spæs

spæs

23. September 2023

During a trip in 2010, we spent a few days in a remote mountain hut in the Ukrainian part of the Carpathians. We left our white Volvo 740 down in the valley. With passion, our host drove us in his Soviet heavy-duty off-road vehicle without suspension through rivers, mud holes and over overhanging tree trunks until we reached the village.

The hut stood in the middle of a vast, gently sloping meadow, the Polonyna, which was surrounded by forests and mountains. In the hut there was a squeaky bunk bed, a small dining table, two chairs, a fireplace and a piece of fragrant bacon that someone had left behind. We fetched fresh water from the small stream that crossed the meadow. It was a quiet and peaceful, and somehow magical place, and we enjoyed the uneventful silence. And because little was happening, we had the opportunity to observe closely. What makes this place so particularly immersive for our experience? What gives this place such a strong aura? Is it coherence, harmony, balance? Is it the atmosphere that we can feel with our whole body? We realized the fundamental importance of sound for the holistic experience. We thought, this is no coincidence. The sound of this Polonyna was an ingeniously coordinated orchestration of the sounds of life of all its inhabitants and visitors, animals and plants. We pondered: could this experience be made tangible in a different context? Could such “experiential spaces” also be produced outside the mountains, in urban, built spaces? If we consider every design of space as an act of communication: What we had in mind was a form of space-encompassing communication that takes the holistic experience of atmosphere and space as a central starting point via physical perception, in order to create the feeling of physical and mental presence, to expand or even dissolve the sensed spatial boundaries, and to direct awareness towards the aesthetic qualities and less towards the technical means of producing them (apparatus). In our vision, we saw less the naturalistic reproduction or simulation of desirable reality, but rather the creation of new realities – which amounted to nothing less than the composition of a work of art with the means of auditory design: the composition of space. The idea for the TAUCHER design studio was born. In the early days, we took every opportunity to try out and hone the idea: Fashion shows, Expanded Cinema, a research lab, performances, festivals, showrooms, brand events, art, museums and media installations. Over the years, our focus on scenographic projects and exhibition design has evolved. Today, our projects operate at the interface between art, knowledge transfer and architecture.

MNTN - The Sound of the Mountain

We have also launched several satellite projects that share a central theme with TAUCHER: auditory communication in space. These include MNTN – The Sound of the Mountain, where we have been developing an intuitive spatial audio technology for artists and designers since 2015 and sharing our more than ten years of experience working with multi-channel loudspeaker environments.

spæs - lab for spatial aesthetics in sound Berlin

At spæs lab in Berlin, we explore the relationships between sound, space and human experience from the perspective of aesthetics. Independent of commercial restrictions, we promote critical reflection and the exchange of ideas between art, science and technology. This includes workshops, a library, listening sessions, residency and internship programs.

spatial audio loft Berlin

Our latest satellite project is the spatial audio loft Berlin. For the realization of spatial audio projects, physical space, good acoustics and a large number of loudspeakers are still rare. Now that we have renovated and acoustically optimized our studio, it offers a studio environment for all those who want to work with non-standard speaker environments.

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