GRAUPEL

2023

Sound Art, Spatial Composition, Live Video

Sleet (German: Graupel), a somewhat ambiguous and fragile weather phenomenon around 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 were brainstormed, sketched, collected and sorted, tested, rejected and approved. In a peculiar sequence, 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 audience experiences the sounds both from outside and inside their heads. 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

RECURSIVE MIRRORS

2022

Sound Art, Generative Music

Just as a mirror reflects light, a wall reflects sound. Two mirrors facing each other cause feedback. In Recursive Mirrors, the phenomenon of the mirror within the mirror is explored through a sound installation. Two opposing mirrors become sounding objects that refer to the entanglement of visible and audible space. The composition is based on circuit bending techniques and feedback delays and is generated in real time.

DAHIN HÖREN, WO NICHTS KLINGT

2020

Spatial Composition, Graphic Notation, Live Video

To what extent can a sound be spatially delimited 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 tilt images. Tilt 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

MISSVERSTANDENES FEHLINTERPRETIERT

2020

Sound Art, Spatial Composition, Live Video

Missverstandenes fehlinterpretiert deals with a communication phenomenon that contains several uncertainties. Two loudspeakers are installed on top of each other, their membranes connected by a metal spring. The lower speaker sends a series of impulses to the upper speaker, but the signals are dramatically distorted by the spring. As a result, proper transmission is compromised. Now what? The distorted signal is processed further during the piece: the incorrect information is misinterpreted. What if the double error leads to the correct result?

Live Video by Janina Luckow

HIDDEN TRACKS

2019 / 2023

Spatial Composition, 360° Video

Electromagnetic radiation is usually imperceptible, yet it is all around us. Hidden Tracks makes this radiation audible. An electromagnetic sensor was used as a field recorder at various locations in public space, such as train lines, ticket machines, ATMs, and advertising displays. In contrast to our everyday acoustic environment, the sensor reveals a hidden auditory world in which each location has its specific sound, ranging from impulses, clicks, noises, and frequency mixtures. The recordings have been compiled into an auditory spatial texture that seems to pass through the audience. A revised version for listening through headphones in public spaces was released on Bandcamp in 2023.

Visuals created by Janina Luckow
Sensor developed by Tobias Falke

UNTEN

2018

Sound Art, Spatial Composition, Generative Music & Light

Unten is my final project in Multimedia Composition at the Hamburg University of Music and Theater. 16 loudspeakers were placed under a 16 square meter accessible light surface. The audience is located above a composition of spatial electronic music and generative light patterns. The project originated from the idea of creating an audible space below the listener, in contrast to various current spatial audio systems that often present sounds around or above the listener. The interactive composition makes use of auditory illusions, such as pitch illusions that appear to be continuously descending to enhance the effect of depth. All audiovisual parameters are generated in real time and triggered by the presence of the audience.

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

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

BIG DATA

2014

Audiovisual Installation

Big Data is about the overload of an artificial intelligence. The audio-visual installation is based on an interview with Noam Chomsky in which he discusses basic concepts of AI. Excerpts from the interview are composed with recordings from a printer and a scanner. The video animations are shown on a three-dimensional model of a head and a screen in the background, symbolizing abstract digital processes. A virtual machine computes huge amounts of data and quickly reaches its limits. The resulting malfunctions and ultimate collapse are shown on the head in the foreground.

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

DER BAU

2013

Audiovisual Installation, Spatial Composition, 360° Video

My final project in collaboration with the Design Department at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences is an immersive audio-visual installation based on the story Der Bau by Franz Kafka. Through the use of 3D sound and a panoramic projection, Der Bau tells the story of a badger who lives in his burrow and is torn between self-confidence and paranoia. The installation immerses the audience in the life and thoughts of the badger, from the calm and secure feeling of his burrow to his fear of the outside world of the forest. Through the audio-visual interpretation of the narrative, the audience follows the badger's frequent changes of mind from his supposedly set opinions to their opposite; 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