10 Radiosensitive minerals engaged in an oscillating circuit create an evolving, unpredictable soundscape. Perikon Smelters delves into the accidental occurrence of semiconductive crystals with peculiar electrical phenomena to create a sound installation that resonates through and within heavy metals.

 

The work centres on the path of Zincite (Zinc Oxide), a red ruby crystal born in the fiery flames of human intervention to become the predecessor of the transistor. From the first accidental mine fire to the first electronically generated sound, Perikon Smelters traces the fascinating history of this mineral’s crystallography entangled with human error and sets to voice minerals that scream at the attentive, yet unstable touch of a needle.

 

Zincite is a scarce antropogen, neither natural nor artificial. Found in tiny bits on meteorites, its formation on Earth is shaped by man-made accidents. Some of the first oscillating crystals were born in mine fires in New Jersey, where zinc ores were accidentally fused with manganese and iron impurities, making them semiconductive. A contact between ZnO and pyrite makes a screaming tone as observed in 1907. Pikard G.W. names it Perikon, opening the doors for other experimenters like Oleg Lossev to use zincite to produce electronically generated sound, way before the acknowledged invention of the transistor.

 

Perikon Smelters inspires sculptural circuits from Crystondyne

(Losev’s early oscillator) to exalt inanimate semiconductors with 2 simple parts: a coil and a capacitor. When touched with electricity, the minerals generate tones and amplify crackles through their accidentally fused inner impurities. 

 

Between 1980 and 2004, a flawed furnace in Olawa was clogged with an uncanny number of large crystals formed continuously as zinc vapours met with oxygen unintentionally. The work collects colourful specimens from this recent crystalization event and pairs them with sulphides, galena and pyrites. One can say that these crystals form through human activity, but in a pique of him. With Olawa’s smokestacks repaired, the precise mechanism of ZnO sublimation remains a mystery, and no one knows when or if zincite will ever form again to oscillate.

 

Perikon Smelters captures this fleeting geological moment of sublimation, juxtaposing historical specimens with modern industrial relics to explore the unstable boundaries between human intervention, screaming minerals, and chance discoveries in technological evolution.

 

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