media technologies and scientific advancements catalyzed a radical shift in the imagination of transdisciplinary practitioners. During this period, artists, architects, and designers moved beyond the modernist preoccupation with a romanticized aesthetic of technology toward a more immersive and affective entanglement with the aesthetics of technicity. No longer confined to formal analysis, they pursued an anthropological and cybernetic synthesis, envisioning systemic alliances between design and media technologies that transformed the modernist “machine-for-living-in” into an infinitely adaptive operative ambience.

This project critically examines the ways in which technoscientific experiments materialized the abstract pulsations of vibration through design and architectural technologies, rendering built environments as dynamic, reflexive systems. It traces how architectures, media infrastructures, and human sensory faculties became entangled in cybernetic feedback loops—where vibration was not merely a phenomenon to be harnessed but a fundamental modality of spatial, perceptual, and technological interaction. Whether through architectural environments that integrated reverberative dynamics, machines that modulated psychophysical excitation, or cybernetic systems that reconfigured the thresholds of sensory substitution, these mid-century explorations laid the groundwork for what can be called a total environment of vibe.

Publications

  • in: The Routledge History of the Senses, edited by Andrew Kettler and William Tullett [forthcoming]

  • [Vibration as Phenomenotechnique in the Environmental Conceptions of Modernism] in: Wahrnehmungskräfte - Kräfte wahrnehmen: Dynamiken der Sinne in Wissenschaft, Kunst und Literatur, edited by Frank Fehrenbach, Laura Isengard, Gerd Micheluzzi, Cornelia Zumbusch [forthcoming ].

  • in: The Sound of Architecture: Acoustic Atmospheres in Place, edited by Angeliki Sioli and Elisavet Kiourtsoglou, 71-86. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2022.

  • “Vibration: Planetary Media”

    Extractive Media Lecture Series | University of Minnesota | Minneapolis, MN

    invited by Katerina Korola (University of Minnesota)

  • “Vibratory Milieus: Transæctional Environments, Inhuman Ecologies,   and Urban Dwellers”

    “More-than-Human Cities” lecture series | Universiteit van Amsterdam | Amsterdam, NL

     invited by Carolyn Birdsall (Universiteit van Amsterdam)

  • “Vibe c. 1969: Indexical Ensembles”

    USC University of Southern California/University of Chicago | Chicago, IL, USA [virtual] invited by W. J. T. Mitchell, Vanessa R. Schwartz, and Ori Levin

  • “Vibe: An Ontology of Ambience in the Postmodern”

    conference – SAH Society of Architectural Historians  Annual Conference | Providence, RI, USA | panel: The Sound of Architecture: Acoustic Atmospheres in Place | chaired by Angeliki Sioli and Elisavet Kiourtsoglou

Presentations

  • “Architecture and sickness are tightly intertwined. Architectural discourse always weaves itself through theories of body and brain, constructing the architect as a kind of doctor and the client as patient. Architecture has been portrayed as both a form of prevention and cure for thousands of years. With Sick Architecture, CIVA and guest curator Beatriz Colomina (Princeton University) highlight a topic that has shaped our lives since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

    curated by Beatriz Colomina, Nikolaus Hirsch, Silvia Franceschini

    exhibition design by OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen

    artist: Clemens Finkelstein

    work: sick world.building syndrome [phonon v.1] (seismic vibrations sensor, installation)

Exhibitions

AoV III

Sensory Fields

 Alien resonances, Planetary Intelligence, and the Vibratory Continuum of Life–Lyfe

—in progress—

This project investigates the contemporary applications of vibration at the intersection of planetary sciences, astrobiology, and environmental sensing, positioning them within an evolving lineage traced through Architectures of Vibration I and II. These historical inquiries provide a vibratory prehistory to the present, revealing how vibration—as both a perceptual and operational force—continues to redefine planetary knowledge production. Today, vibration technologies extend beyond terrestrial infrastructures into planetary sensing systems, where seismic, electromagnetic, and chemical oscillations function as critical probes for detecting biosignatures. From vibrometry and environmental modeling to interplanetary missions such as NASA’s InSight on Mars and ESA’s JUICE, vibration emerges as an instrument for deciphering planetary ecologies and theorizing the continuum between life and lyfe—hypothetical living systems beyond Earth’s biochemical paradigms.

This project critically examines how vibratory processes, spanning the micro to cosmic scale, challenge conventional definitions of life and intelligence. At this threshold, vibration is no longer merely a technical tool but a speculative medium through which planetary cognition and alien resonances materialize. Whether tracing hidden oceanic oscillations beneath icy moons, probing “weird” chemistries that destabilize Earth-centric biology, or reconfiguring the limits of perception through transscalar feedback loops, vibration operates as both signal and epistemic bridge. By linking planetary science to vibratory epistemologies, Sensory Fields reimagines evolution as a vibratory process, unsettling anthropocentric notions of existence and opening new conceptual horizons for planetary intelligence in a vibratory cosmos.

Publications

  • koozArch (June 2022)

  • e-flux Architecture, Sick Architecture series edited by Beatriz Colomina with Nikolaus Hirsch and Nick Axel (May 2022).

  • trans 40: Phantasma (2022): 43-48.

Exhibitions

  • “Architecture and sickness are tightly intertwined. Architectural discourse always weaves itself through theories of body and brain, constructing the architect as a kind of doctor and the client as patient. Architecture has been portrayed as both a form of prevention and cure for thousands of years. With Sick Architecture, CIVA and guest curator Beatriz Colomina (Princeton University) highlight a topic that has shaped our lives since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

    curated by Beatriz Colomina, Nikolaus Hirsch, Silvia Franceschini

    exhibition design by OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen

    artist: Clemens Finkelstein

    work: sick world.building syndrome [phonon v.1] (seismic vibrations sensor, installation)

  • “The participatory artwork Planetary Forest: Bring the Forest into the Garden refers to the scientific and cultural construction of worlds. Placed on a free-standing green area next to the newly built greenhouses of the Botanical Garden Giessen, the regional forest soil is relocated and recreated as a living sculpture. The planetary material originates from an ecological disturbance area in the city forest of Rosbach vor der Höhe, Hesse, which was severely affected by forest dieback. The supposedly natural forest is carried into the human made world of the botanical garden. There, it serves as an element of ethical, aesthetic, ecological, and political disruption that raises awareness for forest dieback and showcases the artificiality of our conception of nature. Like a crack in the perfectly constructed reality, the artwork sparks discussions on the harmful impacts of climate change and human societies on local forests, reflected on in a planetary context.”

    curated by Clemens Finkelstein and Mathias Kessler

    artist: Clemens Finkelstein, Mathias Kessler, Claudia Hartl

    work: Planetary Forest: Bring the Forest into the Garden

  • curated by Clemens Finkelstein and Mathias Kessler

    works by Clemens Finkelstein, Mathias Kessler, Claudia Hartl

    artist: Clemens Finkelstein

    work: vibrascapes

  • “The Future of _Space // Reflections is an exhibition aims at opening a dialogue about the shifting relationships to space we have all experienced through a year that has brought critical issues to the fore and insisted on necessary change. Our conceptions of space have all been forever changed by the social and medical events of the year. On the anniversary of the stay-at-home order in Los Angeles, the A+D Museum asked artists who participated in the first exhibition to come back to their work and create a reflection.”

    artist: Â (Clemens Finkelstein and Parsa Khalili)

    work: Â Space 2.0 [extended stasis]

  • “As we Zoom into this new normal, a83 hits pause (||) to consider what it means to work remotely. Whether locked out of schools or workplaces, the coronavirus pandemic has produced all manner of dislocations. The home has become a workplace, school, studio, gym, bar, … all taking place within the four corners of your computer screen. “Working Remotely” is an opportunity for artists and designers to share their work off-screen. a83 presses print (Ctrl+P / ⌘P) to materially document this moment and reflect on its effects in the areas of architecture and design through the production of a living archive.“

    artist: Â (Clemens Finkelstein and Parsa Khalili)

    work: Â (risograph print)

  • “The Future of _Space comes as a response to the current global situation. As physical space becomes a fractured concept and experience, permeated by concern and hesitation, new means of engaging are arising. Out of this heightened awareness, we have the opportunity to pause and consider what normal means when it comes to space, and if after this rupture, we will have to or should discover a new normal. Our social norms dictated by the spatial cues we have relied on are changing. When 6 feet of space is the closest to physical propinquity we’re allowed to feel, how then do we depend on digital frameworks and mental space to cut down the space between?”

    artist: Â (Clemens Finkelstein and Parsa Khalili)

    work: Â Space

Presentations

  • “Alien Resonances: Probing the Vibratory Continuum of Life–Lyfe”

    Scales of Life Symposium at ICI Berlin

    invited by Maria Dębińska, Magdalena Krysztoforska, Julia Sánchez-Dorado, Ben Woodard

  • “An Applied History of Vibration: Art-Science and Architecture-Technology”

    Panel on Planetary Thinking | Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen | Giessen, DE

    invited by Claus Leggewie and Frederic Hanusch

  • “Sick (World)Building Syndrome”

    CIVA - Centre for Information, Documentation and Exhibitions on the City, Architecture, Landscape and Urban Planning | Brussels, BE

    invited by Beatriz Colomina and Nikolaus Hirsch