Manuel Cyrill


Abbild & Beton (2024)





As part of an experimental setup, audiovisual recordings of ground surface textures were carried out in Vienna’s St. Marx district. The aim was to translate inscribed and divergent patterns of use into an installation that makes them perceptible through concrete listening and tactile seeing. The area was explored using the method of a soundwalk along predetermined routes. Material was gathered with a mobile object specifically designed for the needs of the experiment. This interface—its form derived from a wheeled suitcase, or “trolley”—serves as a mobile tripod adapted to the demands of an urban–industrial environment.


The findings from these walks were presented as an installation, in which the recorded materials are displayed in a comparative format. The interface was equipped with a portable screen and a mobile loudspeaker system, enabling the audiovisual projection of the collected materials and their reception while walking. A topographical representation documents the gathered subjective impressions, conveying insights into the qualities of the ground surfaces within the study area.



The choice of framing and factors such as motion blur, rolling shutter effect (a positional error of pixels), and camera image stabilization create technical artifacts and glitches that reveal the frequency response of the recording device and its associated limitations and potential. The speed of the movement appears very high relative to the distance from the ground.


The recording is thus, on the audio and visual levels, the testimony of a process of physical and vibratory exchange with the object of study. It mediates the audible and visible trajectory, the presence of the interface in the study area, which defines a sound space permeating the city. This apparent phenomenological excerpt of the interface speaks of the physical relationship between the object and the materiality present in the study area.​



The result of the explorations was made accessible as an installation in which the recorded materials are presented in a comparative approach. The interface was equipped with a portable screen and a mobile speaker system that project the captured materials audiovisually and enable reception while walking. A roll of paper displays a sequence of images of frottage prints. A map shows a topographical representation and documents the collected subjective experiences, conveying impressions of the nature of the ground surfaces in the study area.


“Walking is first of all viewed as a mobile, situated and embodied methodology to explore and perceive spaces.” Elena Biserna