ROCHUS AUST/1st GERMAN ELECTROPHONIC ORCHESTRA BEYOND DIGITAL TROLLING 3D SOUNDING Who would have imagined that in the digital age the analogue record player would gain a USB interface and that the hottest DJs would be abusing mp3 files via digital vinyl systems, almost as if scratching had only just been invented. Or the fact that the digitalisation of pets would take up quite such an amount of data storage. And definitely not that we had to wait for the advent of profane piece of retractable metal, the analogue selfie-stick, in order to be able to witness the creation of the ultimate digital social human being. Imagine there is a digital revolution and everybody shows up?! The 1st GERMAN ELECTROPHONIC ORCHESTRA considers itself an intermediary between those who still hold on to this mystical concept of electricity in kilowatts and those who have long been shouting “We are the cloud!” As intermediaries between tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, between 4.0 and #.X, between the era when we communicated and that where we will once again be talking to one another. What we now need to do is capture, depict and shape the great digital ice age, this wonderful interim period undergoing a transformation from roundish to angular non-knowledge, in all its rugged, poetic beauty. DIGITAL TROLLING The first part of the performance by the 1st GERMAN ELECTROPHONIC ORCHESTRA features projections of visual object sequences (short YouTube clips/silent movie documentaries/video art/ TV features). An image recognition software – everybody is familiar with its rectangular frame of light which focuses on the object - is used live to identify, separate and, so to speak, troll for objects, the corporeal and the abstract. The analogue, two-dimensional object is dragged over to the edge of the projection and there is visibly rendered into a 3D object by a CAD programme. After that, the digital data is sent to one or more 3D printers, which immediately start creating the object. The electrical equipment required for producing the raw materials (plastic chipper) and the filament (for use in the 3D printer) as well as the 3D printers themselves become part of the ELECTROPHONIC ORCHESTRA and its machine sounds, so that the entire production process forms an integral part of the entire performance. BEYOND In the second half the 3D objects created are used as the base for a live recording process where varying grooves are carved into the object. The groove in the 3D object contains, as its 4th dimension, the digital sound generated when the object was created and which now, in turn, is rendered audible by the ELECTROPHONIC ORCHESTRA through the use of analogue record players. The entire creative process, in a constant state of homogenous flow, is at the same time recorded on video and projected into the space. Whereas the audience remains seated in the first half, watching and listening to the events unfolding, in the second half they are able to walk around in the installational compositions, take part in the production process in the digital machine hall and move on to the next dimension.