Tucked into the railing of the Altmarkt memorial in central Dresden is one of the most quietly powerful public artworks in Germany. "touched echo" was installed in 2008 by artists Nikola Bast and Michael Schmitz, and it works through a principle most people have never experienced: bone conduction.
You lean your elbows on the railing — a smooth metal bar at the right height — and cup your palms over your ears. The contact between your elbows and the railing completes a circuit: audio signals travel from the metal through your arm bones, through your skull, and arrive at your inner ear as if they originated inside your head. No speakers, no headphones, no visible technology.
What you hear is the sound of aero-engines: the low drone of the RAF Lancaster bombers as they flew over Dresden on the night of 13-14 February 1945, heard at the pitch and volume that people standing on the Altmarkt would have experienced in the minutes before the bombs fell. The Altmarkt was the site where thousands of bodies were cremated after the raids.
The installation is easy to miss. There are no large signs. Most people lean on the railing without knowing what it is and experience it accidentally. When you do it deliberately, the effect — hearing history through your own bones — is difficult to shake.