Jakob Ammerer (AT), Patrick Blagojevic (AT), Jakob Gerlitz (AT), Benita Stampfer (AT), Florian Steiner (AT), Aida Suljic (AT)
u19 winner: Honorary Mention
Das Schallkraftwerk (en: The Sound Power Plant) is a thought experiment on the subject of “alternative energy”. In sound engineering lessons, students learn, amongst other things, that dynamic microphones generate electricity. Thereupon, a student asked, “Can I charge my phone with it?” An interesting question! In their film, the students explore this question.
“In our Multimedia Art class, we asked whether it would be possible to generate electricity from sound. Our first step was to search for information on the internet, but we found nothing. We did a lot of research and came to the conclusion that no research had been done in the field of converting sound into energy. With this insight, we attempted to discover a formula to calculate how many microphones we would need to illuminate an LED bulb. We got totally bogged down and asked our Physics teacher for help. She was prepared to assist us and together we repeated the calculations. We carried out our experiments, did a bit of research, and documented all of our efforts in a video produced in collaboration with the Multimedia Art and Sound Technology departments. To show how this means of generating electricity can be used, we also performed various tests. In one, our teacher drove his car down the street—once very fast, then a bit slower—while we measured the volume. We also measured our own screams, though that led to acute hearing loss in a few cases! We ran tests on volunteers, but we ended up having to censor those scenes and edit them out of our video. We came to the conclusion that this technology is still in its infancy, but if additional research is done, it might be able to power our smartphones at some point.”
Jakob Ammerer, Patrick Blagojevic, Jakob Gerlitz, Benita Stampfer, Florian Steiner and Aida Suljic launched the project Das Schallkraftwerk in 2017 at BORG Gastein (Secondary School), where they focus on Music-Creative Arts and Multimedia Art.
Credits:
Lily Hofmann (AT): Gesang (Schülerin)
Iris Liedl (AT): Lehrkraft
Christoph Plohovich (AT): Lehrkraft
Tanzgruppe – BORG-Gastein
Ensemblegruppe – BORG-Gastein: Aaron Prause (AT) / Pia Zeilner (AT) / Moritz Wagner (AT) / Felix Schubert (AT) / Isaak Hartmann (AT)
