In exhibition-making, we often focus on visual composition and spatial geometry. This emphasis stems from our background, where visual reasoning is prioritized, while the auditory aspect is typically approached intuitively rather than through structured methods. However, every spatial experience also encompasses an auditory dimension. Sound plays a crucial role in conveying scale, orientation, depth, and continuity, even when it is not immediately obvious.

This project provides a concrete, practice-based exploration of how auditory choices influence the spatial logic of an installation. By examining aspects such as material scale, trajectory continuity, directionality, and the coherence of the auditory field, we aim to make the mechanisms of scenographic sound more accessible to practitioners who primarily think visually. The intention is to clarify how sound interacts with the space we stage.

Reconstructing material identity for perceptual scale

For us, the starting point of any auditory concept is the first perceptual moment a visitor encounters. Even when only sketches exist, we examine what someone would see, hear, and infer as they step into the space. This helps us understand how visual scale, sonic material, and architectural conditions interact, and where inconsistencies affect the spatial logic of the work. In these situations, sound design becomes scenographic work, shaping the auditory cues so that the modalities relate in a way that supports the intended spatial experience. In this installation, the projected dice appear large, slow, and physically grounded, while the original sound remained mechanically constrained. Aligning these layers formed the basis of our approach.

We worked with recordings of stones because these provide the transient sharpness and broadband detail necessary for impact sounds to appear believable at this scale. Recording at 192 kHz (a high speed in the auditory domain) enabled us to transpose and stretch the material while preserving its microscopic structure. This is crucial because without micro-detail, a transposed sound becomes diffuse, and visitors perceive it as artificial rather than physical.

Lowering the pitch brings the sound into the frequency range that we intuitively associate with heavy, large objects. Slowing down the attacks and decays aligns the sound’s behaviour with the visible slow-motion in the projections.

Local congruence is a core principle in our spatial design practice. If an impact of one of the dice appears on the left side of a projection but the sound comes from an unrelated position, visitors tend to associate the event with the loudspeaker system rather than the image. This causes spatial meaning to collapse, making us aware of the technical apparatus. To avoid this, we have placed three loudspeakers beneath each projection screen. An impact visible on the left is heard on the left. An impact on the right is heard on the right. Rolling dice traverse all speakers on their way from right to left. This local congruence enables visitors to understand the screens as part of a larger system rather than as three separate videos.

Extending trajectories across the space

Alicja Kwade envisioned the screens as windows into a broader realm of movement. The dice are not meant to exist within the screens; rather, they move through them. To make this legible, we extended the auditory trajectories across the exhibition hall. We placed additional loudspeakers on the opposite wall and along both short sides of the space, so that the impacts do not end at the edges of the projection surface. The movement continues into the room visitors inhabit.

To maintain coherence, all dice move in the same global direction. Without this, the frontal and back projections of the three image planes would contradict each other. To achieve this, we had to mirror the rear projections. This directional consistency provides visitors with a stable frame of reference.

Even once the material identity and spatial trajectories had been aligned, a shared space was still needed in which these events could occur. We applied a short, consistent reverberation to all impacts. This approach does not overly emphasize the space, but it does prevent fragmentation. Without this unified reverberant layer, each impact would sound isolated, as if occurring in its own acoustic bubble. With it, however, the room becomes one continuous environment. The focus here is on spatial coherence rather than effect.

The installation comprises twenty-nine loudspeakers and three subwoofers. These are arranged based on perceptual quality rather than geometric symmetry. Each position serves a specific spatial purpose.

For this reason, the subwoofers were selected through listening tests rather than by specification. A technically superior model does not necessarily produce the most convincing experience. If the reproduction of low frequencies is not appropriate to the rolling dice, visitors would notice the technical apparatus rather than the objects themselves.

Moreover, crossover tuning and timing corrections ensure that the sound system behaves as a coherent spatial instrument. These are scenographic decisions: the system’s precision determines whether visitors perceive the room as an organic environment or merely a video installation.

We also checked how much sound reached the neighbouring galleries. Since the spill was very low, we could keep the intended loudness and physicality of the work without having to reduce levels for adjacent rooms.

In the resulting installation, visitors move around to explore the relationships between different viewpoints and trajectories. Standing close to a single screen highlights one trajectory. Stepping into the corner of the space reveals multiple trajectories simultaneously. Walking along the hall’s long axis reveals the continuity across all three screens.

As the loudspeakers remain invisible and the room’s boundaries are visually subdued, visitors perceive the dice as events occurring in the space rather than as outputs of separate sound and video channels. This distinction is important. We usually do not perceive an image and a sound as two separate inputs. Rather, we perceive a single moving object revealed through multiple modes of perception. The auditory and visual cues converge because the perceptual system seeks the most coherent explanation of what is happening in front of us.

This is why sound stabilises spatial relations that the image alone cannot maintain. When only the projections are active, the dice remain visually tied to the screens. When sound and image describe the same underlying movement, our perceptual system integrates them into a single interpretation. The space gains depth, direction, and scale because both modalities point to the same behaviour. In scenographic terms, sound does not simply support the image. It provides the conditions under which the movement of the dice becomes spatially intelligible as an unfolding event.

The installation marks the entry point to a larger exhibition addressing scientific and philosophical ways of understanding the world. This framing invites visitors to think about systems, uncertainty, and how we construct knowledge. Alicja Kwade’s work consistently engages these questions through material transformations, scale shifts, and perceptual ambiguity. In Ewig den Zufall betrachtend fits into this trajectory by staging repeated rolling events that appear simple at first glance yet operate as part of a larger conceptual inquiry into indeterminacy and structure.

Within this context, the dice carry both their visual presence and their cultural associations. They are familiar objects associated with chance, risk, and repetitive trial. Visitors bring these associations with them, whether or not they read the exhibition texts. Our sound design interacts directly with this layer. By giving the dice weight, scale, and directional stability, the auditory layer ensures that the cultural significance remains connected to the perceptual experience. The spatial behaviour supports the idea of an ongoing system rather than a series of symbolic images. When the auditory cues align with visitors’ expectations of culturally ingrained objects, interpretive stability increases.

The museum context further shapes how these interpretations take form. With the architecture visually suppressed, sound becomes one of the primary cues for orientation and scale. Visitors rely on it, often implicitly, to situate both the physical behaviour and the cultural meaning of the dice within the space. The auditory layer provides the perceptual conditions under which meanings associated with chance and repetition, or the laws of physics, can be intuitively grasped. In this way, the scenographic decisions bridge the conceptual framing of the exhibition, the logic of Kwade’s practice, and the broader sociocultural associations that visitors bring with them.

Working on In Ewig den Zufall betrachtend clarifies just how much spatial experience depends on the correspondence of auditory and visual cues. In this installation, visitors do not perceive separate media, screens, images, or sounds. Instead, they experience a single event revealed through multiple modalities. The dice only become spatially intelligible when the image, sound, and movement all describe the same behaviour.

For us, this project demonstrates that sound scenography is not supplementary. Rather, it is a method for stabilising spatial relations that would otherwise remain ambiguous when designed solely through visual means. Material scale, directional logic, and trajectory continuity are not merely stylistic choices. Rather, they determine whether visitors can form a coherent interpretation of the environment they walk through.

This leads to a broader observation that is relevant to exhibition-making more generally. Many of us in the field think visually by habit and training, yet every spatial situation also operates through sound. When auditory cues contradict visual ones, the perceived space becomes uncertain. When they align, however, the space gains clarity, even if visitors do not consciously attend to the sound. It is this alignment that allows the installation to function as one environment rather than three projections.

In Ewig den Zufall betrachtend makes this condition visible. The installation’s simplicity reveals the mechanisms through which spatial meaning emerges: proportion, continuation, congruence, and the coherence of the auditory field. Treating these mechanisms as scenographic parameters rather than technical concerns enables us to create environments in which visitors understand the space intuitively, through their movement within it.