stefantroschka.de

GRAUPEL

2023

Sound Art, Spatial Composition, Live Video

Sleet (German: Graupel), a somewhat ambiguous and fragile weather phenomenon around the freezing point. Fragile conditions are also the subject of this piece.The task is quickly set: What chain reaction must a kettle cause to finally light a sparkler? 16 people were asked for advice on how to solve the problem. Solutions have been brainstormed, sketched, collected and sorted, tested, discarded, and approved. In a sequence as funny as it is refined, everyday objects make each other sound. Or maybe not, because the chances of an early end are not bad... The piece is performed with loudspeakers and open-ear headphones. The listeners experience the sounds both from outside and inside their headspace. Many thanks to Albrecht, Ben, Fine, Franzi, Hanna, Marton, Meta, Moritz, Pia, Ralf, Ron, Sam, Sebastian, Shimo, Si-Ying and Theresa.

Live Video – Mirella Frenzel, Thorben Schulz

video kettle and boule ball on a seesaw

RECURSIVE MIRRORS

2022

Sound Art, Generative Music

Just as a mirror reflects light, a wall reflects sound. Accordingly, two walls facing each other cause feedback. In Recursive Mirrors the phenomenon of the mirror within the mirror is investigated through an audiovisual installation. Two opposing mirrors become sounding objects referring to the intertwining of visible and audible space. The composition is generated in real time and is based on Circuit Bending techniques and feedback delays.

audio (headphones recommended)

two mirrors facing each other

DAHIN HÖREN, WO NICHTS KLINGT

2020

Spatial Composition, Graphic Notation, Live Video

To what extent can a sound be spatially delineated from its surroundings, or even have a contour that can be perceived by the ear? According to the principle of Gestalt psychology, a visually perceived figure is always experienced against a background. Figure and background cannot always be clearly assigned, as can be seen in the case of tilted images. Tilted images are ambiguous figures that provoke a constant shift in perception between two different interpretations. The figure becomes the background and vice versa. The principle of the tilted image is interpreted in the piece as an auditory event. The spatial sequence draws attention to the boundary between the ticking of a clock and its reverberation.

Electric Guitar - Michael Schröder
Live Video - Janina Luckow

video clock and guitar on stage

MISSVERSTANDENES FEHLINTERPRETIERT

2020

Sound Art, Spatial Composition, Live Video

Missverstandenes fehlinterpretiert deals with a communication phenomenon that involves several complications. There are two loudspeakers, one above the other, whose cones are connected by a spring. The lower speaker sends a series of impulses to the upper speaker.The signals are dramatically distorted by the spring. As a result, proper transmission is compromised. Now what? The distorted signal is still being processed, so the incorrect information is being misinterpreted. But what if the double error leads to the correct result?

Live Video by Janina Luckow

audio (headphones recommended)

speaker with spring

HIDDEN TRACKS

2019 / 2023

Spatial Composition, 360° Video

Most electromagnetic radiation cannot be perceived, it is constantly around us and yet remains hidden. In Hidden Tracks this radiation becomes audible. An electromagnetic sensor was used as a field recorder at various locations like railway lines, ticket machines, ATMs and advertising displays. Unlike our usual sonic environment, the sensor reveals a hidden auditory world where every location has its sound ranging from pulses, clicks and noise to composite modulated frequencies. The recordings were arranged in a complex sonic texture that is contrasted with a fundamental spatial shape: one single movement between two opposing points in space; following the principle of electromagnetic radiation that constantly goes through our bodies.

Visuals created by Janina Luckow
Sensor developed by Tobias Falke

audio (headphones recommended)

    bandcamp
person surrounded by videowalls

UNTEN

2018

Sound Art, Spatial Composition, Generative Music & Light

Unten is my graduate project in Multimedia Composition at the University of Music and Drama in Hamburg. 16 loudspeakers were placed below a walkable luminous area covering 16 square metres. The audience moves over a composition of spatial electronic music and generative light patterns. The project emerged from the idea of creating an audible space below the listener, in contrast to various current spatial audio systems that often represent sounds around or above the listener. The interactive composition mainly uses psychoacoustic effects such as pitch illusions, which appear to descend continuously, to enhance the effect of depth. All audiovisual parameters are generated in realtime and were triggered by the presence of the audience.

Light control & patterns created by Hanjo Müller
Sensor system developed by Jacob Sello

video     documentation floor with led patterns

LICHT INS DUNKEL

2016

Sound Art, Flashlight Performance

"Five large, white discs were placed in front of the audience and wired up to Troschka’s laptop. The torchlights of the Electric Light Quintet played teasingly over the discs, twisting the fabric of Troschka’s composition. Licht ins Dunkel was essentially a collaborative improvisation, more about the possibilities of the medium than the creation of an exceptional artwork. Regardless, my head spun with the creative potential of light and sound."

Sam Johnstone, The Cusp

video 5 white discs in darkness

BIG DATA

2014

Audiovisual Installation

Big Data is about the overload of artificial intelligence based on an interview with Noam Chomsky, where basic concepts of AI are discussed. Excerpts from the interview were arranged together with the recordings of a printer and a scanner. The video animations are shown on the three-dimensional model of a head and a screen in the background and follow the idea of abstract digital processes. A virtual machine calculates huge amounts of data and quickly reaches its limits. The resulting malfunctions and the final breakdown are shown on the head in the foreground.

Visual Concept, Video Animation & Mapping by
Franziska Funke and Christopher Kuss

video projected head in front of a screen

DER BAU

2013

Audiovisual Installation, Spatial Composition, 360° Video

My graduate project in cooperation with the Design Department at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg is an immersive installation based on Franz Kafka's Der Bau. By using 3D sound and a panoramic projection Der Bau tells the story of a badger living in his burrow, being torn between selfconfidence and paranoia. The installation lets the audience dive into the badger's environment and headspace, starting with the calm and secure feeling inside his burrow versus his fear of the outer world of the forest. Through the dramaturgy the listener is able to follow the badger's frequent changes of mind from his supposedly set opinions to their opposites; to the point where he loses trust in his own concept of security.

Visuals created by Janina Luckow, Niklas Söder & Efrén Parra
Technical Support by Iwer Petersen, Janina Schlichte, Axel Groot, Indra Schreiber & Hanjo Müller

video panoramic projection with spatial audio system