Constantin Engelmann

Mars song,

The imaginary field recording coming from the speakers reproduces a windy atmosphere. The sound is based on algorithms derived from the weather model by Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, IPSL Mars Climate Database. From the wind emerges a genderless voice, describing an imaginary stay on the planet.

Live, a mezzosopranist and a synth interact and dialogue with each other based on a canonic exercise by Augustin Maurs: the singer should reproduce three times, as accurately as she can, the sounds and pauses emitted by the synth. However, as the synth player plays more sounds than she could actually remember, this creates a composition based on human error, or imagination.

Mars is our planet of imagination. What we don’t seem feasible on earth we often project into a fictional narrative involving our fellow neighbour Mars. Throughout recent history we created maps, calendars, collected pictures or weather data of this planet. One could assume we seem to know it quite well. Just that we still don’t really know - what does it sound like on mars?

concert during the Finissage *Hey Mars!* at Haus am Lützowplatz Berlin
concert during the Finissage Hey Mars! at Haus am Lützowplatz Berlin
concert at Finissage Hey Mars at Haus am Lützowplatz

One sunray through the earth,

Every evening near Alexanderplatz one ray of sunlight shines fleetingly into the dark sky. The appearance of this phenomenon coincides with local noon on the exact opposite side of the planet longitude -166.59. The sunray slips through an imaginary slit in Earth’s blue sphere, reappearing to reach out into the middle of the Berlin night.

The artwork One Sunray through the Earth is inspired by astronomical instruments that connect the earth to the sky. It makes use of calculations and observations acquired over the centuries by great astronomers. However, the artwork twists the observation point around. It is not an instrument to study the sky, but rather it uses the sky to bring the attention back to Earth and to remind us playfully of our modest position in the solar system.

see onesunray.earth for more information

one sunray through the earth Alte Münze Berlin, 21.03.19
one sunray through the earth Alte Münze Berlin, 21.03.19
a sunray at Alte Münze Berlin, lat 52.52 lon 13.41, 21.04.19
the mechanism of one sunray through the earth

Stellar Fauna,

In this dance piece by choreograoher Kat Valàstur the kinetic technique of morphing is developed further in correlation with the use of the voice as an integral part of the bodies performativity. Inside an elliptical room the two female performers enact some sort of contemporary mythological beings. They slowly craft an uncanny world. Cultural signs in morphing, mutated and digital attributes merge with melancholic songs and tear drops.

The sound design and live sound to the dance piece was developed together with Tobias Purfürst in collaboration with coreographer Kat Valàstur and performers Harumi Terayama and Maria Zimpel.

image by Leon Eixensberger
performed by Maria Zimpel, Harumi Terayama
set design and sculptures: Leon Eixenberger
artistic consultant: Filippos Kavakas
sound design: Constantin Engelmann, Tobias Purfürst
light design and light constructions: Martin Beeretz
costume concept: Kat Válastur
costume realisation: Ottavia Castellotti Suzan Çamlik
production management HAU Artist Office: Sabine Seifert
touring HAU Artist Office: Nicole Schuchardt
production: Kat Válastur, HAU Hebbel am Ufer
co-production: Fondation d’entreprise Hermès,
Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Theater Freiburg,
Fonds Transfabrik
Funded by: Senate Department for Culture and Europe.

Atomistic,

Atomistic is a dialogue between two artworks: Time Piece (Seconds) and Neocortex. Both works deal with ideas about the perception of time continuity and its division into smaller parts. Each of them, however, engages another of our senses. One is a polyrhythmic arrangement of pulsating lights, an impression-evoking visual work; the other is a slow-motion noise composition, an auditory experience. The first is one continuous oscillation, the latter is a narration developing in time, with a clear beginning and end.

It is by combining the two in space that a multi-sensual experience is triggered. The two artworks influence and complement one another: one is eternal, the other represents an event. Thanks to the development of the sound narration it is possible to peer at Time Piece (Seconds) for a longer time. The auditory stimuli from Neocortex mislead our visual reception: sometimes the lights seem to pulsate differently.

Performance at Walcheturm Zürich 2018
Performance at Progetto 6000 Walcheturm, Zürich 2018
Performance at Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski Warsaw 2017

Reality glitch,

Reality Glitch is a public installation composed of two windsock, one is the official white and red wind signal, the other is white and grey. The classical red flag shows the wind direction, the grey one instead points against the wind, messing up with the viewers visual perception.

For the traveling public exhibition Grand Tour – Le acque dell’ovest at Lago Maggiore, the glitch traveled from Verbania (I), via Cannobio (I), Brissago (CH) to Locarno (CH)

Synchromesh,

Synchromesh is a sound installation exploring the digital materiality of sound. When we hear the seemingly precise metrum and pitch relations of its digital notation, the auditory patterns seem to shift in time and pitches glide ambiguously up and down. The notation is written in the sound programming language SuperCollider and follows the strict drum major of the computer. The computed sound events interact with the direct surroundings and create a spatial experience of the sound.

exhibition view Willner Brauerei 2016

System Sin 1.0 bell,

System Sin 1.0 is a sci-fi time system developed by the artists Elisa Storelli. With its unusual hours and distorted durations, the system depict how malleable the measurement of time can be. By challenging the universal acceptance of UTC, it emphasises the human capacity to stretch and shrink experiences of duration and the effect of perception on time. Based on this time piece we created a synthesized church bell that signaled each hour. Throughout the day people could experience this skewed time system.

Motto Books Berlin, 2015