WAVEFORM Z (2022) is based on a moving image projected onto a screen which stands upright in water. The water surface is periodically animated. Therefore the image of the water mirroring the projected image is superimposed by a re-configuration of the visible material as a result of the interference wave patterns created by the mechanic animation of the water.

The projected visual material is a structure that is in itself determined by repetitive patterns occurring on the screen. The building blocks for these patterns are drifting lines and light noise. Those patterns and waves will be further modulated in the mirror of the water, there forming more complex patterns as the result of the periodically changing distortion on the surface of the water.

Another dimension of the work is its characteristics in terms of periodic alternations over time, such as drifting color, hue saturation or luminance levels, those animations will not be altered but simply mirrored, time is the same everywhere and any modulation of time remains non-apprehensible to human senses and construction of reality.

The correlation between altered and non-altered aspects of the original image, the moving image on the screen in its reflection in the water result in an overall impression, drifting between a monolithic light object and a complex projection field.


Image, sound and light composition: Ulf Langheinrich
Software: Matthias Härtig
Production: Richard Castelli - Epidemic