Anja Kreysing – AudioArchitekt reality dub 11.10.2003 — 30.11.2003

From 11 October to 30 November 2003, the hartware medien kunst verein presented the project AudioArchitekt by Münster-based artist Anja Kreysing, alongside the exhibition games. Computerspiele von KünstlerInnen.

Kreysing developed and realised the AudioArchitekt in 2002 as part of her six-month scholarship for media artists from North Rhine-Westphalia, awarded by the Ministry for Urban Development and Housing, Culture and Sport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2000 and administered by the hartware medien kunst verein, Dortmund.

Since 2002, Anja Kreysing has been developing the AudioArchitekt as a “work in progress.” She explores and investigates both public and private spaces for their specific “acoustic images.” This process has resulted in a series of recordings from different contexts: place recordings—recordings in public spaces; building recordings—recordings in public buildings; home recordings—recordings in private spaces; and car recordings—recordings made inside parked cars. These recordings are detached from their original environments and transferred into new spatial contexts.

The recordings—whether place, home, or car recordings—function like acoustic surveillance cameras, turning the recipient into a “key witness” of acoustic events. Distance and proximity to these events are determined solely by the position of the microphone, allowing varying degrees of access to the audible world.

The idea of presenting these recordings as installations in specifically designed spaces led to the development of various mobile units of the AudioArchitekt. The “Globalised Translocations”—a small device—allow recordings to be easily sent, installed, and exchanged via the internet. The “pocketarchitecture,” by contrast, reduces a space to an MP3 storage format, presenting itself as an “AudioArchitekt for home users.”

The transition from a “virtual” auditory world into physical space becomes most apparent in the personification of the AudioArchitekt, who operates his own architectural office. The AudioArchitekt becomes an identity-forming mask, an avatar adopted by the artist herself. Here, Anja Kreysing expands the concept of shifting between virtual and real space by introducing a personal dimension.

As the assistant of the AudioArchitekt, Kreysing takes appointments in physical space and designs individual sound systems, the so-called “vibrant walls.”

Kreysing understands sound as a dynamic and therefore flexibly applicable material. New spaces are no longer defined by architectural elements, but are generated through changing audiographies.