Ends
Canned Silence
A 250 ml borosilicate jar of the silence of a named room, sealed in the room and opened once.
€13,420
pledged of €16,000 goal
- Backers
- 249
- Funded
- 83%
- From
- €19
Backed by Jonas K., Fenna V. and 247 others
Recently backed
- Jonas K. · Hamburg ·
- Fenna V. · Utrecht ·
- Linnea S. · Gothenburg ·
- Mathis R. · Lyon ·
Story
A room is quiet in a particular way. Until now there was no way to keep it.
The recording
Each room is logged for 24 hours before it is sealed. The microphone is a calibrated condenser capsule at 1.2 m. The log records the noise floor, the reverberation time in six octave bands and every event above 30 dB(A). The library at 03:10 has four. The stairwell at 04:40 has one, a pipe.
The sealing
The jar is opened in the room, left until it has the room's air and then closed with the room empty. The lid is torqued to 1.2 N·m. The time of closing is written on the datasheet and nowhere else. Nothing is added to the jar.
Opening
A jar can be opened once. The silence it holds is then released into the room it is opened in, which then holds both. Backers who opened prototypes report that the effect lasts between four and nine seconds, depending on the room.
The rooms
The first run is three rooms: a municipal library, the stairwell of a 1960s block and a church on a Monday. A field after snowfall is the first stretch goal, at €18,000. The Anechoic edition is limited to forty jars and is the quietest room we have been able to book.
| Volume | 250 ml |
|---|---|
| Vessel | Borosilicate 3.3 jar, 2 mm wall, 72 mm diameter |
| Lid | Stainless steel or brass, silicone gasket |
| Sealed | In the room, at the logged time, with the room closed |
| Noise floor | Library 18 dB(A), stairwell 14 dB(A), church 21 dB(A) |
| Anechoic edition | −9 dB(A), recorded in a chamber in Aarhus |
| Datasheet | 24-hour noise log and RT60 per octave band, numbered to the jar |
| Shelf life | Indefinite if unopened. The contents do not settle |
| Opening | Once |
Stretch goals
- €18,000A fourth room: a field after snowfall, 06:00(not yet)
- €26,000Labels in the Inventor's own handwriting(not yet)
Rewards
A Jar of Silence
€29
One sealed 250 ml jar with its numbered datasheet.
- Ships to Domestic, Europe, Rest of world
- Est. delivery Dec 2026
- 150 claimed
Three rooms
€79
One jar of each room, on a shelf card, with three datasheets.
- Ships to Domestic, Europe, Rest of world
- Est. delivery Dec 2026
- 55 claimed
Anechoic edition
€129
One jar sealed in an anechoic chamber, numbered by hand, with its calibration record.
- 16 of 40 left
- Ships to Domestic, Europe, Rest of world
- Est. delivery Dec 2026
- 24 claimed
The datasheet recording
€19
The 24-hour noise log of one room as a four-minute audio file. It is quiet.
- Digital, nothing ships
- Est. delivery Nov 2026
- 20 claimed
Add-ons
Add a Reward to your Cart first: Add-ons come with one.
- Spare lid and gasket€8
- Shelf cardA printed card for the shelf the jar stands on.€6
Just support it
No Reward, only the satisfaction. With a Reward in your Cart, this adds to that Pledge as bonus support.
Updates
What the jar contains
A Backer asked what the jar contains. It contains 250 ml of the room, less everything that the room usually has. The datasheet lists what was removed. It is a short list.
On the Anechoic edition
The anechoic chamber in Aarhus was booked for two days. The jar was sealed in the chamber at −9 dB(A), which is below the threshold of hearing for most Backers. The datasheet records it anyway.
Forty jars will be sealed. 24 are already claimed.
The first week
The first week closed at 38% of the goal. The library at 03:10 is the most chosen room, ahead of the stairwell by about two to one.
Several Backers asked how the noise floor is measured. The capsule is calibrated before every logging session, and the calibration record is part of each datasheet.
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Comments
How do you know the jar is silent and not just empty?
An empty jar contains air. A sealed jar contains the air that was there and the absence of what was not. Both are in the datasheet.
Backed the three rooms. The church is the one I am most curious about.
Can I open it somewhere loud, to hear the difference?
You can. The jar will release its silence into the loud room, where it will last under a second. We do not recommend this.
Does it travel? I live in Utrecht and the library is in Aarhus.
It travels well. The jar is rated to 30 kPa below ambient, and nothing has been heard from any prototype in transit.
Opened a prototype at the weekend. I can confirm it was quiet for about six seconds.
Could the second stretch goal be a lid that does not click?
The lid does not click. It releases with a sound of 31 dB(A), which is recorded on the datasheet as the last entry.
Is the church recording a Monday every week or one Monday?
One Monday, between 14:00 and 14:20. It was an ordinary Monday.