Rhine Streaming

Karlsruhe is located in the southwest of Germany, near the French border. About eight kilometres west of the city centre the Rhine is tangent to the city. The particular history that binds city and river is the background to the concept of the installation Rhine Streaming, which shall be explained in the following thoughts.

On 17th June 1715 Margrave Karl Wilhelm from Baden-Durlach set the foundation stone for his new castle residence, from which the City of Karlsruhe later developed(1). The location was chosen a safe distance from the Rhine, which wound in constantly changing meanders through the plains, regularly flooding the land. Shortly after the founding of the City the economic advantages of a direct access to the water was recognised, leading the city founder's successor to the decision to construct a small canal that connected the city with the Rhine via a detour of the small river Pfinz. It was primarily building material that was shipped along this canal into the growing city. However it was not suitable for large scale trading(2). Eventually in 1802, whilst planning the city expansion, the renowned Karlsruhe architect and city planner Friedrich Weinbrenner designed a canal leading directly from the Rhine to the castle(3). It was meant to revitalise the residential and administrative city as its economic development had only proceeded slowly and its supply was largely dependent on the surrounding counties. The plan was discussed over many years and often modified but finally dismissed due to technical difficulties and the resulting high costs. During the 19th Century various other canal building plans(4) had been developed in order ease the situation of the small harbour, located two hours north of the city. But it was only in 1901 after the straightening of the Rhine had almost been completed and thereby the waterway into Switzerland had become passable, that the Rhine Harbour was built directly on the river just outside the city. Within a few years it had grown into an important and modern industrial harbour, making Karlsruhe a central reloading point first for coal and later for oil in the south of Germany.

The Rhine has always been known for its latent flood risk but in the mid 20th Century the growing pollution of the water and the necessity of preventive measures reached the public conscience more and more. When the entire eco system was severely damaged due to tons of toxic chemicals spilling into the river after a big fire in a big Swiss chemical company in Basel in 1986 the awareness of this sensitive topic increased even more. The states on the Rhine demanded measures of thorough unlimited observation through new measuring stations and monitoring devices placed along the river in order to be able to detect and prevent the spill of hazardous substances in time.

In 1988 the Rhine water quality measuring station Karlsruhe was built near the Rhine Harbour, which is operated by the Regional Institute for Environmental Protection and is nowadays one of the most modern measuring stations on any of Germany's rivers. The container house built on stilts is located within a few metres of the Rhine. Via a feed pipe water is pumped inside where it is divided onto different testing devices to be chemically and biologically examined. Apart from sample collectors and sedimentation basins for long term analysis there are also permanent testing devices providing current measurement results. With the help of video technology a population of Daphnis (water fleas), for example, is being observed and their behaviour is analysed by a computer(5). This generates statistics and calculates the results with chronological synchronism into a so called toxicity-index, providing a level of the water's toxicity. This data is routinely sent via Internet to the Regional Institute for Environmental Protection in Karlsruhe and in the event of an emergency also sent via SMS-message to the mobile phone of the officer in charge. From there the verified alarm can be forwarded to the International Rhine Warning and Alarm Service.

The Rhine water quality measuring station as a place and also in its function is the starting point for the Rhine Streaming installation. In the station data from Rhine water is generated with the help of scientific observation tools Ð the natural water stream is transformed into a binary data stream. The Rhine Streaming is based upon this principle: For the duration of the exhibition, by the use of parabolic dish antennas, a seven kilometres wireless link has been installed, feeding the data stream at best possible "band width" to the ZKM. The stream is flowing into the exhibition. Thereby the historical and at the same time utopian project of having the Rhine flowing into the city has been realised in virtual reality. The Rhine Streaming installation displays modern computer aided observation procedures, data analysis and modern distribution tools; at the same time spanning a bridge back to the historical understanding of the Rhine. This retrospect explains how the river itself has changed during the eras of the changing view of the Rhine.

The following signals produce the stream into the exhibition:
1) The first signal comes from the video observation camera already installed at the measuring station. This camera, which in standard mode is used to show coarse and superficial pollution of the water, looks onto the Rhine from an elevated position following the flow. The image is quiet, almost static. From time to time a large freight barge passes through the water along the camera. This image will be shown in the exhibition via video projection.
2) The test data collected from the configurations in the measuring station makes up the second part of the transmitted signals. The water flea test provides results that hint at the actual behaviour of living things in the Rhine eco system thereby documenting the water quality. They also represent the view of the scientist, using these tests to visualise the invisible.
3) An under water microphone delivers the third signal, making audible what is happening under the surface of the water. These are the flowing noises of the water, a monotonous multi-frequency murmur and softly tinkling pebbles, rolling along the bed. Every once in a while a humming develops growing increasingly louder, mounting to an aggressive screaming: the ear splitting sounds of a ship#s propeller ploughing upstream. This direct sound recording makes the river aesthetically tonally understandable. The river is given a voice as if in an interview.

(The Rhine Streaming installation has been developed in conjunction with the installations of Christelle Gramaglia and Jean-Pierre Le Bourhis and can be viewed in the exhibition under the general title Riverphonics.)


(1) Manfred Koch, in: Karlsruher Chronik: Stadtgeschichte in Daten, Bildern, Analysen, Stadt Karlsruhe/Stadtarchiv (ed.), Badenia Verlag, Karlsruhe, 1992, pp. 16-34.

(2) Ernst Otto Bräunche, "Der Karlsruher Hafen - ein langer Weg zum Rhein", in: Rheinhafen Karlsruhe 1901-2001, Stadtarchiv Karlsruhe and RheinhŠfen Karlsruhe (ed.), Info Verlag, Karlsruhe, 2001, pp. 15-26.

(3) Gottfried Leiber, in: Friedrich Weinbrenners städtebauliches Schaffen für Karlsruhe; Teil 2, Institut für Baugeschichte der UniversitŠt Karlsruhe (ed.), Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz/Rhine, 2002, pp. 17-38.

(4) Georg Hertweck, "Die Geschichte des Rheinhafens von den Anfängen bis zum Beginn des zweiten Weltkriegs", in: Rheinhafen Karlsruhe 1901-2001, Stadtarchiv Karlsruhe and Rheinhäfen Karlsruhe (ed.), Info Verlag, Karlsruhe, 2001, pp. 44-71.

(5) Dr. Michael Marten, in: Landesanstalt für Umweltschutz, Jahresbericht 2002/2003, Landesanstalt für Umweltschutz Baden-Württemberg (ed.), Karlsruhe, 2004, pp. 16-17.