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Title

AUTOPOIESIS

Place (Year)

ZKM, Karlsruhe, DE (2023)

Materials

projection, binaural audio headphones, monitor, vr-headset, eeg-device

Credits

concept, development, realization
ATELIER-E
(Christian Losert & Daniel Dalfovo)

assistant
Aaron Schwerdtfeger

curation
Dr. Anett Holzheid, Sarah Donderer, Nina Liechti, Beatrice Zaidenberg

neuroscientific studies
Ravi Kanth Kosuru
Dr. Mathias Vukelic

photos
More information
Description

How would an installation look like that is not meant for humans but for their brains? Trespassing landscapes of activation and deceleration – an experience that is barely, if at all, interpretable. Undulating between reception, perception, and interpretation, this mediatic installation investigates neuro-physiological impacts of audio-visual stimuli.

With the neuroscientists at Fraunhofer IAO, ATELIER-E (Christian Losert & Daniel Dalfovo) defined a toolset of immersive audio-visual stimuli for the human brain, currently on display at ZKM Karlsruhe. An ongoing research endeavour on the use of colour, shapes, and sound and their influence on the viewers’ brain activity and performance on a conscious and subconscious level. Current neuroscientific findings suggest a multitude of approaches in stimulating brain activity or evoking a focused state of mind. Data gathered in laboratories display increased attention related to hearing binaural beats within a frequency range from 10hz to 40hz, evoking greater interhemispheric connectivity.

Realized in collaboration with Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO.

Produced in cooperation with ZKM | Karlsruhe.

Title

LOOM

Place (Year)

HOLON, Berlin, DE (2023)
FUTUR_21, Bocholt, DE (2022)

Materials

uv-lasers, 8-channel sound, rollers, motors, 1000kg counterweight

Credits

concept, development, realization:
ATELIER-E
(Christian Losert & Daniel Dalfovo)

intendant
Dr. Barbara Rüschoff-Parzinger

curator / artistic director
Clemens Walter

laser technology
LaserAnimation Sollinger

engineering
Philipp Helldorfer

thread production and research
Textilforschungsinstitut Thüringen-Vogtland e.V.

photos
More information

comissioned for FUTUR_21
LWL-Industriemuseum

Description

ATELIER–E was comissioned to develop an expansive light and sound installation for the special exhibition hall at the TextilWerk Bocholt. Phosphorescent threads are storing information as light and transform a loom into a never ending weaving machine of algorithmic patterns and sounds. The audio-visual apparatus uses the preciseness and velocity of today’s computing possibilities, at the same time it refers to the still underlying core principle of the old weaving machine: a sequence of ONs and OFFs. A kinetic system spins them into a network of data, where each luminous point in space defines the location of a virtual particle. LOOM pays homage to the punch card system invented by Joseph Marie Jaquard. The weaving machines’ punch cards stored and replaced human craftsmanship and labour into a machine readable data format: One of the first signs of data driven beauty and authorship. The binary principle of the medium - the reduction of information to a series of two possible states - and it's disruptive consequences have become the technological leitmotif of our accelerated world. The installation accompanies the current process of autonomous systems that leave predetermined solution spaces and reformulate our understanding of automation. At the same time, these systems re-evaluate the role of humans: from actors to observers.

The TextilWerk is surrounded by an aura of mechanical rhythms and excellence in craftsmanship. A fascinating journey through the history of the textile industry. From today's perspective, the looms appear to us like artistic relics of a bygone era, whose mechanical details and solutions were masterfully devised. The yarns and textiles have disappeared, the machines are out of service, but the underlying principle of pattern generation - encoding and decoding - by means of binary punch cards, manifests itself to this day in the digital age.

Title

ZECHE

Place (Year)

Zeche Zollverein, Essen, DE (2021)

Materials

computer/smartphone, stereo speaker

Credits

concept, art-direction, 3D world design
Christian Mio Loclair

environmental sound composition
Christian Losert

co-production
Waltz Binaire

3D streaming technology
Journee

screencaptures

Christian Losert

More information

Created as part of New Now Festival

Description

ZECHE is a digital interpretation of Zollverein. Here, the industrial monument and UNESCO world heritage site is being transformed into a post-apocalyptic jungle. The festival platform is a unique "Art-in-Art"-Experience and functions as a digital exhibition and workshop space. ZECHE features works from the NEW NOW artists in residence as well as nine additional artistic positions – including digital sculptures, video works, virtual performances and more. Open to all, the virtual festival platform is interactive and accessible worldwide via the Internet.

Using synthetically generated sound sources, a hyperreal sound world has been composed to a leading motive of the virtual exhibition of the Zollverein site. The visitor passes through an artificial reality of sounds, some of which seem unfamilliar, whose natural movements and dynamics become the basis of a breathing, hybrid ecosystem.

Title

Brainpalace

Place (Year)

BP 2, STATE Studio, Berlin, DE (2021)
BP 1, STATE Studio, Berlin, DE (2020)

Materials

2 EEG-headsets, 4.1 speaker, kinetic sculpture,
computer, light (spots + washer)

Credits

audiovisual composition, interaction + ux design, creative coding
Christian Losert & Daniel Dalfovo

light art installation
Tatjana Busch

neurosignal analysis and classification, neurofeedback study design, real-time mental state decoding and hyperscanning
Dr. Mathias Vukelic, Ravi Kanth Kosuru
Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO

functional analysis, data visualization, machine learning
Dipl.-Math. Hans Trinkaus, Dr. Alex Sarishvili
Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM

scientific advisor (empathy and neuroscience)
Dr. Laura Kaltwasser
Berlin School of Mind and Brain

project lead
Dorothée Höfter
Communication, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

curation
Dr. Christian Rauch
STATE Studio

production, co-curation
Christina Hooge
STATE Studio

communication
Johanna Wallenborn
STATE Studio

photos

Christian Losert

Description

The ongoing digitalization and acceleration of all areas of our lives poses great challenges to both the individual and the community. Our own voice and that of our neighbors echo in social media, political dogmatism can drive people apart, emotions control actions, and facts are no longer decisive in some debates. mpathy, as a cornerstone of functioning communities, continues to play an important role. It is artists who have mastered the game with our emotions, and scientists who have learned to analyze and, at least partially, understand our thinking and feeling, our mind and our brain. What new impulses can be conceived in the interaction of art and science to promote empathy, social cohesion and togetherness?

The research project BRAINPALACE addresses this question. It explores the possibilities and potential of artistic interventions in combination with methods of neural feedback. Neuroscientific findings are applied to create collective group experiences and to strengthen empathy through emotional synchronization. The aim of the project is to develop a light installation for 2020 as an art object whose appearance is interactively controlled by the brain activities of a group of viewers, with suitable characteristics of received EEG signals serving as control variables. For this purpose, existing algorithms are first adapted to the art scenario, evaluated and then combined with new procedures to be developed in order to follow the reactions of the viewers dynamically, to visualize them in a completely new way and finally to be able to "mirror them artistically".

In 2021, the follow-up project BRAINPATTERNS will investigate whether the newly developed software tools can be used to find first hints for the recognition of different levels of consciousness - by identifying emerging patterns in the visualizations.

Title

C.R.E.D.O.

Place (Year)

Installation
Galeria Luisa Wang, Paris, FR (2021)
Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, DE (2020)

Performance
Cathédrale Strasbourg, Strasbourg, FR (2021)
Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, DE (2020)

Adaptation: So Far the Skies Are Silent
ZKM, Karlsruhe, DE (2020)

Materials

motorized radio telescope, led-spots,
eight channel speaker, vr glasses

Credits

concept, development, realization:
Quadrature with Christian Losert & Sebastian Müllauer

photos

Quadrature

More information

Developed within the framework of the #bebeethoven scholarship programme, a project of the PODIUM Esslingen on the occasion of the Beethoven Jubilee 2020, funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation.

In co-production with ZKM | Hertz-Lab.

Description

C.R.E.D.O. – Cosmic Radio Engine for Delusional Observations

A radio telescope scans the skys in search of signs of extraterrestrial life.

The received raw signals serve as input data for a neural network, which was trained on human theories and ideas of aliens. Now it tries desperately to apply this knowledge and to discover possible messages of other civilizations in the noise of the universe. Mysterious noises resound as the artificial intelligence penetrates deeper and deeper into the alien data, where it finally finds the ultimate proof.

The sound installation revolves around one of the oldest questions of mankind – one that can never be disproved: Are we alone in the universe? This question will remain unanswered until at some point a positive proof is provided. After all, the absence of evidence is no evidence of absence. Until then it was and is a question of faith, of convictions and assumptions, on the borderline between reality and fiction, where scientific knowledge and wildest speculations merge.

Prior the exhibition opening, a cyber shamanistic initiation ritual for delusional cosmic radio engines has been celebrated, serving as an initialisation process for this type of earth-heaven-interfaces by using VR glasses and a human priestess.

Special thanks to Marco Pasini.

Title

Pareidolia

Place (Year)

Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome, IT (2020)

Materials

thermo printer, computer, paper roll, prints, moving images

Credits

concept, development, realization:
Sebastian Felix Ernst (ERNST-Office) & Christian Losert
curation: Maria Bremer

photos

Christian Losert

More information
Description

Pareidolia is a research-based exhibition that critically engages with the legacy of renaissance proportions in architecture.

A corpus of architectural drawings featured in Giacomo Antonelli’s volume Vie, piazze e monumenti di Roma (1835), recently digitized from the Bibliotheca Hertziana’s holdings, is turned into a dataset for a “self-learning” neural network. After a training process, the software generates drawings translated from algorithmically derived cityscapes. Besides transposing the nineteenth-century visual input into a computational output, the network iteratively produces new rules for its progressive calculations. It thereby accentuates and re-invents, in dream-like visualizations, canonical design elements, relationships and proportions. Machinic pareidolia—the flickering projection of learned patterns—is here employed to test out the potential for variance contained in the scripts of a long influential architectural style, as they undergo contingent, individual interpretation.

Showcased at the Bibliotheca Hertziana’s Sala degli specchi are the rare books on architecture that the software was trained on, as well as visualizations that span across different media and formats. These visualizations provide insights into the algorithmic processuality itself—generally opaque to nonspecialist observers—and into its outcomes. With this constellation of exhibits, Pareidolia seeks to draw attention, more broadly, to the potentials and limitations of the use of artificial intelligence in artistic and architectural practice. What type of expertise does the inventive potency of algorithmic writing presume, and how do its pragmatics and aesthetics generate new knowledge in turn? What meaningful ways of engagement with the past can a combined human and machinic authorship perform, as it re-activates archival materials without losing sight of ever-recurring historical, social, and technical biases?

Created in collaboration with Villa Massimo and Bibliotheca Hertziana.

Title

Fantasie#2

Place (Year)

Radialsystem, Berlin, DE (2019)
Resonanzraum, Hamburg, DE (2019)

Materials

radio antenna, 2x monitors, instrumental duett

Credits

concept, development, realization:
Quadrature with Christian Losert

Performing musicians:
Maria Reich (violin)
Franziska Aller (contrabass)
Cansu Tanrikulu (voice)
James Banner (contrabass)

photos

Quadrature

More information
Description

Audiovisual performance for objects burning in earth’s atmosphere, artificial intelligence and human musicians

With the help of an antenna facing south-west, the artists receive the signal from a French military radar system called GRAVES. This transmits radio waves from the ground to space; high atmospheric layers reflect them back to earth. This reflection registers each object as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere.

Two musicians perform these data in real time. The noise of the sky is translated to the range of the respective instrument. Atonal soft noises sound unanimously as long as no meteor, satellite particles, unknown flying object or other artifacts disturb the silence of an unharmed atmosphere. However, the impacts of the incandescent objects in the Earth’s atmosphere are set to music by both performers together. While one instrument receives the raw signals as notation, the notes of the second instrument are algorithmically alienated: an artificial intelligence searches the raw data for the tiniest possibilities of music, taking these unknown, non-worldly sounds as an occasion to dream of familiar melodies.

In a kind of musical relay, the piece is ideally performed over several hours, taking into account the timeless character of the meteorites, the universe and its potential inhabitants.

Special thanks to Ensemble Resonanz.
All pictures and video from performance at Radialsystem Berlin.

Created as part of the fellowship program #bebeethoven, a project by PODIUM Esslingen on the occasion of the Beethoven Anniversary 2020, funded by Kulturstiftung des Bundes.

Title

Roma Eterna

Place (Year)
Materials

2 projectors, 2 computers, transparent cloth

Credits

concept, development, realization:
Sebastian Felix Ernst (ERNST-Office) & Christian Losert

photos
More information
Description

The project arises out of the fascination about Giovanni Battista Piranesis books of the roman antique architectures Antichità Romane. In this body of work his drawings collected and maintained the identity and spatial imprint of the rich roman heritage. Contemporaneously he secretly fantasized about miraculous Capriccios – artistic speculations and manipulations that were based on his architectural observations and design principles. He deciphered the language and codes of the roman antique architecture and transformed them into spatial outlines of an imagined city ”that might have been”.

Aided by the archaic medium of hand drawings and the virtually unlimited processing power of cloud based computer technology, we attempt to explore these underlying aesthetics in form of an artistic experiment. Customized algorithms autonomously learn over time how to read and build relations out of the roman architecture language, by revealing an aesthetically common ground that establishes a bridge between artificial intelligence and artistic intelligence. The first version of Roma Eterna artificially reimagines facades based on hand drawn residential homes and palazzos, digitized from the 19th century french compendium Edifices de Rome Moderne by Paul Marie Letarouilly. During a process of abstraction, elements of the facades get categorized by their architectural function and genre. These classification masks are fed into a neuronal network that learns over several days how to identify characteristic elements out of the facade drawings and, in a next step, how to draw hallucinated versions of them autonomously. Each iteration brings up a new vivid memory of the past.

The first promising results lead us to the underlying question: What are beautiful proportions and where can we find and comprehend those design principles in our renaissance drawings? A series of investigations in the fields of mathematics, design and architecture allowed us to extract a fundamental system of compositorial rules into a generative algorithm. Like a playful duet the design engine autonomously proposes new facade layouts based on common cultural aesthetics that will be seen, interpreted and answered by the artificial intelligence.

Title

Fantasie#1

Place (Year)

Ars Electronica, Linz, AT (2019)
PODIUM Festival, Esslingen, DE (2019)

Materials

radio telescope, motorized organ, projector, quadrophonic speaker

Credits

concept, development, realization, perfomance:
Quadrature with Christian Losert

photos

Quadrature, PODIUM Esslingen

More information
Description

Fantasie#1 is an audiovisual performance for radio telescope, artificial intelligence and self-playing organ.

Located outside of the venue, the radio telescope listens to the vastness of space. The received electromagnetic waves are transferred to the audible frequency range. Electronic noises, hums and beeps fill the air. An algorithm transcribes the noise of the universe into midi tones, which are reproduced by the organ with the help of an electronic apparatus. During the play various selection and filtering processes (e.g. specific artificial intelligences) are applied in a determined order, serving as a kind of score and dividing the piece into three main chapters. The artists on stage have a set of parameters available to respond live to the incoming signals, using both the radio telescope and the AI as musical instruments. On the floating canvas above the stage, the sounds turn into abstract images, into a visual representation of what is heard.

Little by little, neural networks take control over the organ and seek in the non-worldly noises for known harmonies, for the smallest traces of human music. In the last chapter, ideas of melodies evolve as the artificial intelligence begins to fantasize about familiar tunes in these archaic sounds from outer space.

Thanks to Sebastian Müllauer for the telescope and Klaus Holzapfel for his Orgamat.

Title

Meandering River

Place (Year)

Mianki Gallery, Berlin, DE (2020)
Design Society, Shenzen, CN (2019)
NTAA 19, Ghent, BE (2019)
TASIES 2019, Beijing, CN (2019)
Scopitone Festival, Nantes, FR (2019)
UN Art Center, Shanghai, CN (2019)
Ars Electronica STARTS Exhibition, Linz, AT (2019)
AI for Good – UN Headquarter, Geneva, CH (2019)
Google I/O Arts Exhibition, Mountain View, US (2019)
STATE Studio, Berlin, DE (2019)
Funkhaus, Berlin, DE (2018)

My Responsibilities

sound (composition + concept),
programming (real time sound engine),
A.I. (machine learning environment for sound)

Contractor
Lead Agency
Credits

creative direction
Cedric Kiefer

production
Aurélien Krieger

code & design
Henryk Wollik

audio concept & composition
Kling Klang Klong

research
João da Fonseca, Luca Lolli

hardware provider
ICT AG

photos
onformative

Description

Over time, landscapes are gradually shaped by natural forces. Indiscernible to the naked eye, we only perceive one moment at a time. The fluctuations and the rhythmic movement of rivers are a glimpse into the past, as traces provide evidence of the constant transformations that surround us.

Meandering River is an audiovisual installation comprised of real-time visuals generated by an algorithm and music composed by an A.I. This digital artwork makes change perceivable by creating a unique awareness of time. Spanning over multiple screens, the piece reinterprets the shifting behaviors of rivers by visualizing and sonifying their impact on the surface of the earth. The musical score was developed in collaboration with kling klang klong guided by the intention to enhance the emotional, complex and unpredictable nature of the visual aesthetic. Through a research of various computational strategies, the musical composition was created using the Google Magenta Performance RNN learning model and a custom-built procedural system.

To collect training datasets, piano players were invited to improvise musical phrases based on the diverse visual sceneries of the animation. The range of auditive interpretations they produced served as a large-scale polyphonic inventory for the Artificial Intelligence to learn from. To reflect the performative nature of the work, values outputted directly from the river simulation such as the length, curvature and events of connections of the meandering river were analyzed and interpreted in real-time to influence musical parameters like tempo, note strength, intensity, pitch range.

As a result of an iterative process guided by kling klang klong’s valuation, the machine achieved the composition of an original musical score whose harmonic quality reached the standard expected from a human composer and a rich cinematic connection between the visuals and the music. As a final outcome, the artwork consists of six different visual modes, which each are accompanied by a peculiar musical composition. The full video below presents the utmost balanced interplay of visuals and sound.

More information.

Title

Light Cloud

Place (Year)

Merck Innovation Center, Darmstadt, DE (2018)

My Responsibilities

sound (composition + design),
programming (player + interaction),
technical co-planning

Contractor
Lead Agency
Client
Credits

sound and Interaction design
Kling Klang Klong
Asako Fujimoto, Niki Necke

creative direction, lighting choreography
Tamschick Media+Space

technical development and realisation
iart ag

architect and general planner
HENN

photos
Tamschick Media+Space

Description

The Light Cloud is a large scale sound and light installation located at the new Merck Innovation Center in Darmstadt, Germany. It was developed in close collaboration with Tamschick Media+Space and iart. Our contribution to this extraordinary project was to create an interactive and generative sound environment that consists of more than 80 unique soundscapes.

The main layout and design of the Light Cloud is inspired by the various physical and emotional states of a living organism. Each audiovisual composition reflects one character-trait of this artificial being like Anger, Fear or Love. During the day the installation rearranges our sound compositions according to it’s state of mind so that on each visit the space feels completely different. The visitors experience a broad set of self-evolving scenarios that range from playful musical compositions up to complex sound experiments.

We designed a 3D audio system integrated in the ceiling and the mirrors of the room that completely enveloped light sculpture. The setup allowed us to literally control flying sound objects throughout the space and to unfold sound worlds that are constantly in motion. A hidden grid of motion sensors spread into the space continuously changes the audiovisual appearance of the installation according to the behavior and movement of the visitors. Sound, light and movement merge to an interactive canvas.

In order to deal with such a complex technical setup, we invented a unique multichannel audio standard to control and synchronize the visual with the auditive world. This allowed us to orchestrate the 576 OLED panels in real time and made it possible to literally draw light in space with sound.

More information and video documentation.

Title

I'm not a robot

Place (Year)

Futurium, Berlin, DE (2018)

My Responsibilities

sound (composition + design),
programming (interaction)

Lead Agency / Contractor
Client
Credits

creative direction, sound + music production,
interaction design
Kling Klang Klong

scenographic concept and light-sculpture
Schnellebuntebilder

3D audio spatialization
Z-Achse

Photos
Christian Losert, Kling Klang Klong, Futurium

Description

I'm not a robot is an interactive 3D-Sound installation that allows visitors to shape sound in a playful environment. Signing as venue and commissioner was the new Futurium in the heart of Berlins governmental district. Its generous south wing allowed us to rig a 27 meter diameter dome of speakers creating an enormous ambisonics sound field. Every speaker was equipped with a sound reactive light wire to enhance the impression of directive hearing within the space.‍

This visual counterpart to the 3D sound system was created and built by schnellebuntebilder, who manufactured approximately one kilometer of LED-wire to construct a tree-like structure illuminating the dome. During the opening night, the interactive 3D-sound installation was transformed to a platform for professional artistic and musical performers like Brandt Brauer Frick and Kling Klang Klong. The 3D audio rendering was planned and overseen by Z-Achse. The studio also mixed the performance onto the 3D ambisonics system.

Title

Blackberry Winter

Place (Year)

Berlin (2019)

My Responsibilities

sound (composition + design)

Credits

art direction
Christian Mio Loclair

ai artist
Meredith Thomas

executive production
Celia Bugniot

design
AJ Walsh

More information
Description

Christian Mio Loclair and his team investigate the possibilities to identify motion as a continuous walk in a latent space of situations. Blackberry Winter is a triptych of artificial human motion in asymmetry. Three different choreographies of human bodies have been developed and their ongoing neural relationship in reference to each other, using a custom made machine learning solution to weave spatial information into contemporary GAN technology.

The studio developed a custom Generative Adversarial Network pipeline called RayGan to teach the network a possibility space of human poses. The ongoing journey through this synthetic space of physical human nature, is then perceived as dance. The training data is generated by 120.000 postures of human bodies, yet it was never introduced to a sequence of movements or velocity. All textures, colors and gradients are furthermore generated through our own designer GAN. A network trained with a curated dataset of visual artists.

Title

Abdruck – Architecture as Instrument

Place (Year)
Materials

architectural model, prints, monitor

Credits

concept, development, realization: FAKT (Sebastian Ernst, Jonas Tratz, Sebastian Kern, Martin Tessarz) with Christian Losert

photos

MAXXI, Christian Losert, FAKT, Seoul Biennale

More information
Description

Abdruck is the title of an ephemeral installation at the Tempio di Minerva and also stands for how research and method during the work process were approached. The german expression describes the operation of a negative form resulting from a positive and vice versa. The idea roughly finds its equivalent in the english “sonic imprint” and italian “Impressione sonica”. A first fascination with the Tempio di Minerva derives equally from its history and recurring presence in art/architectural history. It has been documented and used by Piranesi, Palladio and many others. A projection ground and instrument for the assertions, fantasies and interpretations of differtent minds and epochs.

Tempio di Mnerva’s history is full of mysteries and even in current research its actual purpose or original use has never been clearly determined. Moreover, the life of the temple is full of transformations and structural changes. Built as a prototypical structure and ideal form, it got ruined in decay over time but also remodeled and transformed from a temple surrounded by landscape to a monument inside the city. As a preliminary exercise, we couldn`t resist actually producing a set of drawings ourselves. These drawings show the tempio in three epochs, and by this, in its threemain life stages: 400 A.D. as an operating temple; 1600 A.D. as a ruin outside of the city, surrounded by fields; and 2017 A.D. as a monument overgrown by the city of Rome.

This sets the background of our projects by asking questions after combining the research of all collected documents - a span from ancient times to the fast-paced, loud and busy elements that surround the Tempio di Minerva today. How can the Tempio become more than just a fraction of memory - but again a lively part of the city? How could, in musical ways, a geometry be read as a partitur (score) with an installation that makes the temple an instrument – a “body of sound”?

The project develops from these initial points: recording the noises of the surrounding city and live-transfering them into a musical sound installation. Making the Tempio an oasis within the city allowing to experience an altered version of the actual tonal impacts. The interior of the Tempio acts like a vase. The sound waves emitted from the city are giving the Tempio its form, and vise versa. Like a bat in a cave experiencing the space through the pattern of soundwaves being reflected by it. By transforming sound and space, the project will transform and renegotiate the Tempio’s relation within the city of Rome as well as its role within the context of time.

Produced for MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo and 서울도시건축비엔날레 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2017 in cooperation with Future Architecture.

Title

Robert Henke – Lumière

My Responsibilities

head of artistic planning department of Robert Henke's Lumière performance project including the supervison of site specific details of his work.

Credits

artist
Robert Henke

laser machines
LaserAnimation Sollinger

photos
Studio Robert Henke
Red Bull Content Pool

Description

Lumière is an audiovisual composition for lasers and sound. The building blocks of the piece are a new type of events, a compound of visual shapes and a sonic counterparts. The work is based on hundreds of these audiovisual 'notes', to create a previously unseen and highly synchronized immersive experience. The lasers project on a large screen, partially obscured by a wall of fog, which also makes the intensive beams of light visible in the air, connecting the lasers in the back of the room with the front, forming fragile temporary objects above the audience. The special quality of the laser light allows to combine complete darkness with moments of extreme brightness, pure white with intense saturated colors and precise movements with complex organic shapes.

© Studio Robert Henke

Place (Year.Month)

Lumière III Perfomances

MUTEK Festival, Montrèal, CA (08.2017)

Place (Year.Month)

Lumière II Perfomances

Volksbühne, Berlin, DE (11.2015)

Recital Centre, Melbourne, AU (11.2015)

Zollverein, Essen, DE (10.2015)

MUTEK MX, Mexico City, MX (10.2015)

Gray Area, San Francisco, US (10.2015)

30 Years LAS, Berlin, DE (09.2015)

CTM Siberia, Novosibirsk, RU (09.2015)

Lunchmeat Festival, Prague, CZ (09.2015)

Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, NL (09.2015)

Malmolivekonserthus, Malmo, SE (09.2015)

Festival Forte, Montemor-o-Velho, PT (08.2015)

Fak'ugesi, Johannesburg, ZA (08.2015)

LCF (planning), Rio de Janeiro, BR (08.2015)

Unsound/Luminato, Toronto, CA (06.2015)

NODE 15, Frankfurt, DE (05.2015)

Place (Month.Year)

Lumière I Performances

Kino Siska, Ljubljana, SI (02.2015)

Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, NL (12.2014)

Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, LT (11.2014)

Skanu Mezs, Riga, LV (10.2014)

Todays Art Festival, The Hague, NL (09.2014)

Bozar Electronic Arts Festival, Brussels, BE (09.2014)

Teatro dei Rinnovati, Siena, IT (09.2014)

Scopitone, Nantes, Fr (09.2014)

Barbican, London, GB (07.2014)

MUTEK/ELEKTRA Festival, Montreal, CA (05.2014)

Click Festival, Helsingor, CA (05.2014)

RBMA, New York City, US (05.2014)

L.E.V. Festival, Gijon, ES (05.2014)

Donaufestival, Krems, AT (04.2014)

Electropark Teatro della Tosse, Genoa, IT (04.2014)

RNCM FutureEverything, Manchester, GB (03.2014)

Unit, Tokyo, JP (03.2014)

HKW CTM / Transmediale, Berlin, DE (02.2014)

Unsound Festival, Krakow, PL (10.2013)

Title

Robert Henke – Werk III

Place (Year)

Mischanlage Zollverein, Essen, DE (2015)

My Responsibilities

planning & supervison of site specific details of his work.

Credits

artist
Robert Henke

laser machines
LaserAnimation Sollinger

photos
Studio Robert Henke

More Information

Stiftung Zollverein

Description

Zollverein's "Mischanlage" (mixing facility) is an impressive building consisting of a grid of 3 by 4 funnels, some 20 meters high, built from massive concrete. As part of the transformation process from an active production unit to a cultural heritage, some of the funnels have been partially cut through and connected with a walkway, allowing visitors to experience the inside of a structure which usually is not accessible. Strong lasers create additional pyramids of light, made visible via fog. The cold precision of the intensively luminous planes is broken by the unpredictable spatial expansion of the smoke from the fog machines, rigid geometry meets random variation and chaotic behaviour. The intensity and texture of the light changes over time, the system oscillates in a very slow multidimensional movement.

© Studio Robert Henke

Title

Klangwelle

Place (Year)

Urban Spree gallery – Krake festival, Berlin, DE (2015)

Kühlhaus – Masterexhibition University of Arts, Berlin, DE (2015)

Materials

10 motorized pendulums, 10 speakers, 1 computer

Credits

concept, development, realization: Christian Losert

supervision (master-exhibition): Prof. Hans Peter Kuhn

Description

Klangwelle is an installation featuring 10 motorized pendulums including 10 loudspeakers at their ends to discover the structure and spatial impact of dynamic waves within an audiovisual area. The generative shapes are inspired by physicist Ernst Mach’s pendulum wave experiments.

Title

Berlin 201Hz

Place (Year)

WISP – Festival, Leipzig, DE (2016)

UNI.K – studio for soundart & science, Berlin, DE (2013)

Materials

1 projector, 4 speakers

Credits

concept, development, realization: Christian Losert

cello: Kanari Shirao

photo: Rubab Paracha

Description

Every place tells it’s own story. Like a common threat a single cello note combines a variety of soundscapes to a floating stream of urban information. By comparing several places, their acoustic identities become apparent. The quadrophonic installation Berlin 201 Hz represents the rich auditory diversity of the capital’s urban soundscape.

Title

Fundamental Forces FF06

Place (Year)

Havremagasinet, Boden, SE (2015)

My Responsibilities

co-planning & supervison of site specific details of the work

Credits

artists
Robert Henke
Tarik Barri

photos
Christian Losert

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Description

Fundamental Forces is a collaborative audiovisual installation and performance project by Robert Henke and Tarik Barri. Complex visual shapes and sonic structures emerge as the result of repeated, simple mathematical operations to form an abstract world of floating objects in deep virtual space. Fundamental Forces references notions of physics that describe how our universe is constructed. This inspiration induces a reinterpretation of reality that is strongly infused with a subjective, aesthetic view and gives rise to the narrative of a parallel universe governed by manmade rules. By using self-written and continuously enhanced software, Fundamental Forces not only creates what people hear and see but also builds the foundations of what they could experience in the future. Henke and Barri build a machine that constitutes a class of potential installations. Each screening is a snapshot of the current development. Technically it is a prerendered ultra high definition ultra wide-screen projection with surround sound.

© Tarik Barri

Title

Am Puls

Place (Year)

Exhibition – Der Gang Der Dinge, Crescendo Musikwochen, Berlin, DE (2014)

Materials

12 speakers, 1 computer

Credits

concept, development, realization: Christian Losert

recording-assistant: Kanaro Shirao

supervision: Prof. Hans Peter Kuhn

photo: Silje Nes

Audio File
Description

The work Am Puls is inspired by Gabriele Sitrls serial partiture at the subway station "Spichernstraße" in Berlin.
Several surround-recordings taken from the subwaystation are transferred into a hallway of the University of Arts at the Bundesalle nearby the station.
Synced by the subway schedule and based on the incoming and outgoing movements of the train, an algorithmic composition occurs in the art building.

The generative piece has been presented weekly on a randomly chosen day at the Udk hallway. It has been open for the public between 2014 and 2018. The moving soundpiece was created for an array of twelve speakers along the hallway.

Title

Clockwork

Place (Year)

Pulse Lab II – Hebbel am Ufer 2, Berlin, DE (2013)

EMW – Conservatory of Music, Shanghai, CN (2013)

Materials

Wavefieldsnythesis-system based on 107 speakers on 3 layers (Shanghai) / 1 Layer of 96 speakers (Berlin), 1 computer

Credits

concept, sound-design: Jan Brauer & Christian Losert

wfs programming: Christian Losert

sound recording: Jan Brauer

supervision (pulse lab II version): Prof. Robert Henke

photos: Robert Henke, Barco

Description

Created for a ring of 96 speakers the composition behaves like a massive clockwork. The wavefieldsynthesis system allows to immerse a visitor into an invisible sound world. Inspired by the delicate mechanics of a clockwork a complex soundscape slowly rises up. Only with his ears the listener discovers a multilayered machine from the inside. As part of the group exhibition Pulse Lab II the piece was awarded with a Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica, Linz, AU (2013).

Title

Spielende Bäume

Place (Year)

Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Berlin, DE (2012)

Ars Electronica, Linz, AU (2012)

Materials

1 camera, 1 computer, 2 speakers

Credits

concept, development, realization: Christian Losert

Description

The interactive system tracks down the moving leaves in front of the large scale windows separating the foyer at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele from the outside. An algorithmic logic converts the movements in realtime into control signals for a dedicated sample library. The audio archive is based on old sound-recordings that have been taken during the last 40 years of the annual jazz festival at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. Compositorial changes of the piece are linked to the streaming winds outside the building.

The piece extracts the historical function of the building and converts it into a contemporary context. As part of the exhibition Lebensräume a 5 min long live recording of the realtime system has been shown at Ars Electronica, Linz, AU in 2012.

Title

Music Book

Place (Year)

Univsersity of Applied Science, Darmstadt, Media Arts & Science Campus Dieburg (2011)

Materials

1 projector, 1 infrared-pen, 1 book, 2 cameras, 2 speakers, 1 computer

Credits

concept, development, prototype: Christian Losert

supervisor: Prof. Kyrill Fischer / Thorsten Greiner

Description

Musicbook was the practical result of my bachelor thesis. It dealt with the conception and the prototypical realization of a musical interface by converting an empty book into a digital storage medium. The interaction worked via a self-made infrared-pen that made it possible to “draw” virtual music notes into the book.

The musical principle was based on a “step-sequencer” which offered the creation of musical patterns in real-time. By projecting the music-partiture into a traditional medium a new method of musical interface could be experienced. In my thesis I walked along the complete creative path beginning from a conceptional idea up to the final realization of a working prototype.

Title

Nature Unlimited

Place (Year)

Museum Art.Plus, Donaueschingen, DE (2024)

Credits

Artistic direction: Ludger Bruemmer & Christian Losert
director Museum Art.Plus: Tomislav Pavrlisak

installations:
Leon Aviles Fucyman, Jakob Fros, Alex Glatzel, Oliver Grether, Marius Jentschke, Dominik Rösler, Bilegtuguldur Sainburen, Joel Schellhorn, Valentin Schimpf, Jason Ullah
performances:
Samir El Himer, M. Alejandra Vargas, Nicolas Verspohl, Peter Wehmann
light design: Luis Miehlich

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Description

For the Donaueschingen Museum Night on June 22, 2024, upcoming music designers from the University of Music Trossingen, under the direction of Professors Ludger Bruemmer and Christian Losert, are creating multimedia exhibits and performances for the Museum Art.Plus. Inspired by the thematic focus of the current exhibition Nature Unlimited, which explores the interface of nature, technology, and acoustic art, their creative contributions range from interactive, sonorous installations that guide visitors through immersive landscapes, to experimental performances that will take place throughout the evening. These works explore in various ways the boundary between the authentic and the artificial, establishing a connection between the natural and digital worlds.

Title

Museum of a Future Past

Place (Year)

Ensemblehaus, Freiburg, DE (2023)
Concerthall Universits of Music, Trossingen, DE (2023)

Credits

Artistic direction: Sonja Schmid & Christian Losert
Scenography: Jakob Boeckh
Project consulting: Paul Clift
web development: Andreas Schmelas
design: Siyu Mao

Ensemble Recherche:
flute: Anja Clift
oboe: Eduardo Olloqui
clarinet: Shizuyo Oka
piano: Klaus Steffes-Holländer
percussion: Christian Dierstein
violin: Adam Woodward
viola: Sofia von Atzingen
violoncello: Asa Akerberg
photos: Christian Losert

Students:
Bilegtuguldur Sainburen, Hanna Magdon, Jakob Fros, Jason Ullah, Josef Haeusel, Leon Aviles Fucyman, Luka Benjamin Knezevic

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Supported by the Aventis Foundation and the Rudolf Augstein Foundation. In cooperation with the Landeszentrum Musik-Design-Performance of the University of Music Trossingen.

More information under museum-of-a-future-past.com.

Description

Without a doubt, many of the sounds that surround us today will, for better or worse, fade into silence in the coming decades. The Museum of a Future Past, set in the year 2070, is dedicated to soundscapes which have gone extinct. The roar of diesel engines, the murmuring of cracking ice, the melodies of regional-rural dialects, the squawks of swallows as they arrive in Europe after their seasonal crossing of the Sahara and Mediterranean... these sounds now exist only as memories — and as audio recordings, neatly organised in historical archives in our imaginary museum. Museum of a Future Past is a hybrid project, a creative noise archive, a performative installation and a walk-in sound space devised by students in the Music Design programme at the Trossingen Hochschule für Musik and brought to life by the musicians of Ensemble Recherche. The museum in its physical form was housed at Ensemblehaus Freiburg (23–24/10/23) and Trossingen Concert Hall (4/11/23).


The museum lives on in its online iteration. Contribute your sounds today by uploading them to the archive via museum-of-a-future-past.com.

Title

Bauhaus 3.0

Place (Year)

University of Applied Science, Darmstadt, DE (2019)

Credits

lecturer & guest critic: Christian Losert

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Description

The lecture introduces underlying educational ideals and artistic positions of the Bauhaus School in Germany before world war II. Afterwards we imagine how these principles may be applied into current creative practices.

Together we are searching for cultural and technological patterns that may lead us to a definition of a (not yet established) imaginary Bauhaus 3.0 movement.

Title

Sound and Intelligence – Workshop for A.I.

Place (Year)

Kompetenzzentrum Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft des Bundes, Berlin, DE (2019)

Credits

lecturer: Christian Losert
photos: Anne Freitag

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Description

Get an inside view of the concepts behind musical environments that are open for (physical-)interaction. Understand the fundamentals of how to make use of algorithms to create generative sound systems. Based on a set of machine learning examples as well as other sonification techniques you learn how to incorporate these intelligent systems into your musical creations.

You will be introduced to the basic ideas behind neural networks and their possibilities in musical applications. In a next step, based on your field of interest we are exploring generative concepts helping us to compose, design and integrate sound into your creative processes.

Title

Spatial Installations - Lecture & Workshop

Place (Year)

806qm, Darmstadt, DE (2018)

Motorenfabrik, Darmstadt, DE (2017)

Kunsthalle, Darmstadt, DE (2016)

Galerie Kurzweil, Darmstadt, DE (2016)

University of Applied Science, Darmstadt, DE (2016-2018)

Credits

lecturer: Thorsten Greiner, Christian Losert

photos: Galerie Kurzweil, Thorsten Greiner

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Description

The advanced seminar spatial installations focusses on fundamential questions about the phenomenological perception of sound wihtin a three dimensional context. We discuss a collection of technical and creative strategies leading to the creation of own spatial sound experiences. The final results will be exhibited in a variety of established cultural instutions in the area of Darmstadt.

Title

Creative Strategies with Ableton Live & Max MSP

Place (Year)

University of Applied Science, Darmstadt, DE (2017)

Credits

lecturer: Christian Losert

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Description

How can we compose sonic environments that allow others to interact with? What are algorithms and how can we make use of them to create generative (sound-)systems step by step? How can we catch information from the outside world and connect them to our compositions within the computer?

Built on the well documented coding environment Max MSP and Ableton Live we'll develop individual projects based on each participants area of interest.

Title

German Culture - Lecture

Place (Year)

Kunitachi College Of Music, Tokyo, JP (2013)

Credits

lecturer: Kanari Shirao, Christian Losert

photos: Kunitachi College Of Music

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Description

The lecture gave an introduction into German culture. After the seminar there was an open discussion about the differences/similiarities of German/Japanese youth and art culture.

© Christian Losert
All rights reserved
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