deep story nr. 166 | big data | by Herr Oppermann

After arriving at the lowest level, a door blocked my way, with a
notice that unauthorized access is prohibited. I slowly pushed
the handle down and to my surprise it actually went open. This
made me field emboldened. When I closed the door, however, I
noticed another sign on the other side of the door: "Always lock
this door after entering and leaving!"
Apparently another ComRa employee didn't take the instructions
that seriously. Since I hadn't received a key yet, I couldn't
lock it either. I decided to think about it later because my
current assignment seemed more important to me. Only then I
noticed the eerie atmosphere down here. The corridor in front of
me exuded a strange coldness. Low temperatures are actually
nothing unusual in vaulted cellars, but down here it was not the
usual “moldy cold” that had been locked in the depths for
decades. Instead, everything seemed sterile and impersonal. It
felt more like a fresh chill that has just moved in. Mixed with
the neon lights, a futuristic dystopian atmosphere was created.
The next thing I noticed was the smooth walls. These were not the
kind of walls one would expect in such an old building. Instead,
the walls were almost as smooth as glass without the slightest
rough edge. This is exactly what the walls at ComRa headquarters
looked like. From this I concluded that ComRa had carried out
structural measures down here and that there must be something
important here. Maybe I even found the well-hidden backstage area
that even Lighter didn't know about. I was speculating that the
Djs could be brought here through the same entrance and on the
other side there could be direct access to the stage. Exhilarated
by the prospect of having discovered something special, I walked
down the long corridor. The pipes hanging on the ceiling caught
my eye. These also must have been installed later.
After a few meters I came to a junction. No matter which
direction I watched, it all looked the same. I thought about
which direction to go for a while, until I noticed that the pipes
merged on the ceiling into even thicker pipes. These tubes should
show me the way. I followed them until I stood in front of a door
again. This was also not locked, although it should actually have
been.
Unfortunately, the backstage area was not in the room. Instead,
there were huge boilers and machines in front of me. These looked
just as sterile and new as the corridors. Lots of colorful
control lights were flashing on them and next to them in the
corner was a gigantic computer rack. At this moment I was very
disappointed. There was no beer nor famous people down here.
Apparently I had stumbled into a technical room. Maybe the
ventilation was being controlled down here. I discovered a
monitor on which data could be seen. Among other things, the
number of guests, dance steps per minute and average dance steps
per hour were displayed. Before I could see more, I was startled
by loud footsteps that echoed through the large room.


There is also a lot to discover in Herr Oppermann's new deep
story. The Hamburg resident and curator of the Klangextase series
skilfully mixed atmospheric tracks into a stylish overall
experience that many would like to experience over and over
again.