title
year
info
description
documentation

dominium terrae



Filed under:
Publication, Narrative, Digital World,  Architecture

2025

publication

funded by
Bundesministerium Kunst und Kultur
Land Salzburg
Land Steiermark
and LAB5550

additional texts
WAI Architecture Thinktank
Beste Ileri

publisher
Forum Stadtpark Verlag
“Dominium Terrae” is a powerful and unsettling exploration of humanity’s current trajectory and the futures we may be steering toward. Structured as a series of museums, each devoted to a distinct failure of the modern era, ranging from environmental collapse to economic inequality and social injustice, the book exposes the hidden costs of our systems and practices. Each exhibition serves as both a mirror and a warning, urging us to confront the consequences of inaction before they harden into disaster.

More than just critique, “Dominium Terrae” is a call to responsibility. It reminds us that the choices we make today will define the world of tomorrow. Through sharp analysis and strikingly imaginative storytelling, it challenges readers to envision and build a future that is more just, equitable, and sustainable. Thought-provoking, urgent, and deeply resonant, “Dominium Terrae” is essential reading for anyone concerned with the fate of our planet and the survival of our species.
Isometric view of two stacked copies of the book dominium terrae on black: the front cover with large white hexagonal lettering and the back cover with a barcode


dominium terrae movie



Filed under:
Movie, Narrative, Digital World, 

2026

short movie

awards
Honorable Mention
VAEFF 2026,
New York, USA

funded by
Land Salzburg

Written, directed
Wilhelm Scherübl

Sound:
Julia Just

Voice:
elevenlabs.io
Dominium Terrae is a short film based on the book of the same name. In a compact format, it brings to life the locations and scenarios from the book, offering a glimpse into a world shaped by absence.

WE travel across Earth after the wealthy have fled to space, leaving most of humanity behind. A collective voice, belonging to those who remain, speaks of what is left: fragments of data, buildings baking in the sun, silence where there was once noise. Not much survives. But something lingers.

Through images and narration, the film builds an atmosphere of quiet doom, inviting viewers to witness what remains when everything else is gone.


CCC



Filed under:
Object, Narrative, Publication

2023

publication
narratives
objects

funded by
Land Salzburg

Residency Merida
Universidad de las Artes de Yucatán
La Cupula
This project imagines a dystopian reality in which the unchecked rise of soft drink consumption plunges a nation into crisis. Diabetes, obesity, and shortened lifespans spread rapidly as corporations aggressively market sugary beverages, especially to infants and children. Government regulations collapse under the pressure of profit-driven campaigns, leaving society overwhelmed by products that erode its health. The work exposes this clash between corporate power and human vulnerability, revealing how deeply consumption shapes culture and survival.

The installation brings this narrative to life through a series of objects: oversized bottles holding 20 liters and 5 liters stand as monumental forms mirroring the everyday dominance of soft drinks in local life, while a baby bottle extends the narrative with chilling effect, pointing to the deliberate targeting of the youngest consumers. Bottle caps collected from the streets serve as silent evidence of environmental neglect, and a sculpture of the sea completes the ensemble as a symbolic piece suggesting how capitalism penetrates even the most elemental forces of nature.

>more
Three Coca-Cola bottles of different sizes against a white background: a large dark water-cooler jug, a two-liter bottle and a small bottle


Me, myself and (A)I



Filed under:
Digital World, Movie, Performance

2023

research
video
performance

funded by
Land Salzburg

in collaboration with
Bernadette
Flavia
Manuel

music by
Julia Just
This research project explores digital self-expression and identity, from the casual play of Instagram filters to fully fictional personas. Its focus is empowerment: giving marginalized communities, especially those who don't identify with their biological bodies, tools for authentic representation. Using tracking suits, participants merge their Real Self with a Digital Self, creating new "bodies" to embody, test, and transform in virtual space. Avatars, often enhanced through AI, become vessels of desire, emotion, and imagination, reflecting identities as they could be, not just as they are.

Performers & Process
The project collaborates closely with performers, particularly transgender, non-binary, and gender-fluid individuals, who step into their digital doubles. Their gestures and emotions are translated into fluid, shape-shifting avatars inhabiting virtual worlds, raising questions about identity, embodiment, and how digital self-discovery echoes back into lived reality.

Outcome
The process culminates in a video work documenting the creation and evolution of these digital selves, a cinematic reflection on the interplay between body, technology, and identity's infinite possibilities.

>more
Video still for Me, myself and (A)I: a few people move under a tall wooden lattice structure on terracotta ground, with the title in white letters across the top

OENORM B5335



Filed under:
Exhibition

2019

installation
video

exhibited
AKT 1: Europa

in collaboration with
Philippe Jans
Therese Leick
Charlie Rauchs
“I still believe that the principle is that the law has to follow politics and not politics the law.”
Herbert Kickl, FPÖ, 21.01.2019

This absurd statement serves as the starting point for a spatial installation that embodies its inherent contradiction. At the center stands a door, designed to defy convention and expectation. The entrance becomes both a literal and symbolic threshold, reflecting the distorted logic of populism, nationalism, and bigotry.

Inside, the room unfolds under the theme of Europe. A video plays recordings of people sharing their perceptions of the European Union, revealing diverse opinions, misconceptions, and hopes. The interplay of space, imagery, and narrative invites reflection on the fragile balance between law, politics, and ideology in shaping our collective future.

>more
A narrow wooden door standing slightly open in a white wall, with a strip of bright blue visible through the gap and a brass handle on the right


The Golden Age of Nothing



Filed under:
Narrative, Publication, Movie, Exhibition

2015

publication
narrative

awards
Outstanding Artist Award
Honorable Mention OOA

exhibitions
Jerusalem Design Week
Militärhistorisches Museum Dresden
Designforum Styria
Architekturforum Linz
OnSite Hohenems

in collaboration with
Philippe Jans
Therese Leick
Falk Lennart Kremzow
Charlie Rauchs
This project confronts the complex realities of borders and their profound impact on society and architecture. Through a dialogue of striking visuals and incisive texts, it exposes the rise of nationalism and exclusionary policies that erode the foundations of democracy and social cohesion.

At its core, the work is a call to action. By evoking dystopian imagery and highlighting the consequences of inaction, it challenges complacency and insists on rethinking the values that shape our shared future.

The exploration of closed borders is not only political but deeply personal, asking how barriers reshape lived experience, identity, and the spaces we inhabit. The project compels us to reflect on what we defend, what we exclude, and what kind of society we want to build.

Ultimately, it offers a critical lens on the intersection of borders, architecture, and collective life. With its urgency and stark imagery, the project does more than document a crisis. It demands engagement, reflection, and responsibility.

>more
A dark concrete tower on a grassy mountain slope above a valley, with snow-covered peaks and a second tower in the distance


Recollect Space



Filed under:
Movie, Publication

2015

video
publication
narrative

awards
Startstipendium Architektur 2015
Recollect Space explores the ways memories are bound to architecture, how places live on through stories, details, and the act of remembering. At its heart are the voices of refugees who can no longer return to the spaces they once inhabited.

Through their descriptions, fragments of lost architecture are reimagined and translated into abstract images using three-dimensional software. These digital reconstructions are paired with personal narratives, forming a dialogue between memory and visualization, absence and imagination.

The project invites viewers to engage with these recollections not as fixed representations but as open interpretations, an exploration of how place, memory, and storytelling intertwine. In doing so, Recollect Space asks us to envision what has been lost, and to reflect on the fragile yet enduring bond between architecture and human experience.

>more
High contrast black and white drawing of a building silhouette with angular platforms and terraces on a white background

Als die Tiere den Wald verließen



Filed under:
Narrative, Publication, Movie, Exhibition

2019

installation
publication

exhibited
Architektur im Magazin

in collaboration with
Philippe Jans
Therese Leick
Charlie Rauchs
The 1993 cartoon series The Animals of Farthing Wood highlighted the dangers of human- and machine-driven destruction. In the story, the animals' habitat is demolished, forcing them on a perilous journey toward a distant paradise. The parallels to our present are striking. We too are sealing our own fate by prioritizing trends and technologies over the environment, now even searching for new habitats beyond our own planet.

Though our current age lacks a precise scientific definition, one fact is clear: humanity has become a decisive force permanently reshaping the world. Our accomplishments create new architectures and spaces whose consequences often reveal themselves decades later or remain hidden in the dark. Server farms the size of towns consume vast landscapes. We trade emotions across screens yet lose touch with lived reality. Digital and physical spaces collapse into one another, while our apartments grow smarter yet not necessarily wiser.

The Animals of Farthing Wood reimagines these societal issues through narrative and spatial installations. Three interconnected spaces illustrate the so-called "age of man," forming a collection of stories from a near future where the impact of our choices on habitat and survival can no longer be ignored.

>more
Rendered animals including a giraffe, rhinoceros, tiger, bear, penguin and sheep stand on a red rock ledge and look out over a barren planet with white domes under a purple sky




© Wilhelm Scherübl