Scot Jenerik: Your installations are architectural in that they are structural spaces which not only contain, but act as a framework for the manipulation of light, sound and the human body Are you attempting to direct the human body? or is it merely another medium to be manipulated within the artwork?

Achim Wollscheid: I see the spaces, you refer to as "structural"—rightfully I guess, because I use quite "abstract" forms of media to set them up—as interfaces. My interest is focused less on what artworks supposedly are, but rather what can be achieved with/through them. Meaning, in my view, artworks create spaces in/on which interaction between the symbolical (the artwork) and an interpretation (through the onlooker or recipient) is not just a silent mental (and somehow obsucre) process, but also gains practical, kin—aesthetical features—i.e. movement and sound are included.

Are you interested in a conscious awareness from the people interacting with your public installations? Or are your systems designed to manipulate and transform the spaces with the participants being unaware of their involvement?

Well... this kind of touches the question of artistic narcicism... would I want people to be aware of my artwork, because I want them to be aware of me? I think so...—but this is mutual. I guess I want them to be aware of the artwork (maybe not instantly but after a while...) because I want them to be aware of themselves. And others

Your work has moved from recordings, which are generally experienced in an isolated space, to public works. Was this transformation based out of a need for greater control of the experience of the work? Or are you interested in manipulating a larger social body?

I always considered sound as a medium to transform something, be it other sound, or space or social infrastructure. Even as a guitar—player in a band (early 80s) I used a (custom built) random switch to distribute my sound between 4 amps positioned in between the audience—so neither me nor the audience could foresee what was happening where and when. Development of pure "sonic work" and transformation related experiments always went hand in hand. And as to the consequences of such an "experimental" approach... I think the goal is to achieve a more or less direct feedback from the recipinet, who thus becomes an active participant.