Developed between 1972 and 1974 by Franz Seidl, an austrian electrical engineer, this device is intended to improve ITC (instrumental transcommunication) by using three different methods simultaneously: broadband receiver, self-sender radio transceiver and a high impedance microphone input. However, the Psychophone by Ohira + Bonilha is foremost a device dedicated to the problem of scientific method and data interpretation. Because it can be used to communicate with other types of being (it was primarily intended as a scientific contribution to the research of the Electronic Voice Phenomena), which are not recognized by official science, it underlines the problem of scientific determinacy and its normative consequences. The Psychophone can be used as a nice synth or as a communication device, but it nevertheless asks us which axioms we choose to believe in and why.
Luciana Ohira and Sergio Bonilha graduated in Fine Arts at the Escola de Comunicações e Artes at the University of São Paulo. Since 2005, they have been working in a tandem. With solo and group exhibitions, they are actively present in galleries, museums and festivals all over the world, and they also work as curators. Their current topics of interest are psychotronics, telepathy and transcommunication.
More on Ohira + Bonilha webpage
