David is missing is a video work that replaces the planned sound installation that had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus epidemic and the unfortunate absence of a physical exhibition space.

The initial idea of the installation was to create a closed system in which generative processes are associated with electronic devices such as vibration motors, transducers and loudspeakers that create sounds by interaction between themselves and their environment. The movements of the electronic components would have created sounds that would have been recorded and fed back into the system to be used by the devices to shape the soundscape - highlighting the physical power of sound as the driving force of life in this world. The utopian idea of an unlimited resource thus becoming reality as long as all the inhabitants play their part and keep the process alive.

David is Missing is now presented in a digital format that contrasts greatly with the idea of the original installation, but the appearance of the work remains similar.

The first concept of a sound installation focused on the origin of each sound, which can only be traced and experienced by the spectator at a given moment, highlighting the ephemeral quality of sounds and questioning the term "organic" sound, which in this case would in fact have been digital sound.

The world depicted in the video, on the other hand, is a staged reality without any "original" sound, compressing two days of shooting into six and a half minutes of super edited sequences. This hyper realistic approach, often found in nature documentaries, has had a great influence on this work. The soundtrack of nature documentaries is most often seen as a vessel for conveying a certain emotion necessary to tell a story, and the sound design is intended to satisfy our idea of specific animal sounds, even if we are sometimes unable to perceive them in a real environment. As the inhabitants represented in David is missing are not the ones we know, the search for a real or "original" sound is useless. The spectator's expectation of sound is motivated only by the quality of the texture of the material and the movement of the devices.

Luzius Bauer: Concept, Set Design, Editing, Sounddesign, Music Robin Nidecker: Light, Camera, Editing, Colourgrading