Treppenwitz
Site-Specific AR Installation
Unity, AR Foundation, ARKit
Treppenwitz (2019) is a site-specific augmented reality installation experienced while descending two flights of escalators, each moving in a different direction. The work unfolds entirely through movement, using the escalator as a fixed trajectory that structures attention, pacing, and duration. Once the descent begins, there is no pause or reversal; the experience is shaped by inevitability.
“A sensitive man, such as myself, overwhelmed by the argument leveled against him, becomes confused and can only think clearly again at the bottom of the stairs.”
— Denis Diderot, Paradoxe sur le comédien (1830)
Augmented elements are distributed throughout the escalator environment and closely aligned with the surrounding architecture. Some appear as clear window frames that echo existing structures, while others frame views of the sky. These elements are positioned at varying heights and depths, requiring continual adjustments in orientation as the body moves downward.
Within the framed skies, motion unfolds independently of the viewer. Sky fragments scroll upward, sideways, or diagonally, often at speeds that contradict the escalator’s steady descent. As participants transition from one escalator to the next, these misalignments intensify. Direction, scale, and perspective drift out of sync with bodily movement, producing a gradual sense of perceptual disorientation.
The experience is often shared. Small groups gather around the device, collectively tracking the shifting frames as they descend. Attention circulates between bodies, architecture, and augmented elements, shaped by the impossibility of stopping and the certainty of arrival.
At the bottom of the escalator, movement ends. The augmented encounter comes to a close, and orientation is briefly restored. The title references treppenwitz: the delayed realization that arrives only after a situation has passed. Here, insight emerges not through reflection or control, but through timing, attention, and the inevitability of descent.