About These Works

My practice sits at the intersection of sound, space, and human presence — exploring how listening can become a shared and embodied act. The works here span performances, collaborations, community events, and publications. Each one treats sound as something that connects bodies, places, and moments.

The order, like much of my life, is non-linear. I've moved between languages and cities since childhood — Puglia, Bologna, Milan, London — while Albania, coded in my DNA, remained absent from experience until very recently.

These projects form a constellation more than a timeline, and they're how I've learned to locate myself: through sound, through others, through the temporary ground we make together.

UR: Human Presence (London, UK)

Concept, Direction and 3D Sound Design

_{“Our own body is in the world as the heart is in its organism”

-Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Two sound artists, four contemporary dancers, a performance artist, a visual artist and a small group of witnessing participants came together to portrait the inner workings of the human body.}

_{“The group created an ‘asphyxiating atmosphere’ to guarantee his audience the experience of ‘spiritual anarchy and intellectual disorder’ and let them, at least temporarily, lose touch with the tumorous tempo of the paroxysmal present-day.” Agata Kik}
_{Concept, Direction and Sound Design: Christian Duka
Sound Design: Jose Macabra
Performance: Elissavet Sfyri - "Nociception"
Choreography: Rebecca Evans [Pell Ensemble]
In collaboration with dancers: Ingvild Marstein Olsen, Jasmine Chiu, Antony Daly Luna and Ripp Greatbatch.
Graphic Design, Lighting and Visuals: Marco Maldarella
Advising: Sundip Aujla}

_{Performed at Aures London, October 2018}
_{50.4 Sound System, 360° Spatialisation powered by Auditif}

_{Performance Review by Agata Kik}

Spatial Improvisations (London, UK and Strasbourg, FR)

Concept, Performance and Spatial Sound Engineering.

_{Spatial Audio Performative Framework

This ongoing project explores live ambisonic improvisation as a dialogic process between acoustic and electronic sound. In each performance, I work exclusively with the real-time input of the other performer — capturing, transforming, and spatialising their sound through live sampling, time-stretching, and granular manipulation within an ambisonic field. Each performance is an act of shared listening and spatial co-creation, where the electronics extend rather than accompany the acoustic gesture — transforming sound into an evolving topography of presence.

This idea was born at the Free Improvisation in 3D Sound event I curated at IKLECTIK (London), featuring John Butcher, Ute Kanngiesser, and Sharon Gal on the Amoenus 16.4 system. It has since evolved through performances in different events held at Stone Nest with 4DSOUND (with John Butcher and Aimée Theriot), at Carmen Kamina in Strasbourg and at Cafe Oto (with Sharon Gal). It remains open for further exploration in new collaborations.

Past spatial improvisation sessions have been released on Amoenus Recordings, captured and mixed directly in ambisonics, reflecting the live, unfixed nature of this research.

John Butcher & Christian Duka — Live at IKLECTIK

Sharon Gal & Christian Duka — Live at IKLECTIK}

Amoenus Recordings

Concept, Creative Direction, Mastering Engineer

_{Spatial Audio Record Label

Amoenus Recordings bridges spatial sound with electronic music culture. Each release originates from a live performance within the Amoenus ecosystem, later rendered into binaural form — preserving the immediacy of the moment and the architecture of the space. The label treats spatial audio as an artistic language, not just a technical format.

Through this approach, Amoenus Recordings seeks to redefine how recorded music inhabits space, embracing the strangeness and physicality of binaural sound as a marker of difference rather than an imperfection to correct. The releases act as sonic documents of lived events — unfixed, situated, and alive.

The talk "Publishing the Unfixed" (ZiMMT conference, Leipzig) serves as both manifesto and companion to the label's work.}

_{Releases: https://amoenusrecordings.bandcamp.com/}

Kopshti Zanor (Tirana, AL)

Conceptualisation, Co-curation

_{Ambient music gatherings in albania

Kopshti Zanor emerged in Tirana as a continuation of the spirit that animated the original Sonic Garden series in London — a desire to create spaces for collective listening and connection through sound. Born out of a strong local need for community-driven events, the series took shape through a group effort of Albanian and resident artists, many of whom are deeply involved in Tirana’s growing music scene.

Hosted in outdoor and unconventional urban settings, Kopshti Zanor reimagines the city as a shared sonic garden, where live performances, DJ sets, unfold in an atmosphere of openness and curiosity. Each gathering brings together friends, neighbours, and passers-by to experience sound as a social and spatial force — one that invites participation, reflection, and joy.}

_{Kopshti Zanor is currently active and led by Christian Duka, Dejvid Sherri (zerocase), Leo Hysa, Arnisa (nica2cica), Jetmira Belegu, Sindi Ziu and Dave Haruni.

Artists involved: Sindi Ziu, Lui, Deus Ex Machina, Selma Hyka, Buté, zerocase, Eris Gjypi, Dave HR and Thank You For Everything.

Collaborating venues: Foresta (Artificial Lake) and Tirana Backpackers Hostel.

With support by Abaddon Systems.}

Sonic Garden (London, UK)

Concept, Curation and Sound Engineering

_{Ambient music event series - co-created with Lucie Stepankova

Sonic Garden was a series of open-air community listening events exploring ambient & experimental music in London. The performances were amplified through an 8.4 surround system built with support from ACE funds — the Amoenus System - whose construction I project-managed. The system delivered stereo works spatialized via a custom ambisonic patch, mapping stereo pairs around the audience to create an immersive sound field that filled the garden and invited deep, communal listening.

The series unfolded over the summers of 2021, 2022, and 2023, mainly in the garden of IKLECTIK (London) and later at The Baths,

Across its editions, Sonic Garden featured a mix of local and international artists such as o.utlier, Maybe Laura, Avsluta, Primal Code, Luca, Founders, Alicia, Hems, Eight Fold Ways, Ana Mi, Space Drum Meditation, Phrex, Slowfoam, Stone, Jane Fitz, and Miro SundayMusiq, Dan Bean and Valentina Magaletti.}

The Listening Body (London, UK)

Sound Spatialisation, Live Electronic Music

_{Multi-Channel Drone Bath

The Listening Body features Christian Duka on sound processing and spatialization, Steve McInerney on gong, Henrique Matias (Hems), and Pascal Savy on live electronics, with McInerney and Matias performing as Flying Disks.

The project sits at the intersection of drone baths, group meditation, and live electronics — dispersing sound across a 16.4 system to immerse both audience and performers in the present. The performance explores sound as physical sensation, shaping how we inhabit the space and the moment.}

_{Performed at IKLECTIK December 2022 and March 2023}
_{16.4 Sound System powerred by Amoenus, 360° Spatialisation powered by Envelop 4 Live}

Nexus (Berlin, DE)

3D Sound & Narrative Design, MONOM 4D Sound, Berlin, Germany

_{Nexus: The Body & Consciousness is an exploration of the body as an interface between the sensate world and the conscious mind. Riffing off of the Minimalist approach to sculpture, we created sound sculptures that are designed to stimulate the body and the mind. The experience follows an overarching narrative that stays undisclosed to the audience to allow free interpretation.

Nexus is a collaboration between experience designer and art curator Joseph Banh (CA) and sound artist Christian Duka (IT).

Created in residence at MONOM 4D Sound (Berlin) during School of Machines, Making and Make-Believe programme “Ecoacoustics” @MONOM 4D Sound

Concept: Joseph Banh, Christian Duka, and Viola Ahrensfeld;

Lighting Concept: Joseph Banh

with kind advice and support of Florence To

Sound Design & Composition:
Christian Duka

with support of Joseph Banh

Voice: Christian Duka, Joseph Banh, Viola Ahrensfeld, and Ece Tankal.}

Pell Ensemble - 800 Lifetimes (Bedford, UK)

Sound & movement interaction

_{800 Lifetimes - A project by Pell Ensemble

800 Lifetimes is a 45 minute contemporary dance, sound and voice performance around modern myth making with local communities. It includes 360 sound technology Flowfal which allows the dancers, through a wearable app, to move and manipulate the sound in the space in real time.

‘800 Lifetimes’ is created by Pell Ensemble, directed by choreographer Rebecca Evans in collaboration with sound designer Christian Duka, creative tech Simon East using the Flowfal system, composer Dominie Hooper, dancers Antony Daly Luna, Amarnah Ufuoma Cleopatra Osajivbe-Amuludun and Caterina Grosoli. Creative mentorship from Yael Flexer.}

_{Movement material and words come directly from or are inspired by New Chapters (over 55’s) Dance Group, UoB dance students and their relationship to Bedford.}
_{Pell Ensemble website

This project is commissioned and co-produced by University of Bedfordshire and Bedford Creative Arts, a part of the Dance Beds programme. Produced by Step Out Arts. Supported in partnership by Dance East and The Place Theatre Bedford. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.}

AMOENUS - IMMERSIVE AUDIO R&D (London, UK)

Research in 3D sound, IKLECTIK Art Lab

Edited by Christian Duka, Videography by Iveta Sedlakova.

_{I am the founder of AMOENUS, an art organisation that supports the development of 3D sound in the arts. It provides immersive audio facilities and curates events in collaboration with local artists, art organisations and venues.

This documentary surveys a series of 8 researches in 3D sound carried out at IKLECTIK Art Lab, London, UK. Each invited artist was given time and space on the AMOENUS 13.4 speaker system to explore how 3D sound could be used in their practice.

Most of the audio recordings featured in this documentary are in binaural format. Listening through headphones is the best way to appreciate their spatial quality. Otherwise, listening via speaker won't have a negative impact on sound quality.Please note that there are 5 seconds of soft strobing light.

Artists involved: Shiva Feshareki, Lucie Stepankova, Amy Cutler & Tom Fox, Pietro Bardini, Pascal Savy, Thomas Nordmark, Dom Bouffard & Nick Burge}

_{AMOENUS website

Project supported by Arts Council England}

Holistic 4.0 - MISCOMMUNICATIONS (Online)

Audiovisual experience, IKLECTIK OFF-Site, Online

Sound by Christian Duka, Visual by Marco Maldarella - Full Video

_{HOLISTIC 4.0 – MISCOMMUNICATIONS explores the nature of modern-day communications, a particularly relevant issue considering the Covid-19 lockdown and the changes (or exacerbation) it brought to the way in which people interact with one another.

Exploring the “Echo Chamber” effect, the confirmation bias and the performative nature of social media posting, the consequences of cutting body-language & non-verbal communication out of the equation, the difference between interactions made 1-to-1, in intimate groups, in online communities, between family/friends, with strangers and people holding opposite beliefs around a subject, MISCOMMUNICATIONS asks important questions: how is it that we communicate today? How does the medium we use to do that affect the quality of our interactions? Can we ever be sure that what we say to others is understood the way we think it is?

The artists have recorded online calls organised with participants around the globe to discuss various topics – the recordings have been used alongside found audiovisual media as raw material for the making of the piece.}

_{Commissioned by IKLECTIK, London

Project supported by Arts Council England}

Nestor Pestana - Repositorium (Lisbon, PT)

Scoring & Sound Design in 5.1 - Porto Planetarium

Repositorium - a project by Nestor Pestana_{“Every lie creates a parallel world. The world in which it’s true.” - Momus}_{Falsehoods, exaggerations, unsubstantiated gossip, conspiracy theories, even your little white lies… They all become material in a parallel universe called Repositorium. Alarmingly, Repositorium’s mass is increasing at an exponential rate, causing a relative weakening in the gravitational pull of our own planet. This might be the reason you feel a little out of balance these days. Entire constellations have already formed in Repositorium, and this film invites you to see them.

Production year: 2020
Film running time: 00:10:24:10

5.1 Surround Sound, Full-dome immersive projection
Animation produced in Cinema4D by Nestor Pestana

Commissioned by Joana Pestana}

_{Featured in:
Scrolling the Arcane, Portugal 2020
Porto Planetarium}

United for Global Mental Health - Museum of Lost and Found Potential (London, UK)

Sound Installation & Soundscape - Covent Garden, London, UK

_{The museum shared 16 interactive portraits of people from across the world. Together these poignant, personal stories demanded that more be done to support mental health across all aspects of our lives.

Through video, sound, and real and imagined artefacts, visitors were transported to lost and found chapters in the lives of the people whose stories were told in the museum. People lost to suicide and their loved ones were also featured. There was a focus throughout, on the importance of the world investing more in the research and evidence that can identify solutions that improve mental health.

Exhibited on World Mental Health Day 2019

GoSpeakYourMind, The Guardian, Time Out

Museum Curator – Andy Franzkowiak
Museum Designer – Nissen Richards Studio
Lead Artist – Nestor Pestana
Artists - Unit Lab, Rūta Irbīte
Sound Design - Christian Duka
Lighting Design - Ben Donoghue

Commissioned by United For Global Mental Health}

Holistic 3.0 - Noise Culture (Berlin, DE)

Audiovisual Experience, Spektrum Berlin, Germany

Sound by Christian Duka, Visual by Marco Maldarella - Full Video

_{“Noise is presence. Noise realizes present differences and conflicts in their most hurtful, disruptive, and erratic appearance. It sets in with a certain bodily felt sense, a corporeal tension.”
-Holger Schulze

Noise Culture is an immersive audiovisual exploration of the modern age. Through the orchestration and juxtaposition of modern days’ delirium of information, Noise Culture meditates on the present state of the human condition.

Noise Culture was improvised on stage in interplay between sound artist Christian Duka and video artist Marco Maldarella.
In the making, they made exclusive use of scattered samples taken by real life experiences and signifiers of modern culture.

Performed at Spektrum, Berlin in May 2018

Noise Culture is the third instalment of HOLISTIC, a series of improvised audio/visual experiences created on themes relevant to the human condition.

Sound: Christian Duka
Visuals: Marco Maldarella}

CHRISTIAN DUKA

CHRISTIAN DUKA