ON(e) Distance

ON(e) Distance is an online audiovisual installation made during the two lockdowns of 2020. Abstract 3D models of Thrän’s apartments in Berlin and Prague connect through two video loops and six channels of sound: modulated conversations, field recordings and piano. Visitors entered as avatars, moving between the rooms and changing what they heard through their position. Up to 25 people could share the space and speak with one another.

Conversations with ten friends and strangers explore how distance changed everyday life during lockdown. Familiar rooms become strange when reconstructed as a shared virtual space. Listening depends on movement, proximity and the presence of others, while visitors’ bodies remain elsewhere. The work asks how we experience closeness and alienation when meeting through a screen.