Julia Koerner turns applause into sculpture with 3D printing

Last month, at A Night At the Opera Gala, the Zurich Opera House handed out the first Opera House Award to the team from the Female Classics organization. The award itself was no conventional trophy or statuette: it was a unique 3D printed sculpture whose design was based on applause. 

Unlike other art which is often inspired by amorphous concepts, the 3D printed award actually translates audio into a physical structure. This design process has been pioneered by Austrian designer and artist Julia Koerner, whose versatile work lives at the intersection of technology, art, music, and architecture. In fact, the opera award is not the first time that Koerner has created sculptures based on sound. In 2024, she created a 3D printed piece based on the fourth movement from Schumann’s third Symphony (itself inspired by the iconic Cologne Cathedral). 

In the latest iteration of the project, called Frozen Music, Koerner has used an audio recording of applause from a performance of Strauss’ comic opera Der Rosenkavalier at the Zurich Opera House. Koerner put the audio through a custom computational software, which translated the acoustic patterns of the applause (taking into consideration the amplitude and variation of the clapping) into a 3D model. The result is a highly textured sculpture that evokes the movement of enthusiastic clapping hands and the cacophonic sound of the celebration. Or, as Koerner’s team puts it: the sculptures embeds “the ephemeral energy of performance into a physical structure.”  

In developing the 3D printed award, Koerner worked again with curator Andreas Vierziger—who was also a partner for the first Frozen Music sculpture—and the Zurich Opera House. “At its core, Frozen Music explores the translation of sound into form,” Koerner said. “Using advanced computational design methods, the project interprets the nuances of musical expression—its intensity, rhythm, and character—into intricate geometries realized through 3D printing. The sculpture draws from architectural design processes, embodying a convergence of art, music, and technology.”

Koerner, who is also the founder of her own studio JK Designs GmbH and JK3D, is a prolific designer in the 3D printing and creative worlds. Readers will surely remember that she collaborated with award-winning costume designer Ruth E Carter to create 3D printed props and costumes for Marvel’s Black Panther films. She has also explored 3D printing and computational design in the creation of various products, such as glass vases and coral-inspired jewelry.