Stephanie
Rentschler




























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Slime Mold Crypt
2025

Interactive InstallationAs quantum computers loom on the horizon, threatening to break traditional time-based encryption systems, society continues to trust its most sensitive information to corporate-controlled digital vaults. But what if encryption were not a product of bureaucracy, algorithms, or speed, but a living relationship?

SlimeMoldCrypt reimagines security as a biological process, using Physarum polycephalum, a single-celled yet intelligent slime mold, as an unpredictable and dynamic encryption engine. This organism’s ever-changing network of tendrils reacts instantly to its environment, creating chaotic, decentralized growth patterns that are inherently resistant to computational decryption, even by quantum machines.
In this interactive installation, you become the steward of your own data.
Your encryption strength is tied directly to your care: by managing three environmental controls, light, humidity, and nourishment, you influence the slime mold’s vitality. The more attentively you engage, the more vibrant its cellular movement becomes, enhancing the entropy of your encryption. But neglect weakens the system. If the slime mold’s activity ceases, so does your protection, exposing your information entirely.







Echoes of Structure
2026

Seating object
Project with: Jonathan Wasmer and Clark PhillipsCities are designed to direct movement, regulate behavior, and determine how bodies occupy public space. Occupying public space creates the possibility for participation, and participation, in turn, is a form of power. Echoes of Structure raises the question of how sitting can become an act of rebellion. Through collaging latex molds and reassembling architectural fragments with plaster casts from the Secession facade, the work creates a seating extension of the building, that was never planned or institutionally commissioned. The work questions the invisible rules embedded in public space by disrupting the building's symmetry, transforming a threshold into a gathering place and a passage into a pause. If public space is truly for everyone, the freedom to rest and belong shouldn't need to be reclaimed. A century after the Secession's own break from authority, this work extends that gesture of refusal into the present.

The roughness is intentional. The visible seams, imperfect joints, and material weight resist the polished language of design. It looks less like a finished product than an intervention. Less like furniture than an argument. Echoes of Structure by people for people.





Dying Chair
2026


Research Object
Project with: Jonathan Wasmer"Dying Chair" grows dense wheatgrass roots through layers of jute fabric, then dries the whole thing out. The living structure becomes the material itself. Building on Diana Scherer's root-weaving work, we wanted something thicker and three-dimensional: root beds substantial enough to actually bear a person's weight. The jute layers give the roots something to grip onto as they shrink during drying, so the structure holds together instead of falling apart.

The transition from a hybrid into a harvested system embraces the plant's whole life cycle as part of the design process.





Color Game
2026

Video GameThis game is one of my first projects realized using Unity. It challenges various technicalities by a coulor picking system that is constantly changing and adapting.





GeoGenesis
2025

Interactive installation
Project with: Annalisa Rhein, Aine WalshGeoGenesis immerses participants in the 22nd century, where humanity faces collapse from environmental disasters, economic ruin, and social upheaval. In this interactive installational
project, you and your partner hold ultimate authority over Earth’s future. With limited resources and the weight of leadership, you’ll make decisions where to invest, which priorities to pursue, that ripple across a fragile world.
Through dynamic storytelling, interactive elements, and found-footage visuals, GeoGenesis brings the emotional and ethical pressures of governance to life. Inspired by real-world events like Ireland’s 2014 water taxation, the narrative speculates on humanity’s potential futures while staying grounded in realism.
This project humanizes the abstract nature of political decision-making, offering participants a visceral glimpse into the complexity of leadership. GeoGenesis is not just a game, it’s a thought-provoking exploration of accountability, sustainability, and the critical choices that shape our shared future.





Rubik’s Paradox
2026


Research GameToys and objects are designed so their use is intuitively apparent: Form follows Function, Action follows Reaction. This predictability is fundamental. But what happens when this promise is systematically broken?
This project investigates the "liminal space" between expectation and non-fulfillment. What happens when this moment of confusion becomes the permanent state of play?
The project develops a play object without consistent rules or learnable patterns. The longer you play, the less you understand. Traditional hierarchy inverts: The play object plays back. It actively learns, anticipates behavioral patterns, and responds contrary to expectations, not to become more playable, but to maximize disorientation. The ludic object has no predetermined goal. It exploits the human compulsion to understand against the player themselves.
The form chosen is the Rubik's Cube, not despite, but because of its cultural loading as the symbol of solvability. An unsolvable Rubik's Cube is a radical contradiction that undermines fundamental expectations.

The accompanying image video/trailer captures this ludic paradox: the most deterministic puzzle transformed into a study of permanent uncertainty. Who plays with whom? And what do we learn about ourselves when we cannot win?





Energy in food transport
2023

Interactive installation
The project “Energy in Food Transport” is an interactive installation that raises awareness about the environmental impact of unnecessarily imported food by making the energy consumption of transportation routes tangible.
Many fruits and vegetables available in grocery stores are imported from distant countries, despite the fact that they could be grown locally in the Vienna region. To encourage consumers to choose locally sourced food over imported alternatives, this project features a custom-built vending machine that directly compares two similar food items from different countries of origin.
The vending machine operates through a hand-powered mechanism, requiring users to crank a handle to bring the selected food item closer. However, the key difference lies in the energy expenditure of the transportation route items that have traveled long distances require significantly more effort, as they move slower and demand more cranking. This deliberately frustrating process creates a memorable and tangible experience, effectively illustrating the disparities in energy consumption.
To enhance the educational impact, playful packaging provides additional information, offering users insights into food transportation and encouraging more conscious consumer choices.














Information

Stephanie Rentschler
rentschler.stephanie@gmail.com




Let’s create!
Exhibitions

Angewandte Festival, Vienna AT | 2026

Angewandte Festival, Vienna AT | 2025

Lichtkunst Festival, Heidenheim an der Brenz DE | 2025

Imagine Coral Reef. Regenerative Lab, Belgrade SRB | 2025

Lichtkunst Festival, Heidenheim an der Brenz DE | 2024

Angewandte Festival, Vienna AT | 2023

Features

Neural magazine | 2026

Circular Strategies Symposium, Vienna, AT | 2025

Creativeapplications.net | 2025