UR: Human Presence

Concept, Direction and 3D Sound Design, Aures London, UK

_{“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}

The Listening Body

Sound Spatialisation, Live Electronic Music

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

-Maurice Merleau-Ponty

The Listening Body features Christian Duka for sound processing and spatialization across a multi-speaker setup, and Steve Mcinerney as a gong performer alongside Henrique Matias (Hems), forming the group known as Flying Disks. Pascal Savy also performs live electronics.

The Listening Body is a spatialized sound art project at the intersection of drone baths, group meditation, and live electronics, creating a new guided sound experience dispersed across a spatial sound system. The focus is on immersing both the audience and artist in the present, transforming the act of listening into an embodied experience. Rather than merely an auditory spectacle, the performance aims to make the entire body a resonating vessel, shaped by sound as it interacts with the architecture of the space. It’s a deep exploration of presence, where the music becomes a continuum of physical sensations, encouraging attendees to reflect on the ephemeral nature of reality through the medium of sound.}

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

Nexus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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}