VolxTV

VolxTV is an analogue colour shadow projector, conceived as a replacement for the television set in the home. Its political message is: throw away your TV, build one yourself, and create your own programming to go with it.
The name VolxTV refers to the Volksempfänger (“people’s radio”) used in Nazi Germany. Cheaply mass-produced, it was intended to bring Nazi propaganda into every household.
VolxTV, however, is not mass-produced. You have to build the device yourself and create the programming yourself in order to escape the consumer propaganda of television broadcasters.
 2  VolxTV @ maker fair 2025 in Tübingen [credits: Fotostudio Ale Zea]
3rd Reich Volksempfänger
The operating principle is simple: two or more colour-changing LEDs illuminate an object placed on a turntable. The projection is displayed on a screen. Its shape is reminiscent of the old tube televisions of the 1950s to the 1970s. The VolxTV kit is made from 4 mm plywood in DIN A4 format and is laser-cut.
The current version (2026) is no longer battery-powered but is powered via USB-C, either from a mains adapter or a power bank. The speed of the turntable can be adjusted on the front panel.  The colour effects are created using “slow rainbow RGB LEDs.”
VolxTV is the best-known light art project of the Kulturgüter-Schuppen. Since 2011, workshops have been held repeatedly throughout Germany, Austria,Switzerland and Spain. More than 100 VolxTV units have been built to date.