As We Gather #2
I am transforming the space. Awarness of this transforms me.
How do we influence the spaces we live in, and how, in turn, do these environments influence us? "As we gather" is an interactive mixed media installation that explores the interplay between urban spaces, sensory environments, and collective creation. When thinking about urban silence, one of the first things that comes to mind is the various sounds that accompany our daily lives as urban dwellers. Together, these "noises" form the urban soundscape that reminds us where we are. A city without noise is a dead one - artificial and boring. We must have a love-hate relationship with these sounds. What we hear is a product of all of us, collectively living our lives in the city. As one, we inevitably create a shared soundscape. Our perception of sound is evolutionary; what we find (un)pleasing to our minds and souls can be measured in frequencies, quantified. What we hear are echoes of past principles of organizing human society, seemingly overcome yet still droning. Droning silence? Like the city, the visual and auditory state of this installation is never static. It changes continuously based on the collective interaction of visitors, reflecting the dynamic nature of urban spaces where various non-human and human elements contribute to ongoing narratives. The installation serves as an analogy for the relationship between us, the city, and the influence of the sounds we collectively produce.
PART OF
48 Stunden Neukolln
TOOLS / TECHNIQUE
Ableton, Arduino
YEAR
2024
MATERIAL
Wood, Textile, Metal
COLLABORATION
Studio Saze, Niklas Schaefer, Max Steimel
About the artists
Concept, design, construction, and technology by Studio Saze.
Sound design by Niklas Schaefer and Max Steimel.
Studio Saze
Elze Schers and Lisa Bot are a Dutch duo based in Berlin who started Studio Saze together - a creative studio for new media design. They combine their interdisciplinary backgrounds and work on the production of large-scale mixed-media and spatial works. Handling the interplay between theory and hands-on practice by creating and building immersive environments that translate abstract ideas into tangible concepts that invite the audience to explore and engage.
Max Steimel
Max Steimel is a sound designer, field recording artist, and DSP software engineer, based in Berlin. A recurring focus of Max’s work is to take the outside world into the fleeting space of the digital using sampled recordings of various complexity, and reshape, bend and enhance it to expose the hidden layers of our surroundings in new ways.
Niklas Schaefer
Niklas has a background in spatial and social sciences. His focus is on the urban environment and the explanation of its diverse phenomena. Field recordings, as audible copies of the urban, convey information about physical spaces in a way that differs from the usual visual means and whose potential seems untapped.
