Applied/Experimental Sound Research Lab

ÆSR Lab

AESR Lab Kick-Off

  • DATE:
    13. – 15. November 2023
  • PLACES:
    Zentrum Fokus Forschung
    Rustenschacherallee 2-4
    1020 Wien
    AIL- Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab. Otto Wagner-Postsparkasse
    Georg-Coch-Platz 2
    1010 Wien
  • TIMETABLE → Download

The kick-off of the ÆSR Lab takes place from 13 - 15 November and offers a broad spectrum of keynotes, lectures and performances from the diverse and complex space of artistic-scientific work with sound.

The opening will take place on Monday 13.11.2023 at 17:00H. Keynotes will be given by Salomé Voegelin and Marcel Cobussen, accompanied by a variety of lectures by researchers and artists from the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

WITH

WITH

Katrin Abromeit, Zeynep Aksöz, Ruth Anderwald, Peter Balazs, Petra Beneš , Paula Bracker, Marcel Cobussen, Stefano D’Alessio, Ricarda Denzer, Valeska Díaz, Elisabeth Falkensteiner, Klaus Filip, Jannik Franzen, Bernhard Gál , Martin Gius, Thomas Grill, Leonhard Grond, Conny Gruber, Christina Gruber, Eva Hallama, Jonas Hammerer, Johann Hinterstoisser, Kristina Pia, Hofer, Dominik Ivancic, Zara Julius, Gabriele Jutz, Jasemin Khaleli, Nicolaj Kirisits, Katharina Klement, Kerstin Klenke, Bernhard Leitner, Sophie Luger, Nele Möller, Yeeun Namkoong, Martin Ringsmut, Karl Salzmann, Shilla Strelka, Christian Tschinkel, Salomé Voegelin, Thomas Wagensommerer, Samo Zeichen among others.

13th November 2023

Welcome 17:00, AIL

The welcome will be given by:

Vice-Rector for Research and Digitality of the University of Applied Arts Vienna: Univ.-Prof. MMag. Dr. Clemens Apprich

Head of Zentrum Fokus Forschung of the University of Applied Arts Vienna: Dr.phil. Alexander Damianisch MAS

Vice Rector for International Affairs and the Arts at mdw: Univ.-Prof. Dr. h.c. Johannes Meissl

Director of International Relations, Fellowships & Awards, Research Funding at the ÖAW: Dr. Sibylle Wentker

Project introduction w/ Thomas Grill, Kerstin Klenke und Karl Salzmann 17:15, AIL

Project introduction of the ÆSR Lab by the project team:

Karl Salzmann (Angewandte, Projekleitung), Thomas Grill (mdw) und Kerstin Klenke (ÖAW).

Marcel Cobussen: "SOUNDING (NON-)ART: A DIFFERENCE THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE" 17:45, AIL

Titel: SOUNDING (NON-)ART: A DIFFERENCE THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Abstract: Das Buch, das ich gemeinsam mit Barry Truax und Vincent Meelberg 2017 herausgegeben habe, heißt Routledge Companion to Sounding Art. Klingende Kunst, nicht Klangkunst. Das Wort "klingend" bezieht sich nicht nur auf eine aktivere Präsenz von Klang; mit diesem Begriff haben wir versucht, die traditionelle Trennung zwischen Musik und Klangkunst zu vermeiden. In meinem Buch Engaging With Everyday Sounds aus dem Jahr 2022 bin ich noch einen Schritt weiter gegangen und habe den Begriff "klingende (Nicht-)Kunst" geprägt, um damit Erkundungen von Klängen zu bezeichnen, die als "kunstähnlich" angesehen werden können, denen aber vielleicht nie explizit der Status eines Kunstwerks zuerkannt wird. In meinem Vortrag werde ich zunächst diese Idee der klingenden (Nicht-)Kunst etwas näher erläutern, um sie dann mit der - meiner Meinung nach - notwendigen Aufmerksamkeit in Verbindung zu bringen, die der (Nicht-)Gestaltung unserer klanglichen Umwelt gewidmet werden sollte, und anschließend die Rolle zu erläutern, die Klangkünstler dabei spielen können. Ich behaupte, dass diese Rolle nicht so sehr unter ästhetischen Gesichtspunkten, sondern vielmehr unter ethischen Gesichtspunkten betrachtet werden sollte.

Bio: Marcel Cobussen ist ordentlicher Professor für auditive Kultur und Musikphilosophie an der Universität Leiden (Niederlande). Er studierte Jazz-Klavier am Konservatorium von Rotterdam und Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften an der Erasmus-Universität in Rotterdam (Niederlande). Cobussen ist Autor mehrerer Bücher, darunter Engaging With Everyday Sounds (OBP 2022), The Field of Musical Improvisation (LUP 2017), Music and Ethics (Ashgate 2012/Routledge 2017, Co-Autorin Nanette Nielsen), und Thresholds. Rethinking Spirituality Through Music (Ashgate 2008). Er ist Herausgeber von The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sonic Methodologies (Bloomsbury 2020, Mitherausgeber Michael Bull), The Routledge Companion to Sounding Art (Routledge 2017, Mitherausgeber Barry Truax und Vincent Meelberg) und Resonanties. Verkenningen tussen kunsten en wetenschappen (LUP 2011). Er ist Chefredakteur des Open-Access-Online-Journals Journal of Sonic Studies (www.sonicstudies.org). Seine Dissertation Deconstruction in Music (Erasmus Universität Rotterdam 2002) ist als Online-Website unter www.deconstruction-in-music.com zu finden.


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Marcel Cobussen
© Marcel Cobussen

Break 19:00, AIL, 30Min

Panel: Concepts on Sound (Art) Research w/ Kristina Pia Hofer, Zara Julius, Katharina Klement, Bernhard Leitner, Martin Ringsmut 19:30, AIL

With: Kristina Pia Hofer, Zara Julius, Katharina Klement, Bernhard Leitner, Martin Ringsmut

Panel on the topic of "Sound (Art) Research". Which topics and research fields could and should be relevant for such a lab now and in the future? What should a Sound Reserach Lab include and which areas of practice should be covered?

Moderation: Karl Salzmann

Bios:

Peter Balazs studied mathematics at the University of Vienna. His PhD thesis was written at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), the University of Vienna, and the CNRS Marseille. Since then he has been a passionate advocate of application-oriented mathematics for acoustics, signal processing, and (more recently) machine learning. In 2011, he completed his habilitation and won the FWF START award. In 2012, he was appointed director of the Acoustics Research Institute of the ÖAW.

Zara Julius is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher based in Johannesburg. Her work is informed by the relationships between performativity and ‘the archive’ in settler (post)colonial contexts. Her practice thinks through the internal workings of the Black sonic, as well as the carceral logics of the “ethnographic archive”. Zara holds a BAHons in social anthropology and a MAFA in Fine Art.

Martin Ringsmut is a postdoctoral university assistant in ethnomusicology at the University of Vienna, with a focus on the music of Cape Verde, Lusophone Africa, and the Sinti and Roma in Europe. His research explores aspects of cultural identity, memory processes, postcolonialism, and social spatiality.

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Peter Balazs, Zara Julius © Andile Buka, Martin Ringsmut
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Peter Balazs, Zara Julius © Andile Buka, Martin Ringsmut
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Peter Balazs, Zara Julius © Andile Buka, Martin Ringsmut

Lectureperformance: Nele Möller "The Forest’s Lament " 20:30, AIL

Lecturer/s: Nele Möller

Title: The Forest’s Lament

Abstract: Due to climate change and century-long monoculture plantings, European forests are in despair. Trees are dying, and the ecology is changing at a rapid speed, which also affects the acoustic sphere – the forests are turning more and more silent. In The Forest’s Lament, we will hear a mimicry of the sonic sphere of a forest that will be created with so-called hunting calls, instruments that imitate different animal calls that are used by hunters to lure animals closer to the respective hunter’s hideout. Deceptive sounds that tell stories about power relations in human-more-than-human interactions, false European forest imaginations and ecological grief. 

Bio: Nele Möller is a Brussels-based artist working primarily in sound, performance, and writing. Her research-based practice focuses on forest conversations, historical nature inscriptions, critical field recording and listening practices. Currently, she is working towards a PhD in the Arts at KU Leuven and LUCA School of Arts Brussels.

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The Forest’s Lament
© Nele Möller

Soundinstallation: Jonas Hammerer "Auditory Pulse-Imprint" all-day, AIL

Artist: Jonas Hammerer

Title: Auditory Pulse-Imprint

Abstract: A concentric multi-channel loudspeaker system is located in the center of the room. Algorithmically generated sounds are projected into the room, to investigate the reflection behavior. The alternation between pulsating sounds, which provide a high degree of directional information, and standing sinusoidal sounds, which are difficult to localize, opens up a dissociative and subjective spatial experience, based on the "Franssen effect", which stimulates the auditory process of the viewer understood as material. An acoustic impression of the room can be experienced and opens up questions about objective physical stimuli and their individual, psychological and physical perception.

Biography: Jonas Hammerer is a sound artist and composer whose work spans live performances, sound installations, and compositions. He studied electroacoustic and experimental music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and holds a degree in Landscape Architecture. He is presently furthering his studies at the Tangible Music Lab within the Institute of Media Studies at the University of Art and Design in Linz. Since 2023, he has been affiliated with the ÆSR Lab - Applied/Experimental Sound Research Laboratory as a student research associate.

Auditory Pulse-Imprint ©Jonas Hammerer+
Auditory Pulse-Imprint
©Jonas Hammerer

14th November 2023

Lecture: Gruber, Beneš, Díaz: "Reverse Ethnomusicology: Migrant Musicians as Researchers" 13:00, ZFF

Lecturer/s: Conny Gruber, Valeska Díaz, Petzi Beneš

Title: Reverse Ethnomusicology: Migrant Musicians as Researchers

Abstract:

What does a music research project applying ethnographic methods, critical of established power relations, look like in the 21st century? How can we challenge rigid, hierarchical notions of knowledge and expertise, and go beyond commonly used methods of musicology? The project “Reverse Ethnomusicology: Migrant Musicians as Researchers,” which launched in April 2023, aims to recognize and make visible the knowledge production about music in Austria by musicians, who have migrated to Austria, which is otherwise rarely acknowledged or even ignored. In this citizen scienceproject, musicians with different backgrounds, experiences and musical practices conduct individual research projects on various aspects of music in Austria. This also expands the role of the project staff, as they do not act as the sole producers of knowledge, but as facilitators of reflection processes in terms of an engaged pedagogy. In the context of the ÆSR Lab, the project team will present the disciplinary background, inspirations, goals, and methods of the project.

„Reverse Ethnomusicology“ is a research project at the Music and Minorities Research Center (MMRC), funded by the FWF Austrian Science Fund, in cooperation with the Phonogrammarchiv (Austrian Academy of Sciences) and the Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology (IVE) of the mdw–University of music and performing arts Vienna.

Bios:

Conny Gruber (they/them,she/her)is an ethnomusicologist at the Phonogrammarchiv (ÖAW) responsible for publications and editions, and is the principle investigator in „Reverse Ethnomusicology“ (FWF) together with Anja Brunner (MMRC & IVE, mdw) and the principle investigator in the project „The entangled colonial history of audio recordings“ (Stadt Wien) together with Clemens Gütl (PhA, ÖAW).

Valeska Díaz (sie/ihr) is a research associate (post doc) at MMRC (mdw) in the project "Reverse Ethnomusicology" (FWF). She received her PhD in Anthropology of the Americas from the University of Bonn. Currently, she is also engaged in the bilateral scientific cooperation between South America and Germany.

Petzi Beneš (they/them) is a student assistant at the MMRC in the research project "Reverse Ethnomusicology" (FWF). Petzi studies musicology (MA) and cultural and social anthropology (MA) at the University of Vienna. Additionally, they work at the media production company FQM and play bass the rock band YATWA.

Lecture: Akzöz, Kirisits "Morphology of Sound: Artificial Realities in the Age of AI" 13:30, ZFF

Lecturer/s: Zeynep Aksöz, Nicolaj Kirisits

Title: Morphology of Sound

Abstract: Morphology of Sound explores a bilinear feedback process, focusing on the communication between design and sound, where each of these concepts can drive the generation of the other using AI as an interface of interdisciplinary communication. Accordingly, it asks how sound can be a generative force in design creation and how design can be a generative force in sound art and musical composition. Exploring these bilinear processes, the project aims to open novel ways of creation, liberating these media from their conventional tools by generating novel interdisciplinary instruments.

Bios: Zeynep Aksöz is an architect, AI specialist and assistant professor at TU Wien. She works on generative design and AI in architecture and urban planning. Zeynep Aksöz has been awarded the Research Prize for Architecture and the FWF PEEK for the Vibrant Fields project, among others. She has contributed to publications such as Fabricate and exhibited at various global events. Her academic background includes the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the Architectural Association of London and TU Vienna.

Nicolaj Kirisits is an architect and sound artist. In his artistic work he deals with the interaction with sound-based entities in architectural spaces. His work has been presented at international festivals (Ars Electronica (AT), Bienal de La Habana (CUB), File (BRA), 5th Moscow Biennale (RUS), Nime (FR), NTTICC (JPN), Siggraph (USA), Steim (NL), etc.).

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Sonic Manifolds
© Zeynep Aksöz, Nicolaj Kirisits

Lecture: Kristina Pia Hofer "Sound as Material in Audiovisual Relations? A Methods Discussion" 14:00, ZFF

Lecturer/s: Kristina Pia Hofer

Title: Sound as Material in Audiovisual Relations? A Methods Discussion

Abstract: Discussions of sound as a material phenomenon in the field of contemporary artistic practices often resort to an ontological split that Jonathan Sterne (2012) calls “the audiovisual litany:” they frame sound/hearing as immersive, affective, subjective, vibrant, and relational, and contrast it with vision/looking as a distancing, intellectual, objective sense that privileges stasis and separation. As one result of this split, (‘new’) materialist sound art theories frequently abandon questions of media history and representation (as in: Hall 1997), and favor tracing political potentiality in ostensibly ‘indivisible,’ direct encounters of sounding and listening agents. For studying audiovisual relations (for instance in film and media studies), this split poses a distinct methodological challenge. How do sonic materialities (co-)produce sense, meaning, and relevance in relation to, and intra-action with, film and video images, in particular when these images reproduce epistemological Othering? How can ‘sonic thinking’ remain accountable for, and responsive to, Othering that happens in and through sound?

Bio: Kristina Pia Hofer is Elise Richter Postdoc Fellow at the Department of Media Theory, University of Applied Arts, Vienna. Kristina is also a diy punk musician (Pfarre, Peace Vaults, Puke Puddle, Voiler).

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Kristina Pia Hofer
© Dimitris Zagoudis

Lecture: Christina Gruber "Lobau Listening Comprehensions" 14:30, ZFF

Lecturer/s: Christina Gruber

Title: Lobau Listening Comprehensions. Exercises in tuning into more-than-human sonic bodies

Abstract: Lobau Listening Comprehensions (LLC) undertakes a site-specific investigation of the Lobau (the Vienna Danube floodplains) that includes personal experiences, biological conditions, current political negotiations as well as historical events. We work with sound from different perspectives and through different practices: listening as an experiential moment, oral histories, acoustic ecology, audio as a format of science communication. In doing so, our respective disciplines (cultural studies/journalism, social ecology/environmental history, aquatic ecology/artistic research) intertwine to create a multi-layered portrait of the Lobau.

Bio: Lobau Listening Comprehensions Collective (LLC) formed in the Viennese floodplains of Lobau. We, Julia Grillmayr, Christina Gruber & Sophia Rut, investigate these wetlands with sound using collective listening, oral histories, acoustic ecology and science communication. In doing so, our respective disciplines intertwine to create a multi-layered portrait of Lobau.

https://lobaulistening.at/ 

Project partners: Julia Grillmayr, Christina Gruber, Sophia Rut

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LLC Collective
© Julia Grillmayr

Lecture: Ricarda Denzer "ganz Ohr / all ears" 15:00, ZFF

Lecturer/s: Ricarda Denzer

Title: ganz Ohr / all ears. Audio Trouble, Para-Listening and Sounding Research

Abstract: An audio paper by Ricarda Denzer about her new book (ed. R.Denzer & C.Höller, De Gruyter 12/23). Here, the practice of listening undergoes its own distinctive process of settling upon a certain form. Perceived as continual processes, hearing and listening represent physical, performative acts or creative participation in the world that fosters critical and care-driven agency, while seeking to enable alternative narrative modes. A process in which “something that is not simply already in existence—whether separate or merged—enters into relationship, becomes relationship.” Para-Listening, as one might call this reciprocal process between hearing and who or what is heard, therefore asserts a constitutive element of tension, a “being-with,” encompassing myriad cross-references and defying any presumed subject–object difference.

Bio: Ricarda Denzer is an artist and has taught since 2013 at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She was co-head of the Trans Arts-Transdisciplinary Art department there from 2013 to 2018 and has been teaching at the Department of Art and Communicative Practices ever since. Her practice combines collaborative, audiovisual, performative, and curatorial work, frequently around oral narration and listening as a method of situated research and finding form. She recently initiated the artistic (research) platform Sounding Research (https://www.soundingresearch.net/, 2021), co-edited the book Ricarda Denzer – ganz ohr / all ears Audio Trouble, Para-Listening, and Sounding Research (with C. Höller, De Gruyter, 2023), the ZHDK Zurich ejournal #13 (Un_Univerity, with Jo Schmeiser, 2017), the books Perplexities (2013) and Silence Turned Into Objects (2014), and curated About the House – W. H. Auden in Kirchstetten and other art projects.

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ganz Ohr / all ears
© Ricarda Denzer & Christian Höller

Soundperformance: Gius, Namkoong "Weaving Strings" 15:30, ZFF

Lecturer/s: Martin Gius, Yeeun Namkoong

Title: Weaving Strings

Abstract: Weaving Strings is a live-coding performance embodying the dual sense of 'string' in programming and artistry. It unifies physical string weaving and digital pattern generation using TidalCycles, which is a live coding language. Enabled by two microphones, the performance blends live weaving with algorithmic pattern and played as a string instrument. Weaving Strings explores the intersection between our physical, tactile experiences and our digital, algorithmic realities within a coherent and interactive narrative. 

Biography: Martin Gius, born 1997 in South Tyrol, studied Technical Mathematics and Logic & Computation at the Vienna University of Technology. From autumn 2023, he will begin the master's programme Experimental Game Cultures at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. He has been working as a musician and programmer for several years. His interest lies primarily in an interdisciplinary approach to art and technology. The focus is on questions of form, notation and language.

Yeeun Namkoong, born 1997 in Seoul, studies Cross Disciplinary Strategies at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. As a multidisciplinary artist, she explores sound, interaction, and digital practices. Inspired by her background, Seoul's evolving landscape, she understands the characteristic of stories which have become ephemeral. Through her practices, she understands the sentiments behind them and make an attempt to open the conversation. 

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Weaving Strings
© Martin Gius, Yeeun Namkoong

Lecture: Nele Möller "The forest echoes back" 17:00, AIL

Lecturer/s: Nele Möller

Title: The Forest Echoes Back - Receiving and Transmitting Forest Conversations Through an Ecology of Listening (research presentation)

Abstract: Nele Möller will talk about her PhD project, “The Forest Echoes Back”, which oscillates around the Thurigian Forest in the East of Germany. The Thuringian Forest is highly impacted by climate change and an adherent bark beetle infestation, and at a moment of despair. In her project, she retraces how sound and forms of listening can be used to understand the histories, current conditions and possible futures of the forest by building a communication network of various human and more-than-human actors in and around the forest.​

Bio: Nele Möller is a Brussels-based artist working primarily in sound, performance, and writing. Her research-based practice focuses on forest conversations, historical nature inscriptions, critical field recording and listening practices. Currently, she is working towards a PhD in the Arts at KU Leuven and LUCA School of Arts Brussels.

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The Forest Echoes back
© Nele Möller

Keynote: Salomé Voegelin "Transversal Sound Studies: Designing a Sonic Planet" 17:45, AIL

Lecturer/s: Salomé Voegelin

Title: Transversal Sound Studies: Designing a Sonic Planet.

Abstract: This presentation takes the form of a curatorial performance, a presentation that curates works and texts to agitate the space between making and thinking, curating and writing, to practice their correlation rather than what either is. In the particular context of the ÆSR Lab inauguration, this curatorial method hopes to perform knowledge as knowing: generative, participative and embodied and therefore plural and crossing borders, those of culture and those of scholarship. And it hopes to make accessible and therefore thinkable the connecting logic of sound as a tool and concept for cross disciplinary working and research. The aim is to unperform the hegemonic (visual) design of the world from its invisible and indivisible dimensionality. And to narrate sonic fictions of a future world that reveal the lines and boundaries of a contemporary reality and generate another vista of more porous, fuzzy and permeable geographies that are inclusive, feminist, decolonial, … - impossible.

Bio: Salomé Voegelin is a practice-based researcher who works from the relational logic of sound to focus on the in-between and the liminal, where feminist, decolonial, and postanthropocentric realities can engender different and plural knowledge possibilities. She is a Professor of Sound at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London and the author of numerous articles and papers, books, texts and text-scores for performance and publication. www.salomevoegelin.net

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Break 19:00, AIL, 30Min

Panel: Curating Sound w/ Falkensteiner, Franzen, Gál, Strelka 19:30, AIL

Participants: Elisabeth Falkensteiner, Jannik Franzen, Bernhard Gál, Shilla Strelka

Title: Curating Sound w/ Falkensteiner, Franzen, Gál, Strelka

Moderation: Jasemin Khaleli

Abstract: What different ideas and agencies are within Curating Sound? What different meanings can curation - in an etymological understanding of care (latin: curare) - take on for the different speaker positions? How can we relate to questions of the social, the normativity, the canonical through forms of deviation, counter-reading and resistance?

Elisabeth Falkensteiner is co-director of the Angewandte Intedisciplinary Lab and curator between visual art, discourse and sound. As a DJ and artist, she participated in the exhibition re.so.nant at the Jewish Museum Berlin (2019). In her live sets, she works with field recordings, ambient sounds and voices. She has her own radio show on Noods Radio in Bristol, where she (re)presents the Viennese underground scene.

Jannik Franzen has been living in Vienna since 2014. They studied psychology at the Free University of Berlin and completed the master’s program Critical Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In video works and installations, they critically engage with medical and anthropological knowledge and image production.

Born in Vienna in 1971, the composer, artist and musicologist Bernhard Gál is equally active in the fields of contemporary music, installation art and media art. In addition to intermedia installations, he composes music for acoustic instruments and electro-acoustic music and has worked with numerous ensembles and musicians from the electronic and improvisation scene. Gál directs the transdisciplinary festival shut up and listen! and is a lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. In 2021, he received his doctorate from the Mozarteum University Salzburg with a dissertation on installative sound art. Gál is currently leading the multi-year FWF-PEEK project AUDIO GHOSTS, which deals with artistic research on auditory illusions in sound art. His works have been awarded various prizes, presented internationally in concerts, exhibitions and installations and documented on around 40 sound recordings as well as in two comprehensive catalogue books. https://www.bernhardgal.com

Shilla Strelka is a cultural journalist, curator, concert organiser and festival organiser. Strelka founded the Struma+Iodine concert series in 2012. She curates and organises the transdisciplinary Unsafe+Sounds Festival and is co-curator of the Elevate Festival, Graz. She teaches at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences and is the artistic director of the Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche. She is active as Dj Inou Ki Endo.

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Elisabeth Falkensteiner ©Su Noya, Jannik Franzen ©Lau Lukkarila, Bernhard Gal, Shilla Strelka
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Elisabeth Falkensteiner ©Su Noya, Jannik Franzen ©Lau Lukkarila, Bernhard Gal, Shilla Strelka
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Elisabeth Falkensteiner ©Su Noya, Jannik Franzen ©Lau Lukkarila, Bernhard Gal, Shilla Strelka
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Elisabeth Falkensteiner ©Su Noya, Jannik Franzen ©Lau Lukkarila, Bernhard Gal, Shilla Strelka

Soundperformance: Bracker, Zeichen "Apohenia (musique plastique)" 20:30, AIL

Lecturer/s: Paula Bracker, Samo Zeichen

Title: Apophenia (musique plastique)

Abstract: Apophenia (musique plastique) detects speculative sonic figures of collected, shredded and reformed plastic materials. Having lost their original function they have become repurposed objects, creating surface noises when put on a record player.

Through sensitive listening, one can engage with these materialities and explore their being-in-the- world as being-as-noise.

Bio: Through linking artistic and academic approaches Paula Bracker and Samo Zeichen create ways of making current challenges such as climate change tangible. They use the concept of Noise to interfere with existing systems, offering new subversive forms and collaborative measures of togetherness. Apophenia (musique plastique) is a collaboration with the TU Wien and the project space SSTR6.

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15th November 2023

Lecture: Abromeit, Hallama, Hinterstoisser, Ivancic "Sonic Memories" 12:30, ZFF

Lecturer/s: Katrin Abromeit, Eva Hallama, Johann Hinterstoisser, Dominik Ivancic

Title: "This little black device" - A sound collage of spoken letters

Abstract: The research project "SONIME - Sonic Memories. Audio Letters in Times of Migration and Mobility", which is carried out at the Phonogrammarchiv of the ÖAW and the Österreichische Mediathek at the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology, collects, archives and researches on spoken letters since the beginning of sound recording. This paper introduces the cultural technique of spoken letters, focusing on sound carriers and their material. In a 10-minutes sound collage, excerpts from spoken letters that are collected and researched in the SONIME project will be heard. The focus is on sequences that thematize the recording technique, drawing attention to the materiality and the act of speaking into a technical machine which often represents an attempt to mimic a dialogic conversation. Herein, the technical device opens up its own space of communication, and at times seems to disrupt the cultural practice of communicating as much as it enables it.

Bios: Katrin Abromeit is a conservator and restorer of audiovisual cultural heritage. Following her studies at the HTW Berlin, she completed a traineeship at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, held responsible for the audio collection at the Filmmuseum Potsdam, and did freelance restoration work. Since 2020, she is working at the phonogram archiv and is the project manager in the SONIME research project there since 2021.

Eva Hallama studied history in Vienna and St. Petersburg. She worked as a research assistant at the University of Vienna and the Österreichische Mediathek. For her dissertation, she was a DOC fellow of the ÖAW, a Marietta Blau fellow of the OeAD, and a Junior Fellow at the IFK. Since 2021, she is principal investigator in the research project SONIME at the Österreichische Mediathek at the Vienna Museum for Science and Technology.

Johann Hinterstoisser studies conservation and restoration at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. He graduated from the evening college for chemical industry in the field of environmental analysis. He has worked for the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, as well as for independent restorers. He has been a member of the SONIME project team since 2022.

Dominik Ivancic studied history, comparative literature and language arts (creative writing). He lives as an author and historian in Vienna and worked in several cultural institutions (e.g. House of Austrian History, Literaturemuseum of the Austrian National Library, Austrian Cultural Forum New York). Currently he is writing his master thesis on (post-)colonial land redistribution in Kenya. He has been part of SONIME since 2022.

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Tape letter to family K, signature: 10-31161, Österreichische Mediathek, source: Eva Hallama, editing: Johann Hinterstoisser

Lecture: Sophie Luger "Sound, Space, and Ornament" 13:00, ZFF

Vortragende/r: Sophie Luger

Titel: Sound, Space, and Ornament

Abstract: Generally, acoustics is not prioritized in the design decisions of the early conceptual phases of architectural planning, yet, recent studies emphasize the role of buildings and building envelopes in providing acoustic comfort outdoors, highlighting architecture's impact on auditory experiences. These findings signify interesting prospects for architectural design, where acoustics, geometry, and ornamentation could merge to enhance both the functionality and aesthetics of built environments. Drawing from this, our investigation explores how architectural geometry and ornamentation can be leveraged to address noise pollution. Our research interest delves into the acoustic capabilities of building envelopes, investigating how they can serve as efficient sound absorbers to mitigate environmental noise in outdoor environments through the utilization of ornamentation, generative design, and digital fabrication technologies. SoundCape marks a collaborative project by Lenia Mascha and Sophie Luger, within the framework of the Angewandte Programme for Inter- and Transdisciplinary Projects in Art and Research (INTRA).

Bio: Sophie Luger is an architect, currently working and teaching in Vienna. Her interest ranges from urban interventions to projects focusing on sound behaviour. She gained further qualifications in acoustic building and sound performance and is currently investigating the potential of building facades as effective sound-absorbing elements with Lenia Mascha.

Lenia Mascha is a Vienna-based architect, with a strong research focus on composition, time-based media, and emerging technologies across architecture, design, and the arts. Parallel to practicing, she is currently teaching and conducting research together with Sophie Luger on the potential of building facades as effective sound-absorbing elements.

 

Lecture: Klaus Filip "Licht Ton - optische Klangforschung" 13:30, ZFF

Vortragende/r: Klaus Filip

Titel: Licht Ton - optische Klangforschung

Abstract: The technology of optical sound has fallen into oblivion. Sound film relies on Dolby QR codes or other digital encodings, there have long been more practicable procedures for electronic sound synthesis and sound transmission by light as a carrier signal has never prevailed anyway.However, light sound does have artistic potential, as many examples can show. Today's electronics and computers improve and simplify the use of this old analogue technology. The light sound of our lighting, for example, is sometimes surprising.

Bio: Klaus Filip is an Austrian improvisational musician, sound artist and programmer in the field of experimental music. His focus is on working with sine tones.

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Circulacija Optosonics
© Klaus Filip

Lecture: Thomas Wagensommerer "The Sea Has Turned Upside Down" 14:00, ZFF

Vortragende/r: Thomas Wagensommerer

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Abstract:

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Lecture: Christian Tschinkel "Of portals and thrusters – perspectives of acoustic staging and sound direction" 14:30, ZFF

Lecturer/s: Christian Tschinkel

Title: Of portals and thrusters – perspectives of acoustic staging and sound direction

Abstract: Away from the purist position of autonomous and "pure" listening, every music needs its own way of staging - so does music that uses loudspeakers for its performance. Particularly relevant here is the topic of sound reinforcement, which covers the technical and acoustic concerns. If it then comes to the concrete performance practice and interpretation of electroacoustic music, there are further aspects with many details to consider. Tschinkel approaches these areas on the basis of Erwin Panofsky's interpretation scheme and blends this with current theoretical and practical approaches that explicitly deal with sound projection. In approaches, Denis Smalley's spectromorphological viewpoints and Annette Vande Gorne's spatial figures as well as his own artistic concept of "Akusmonautik" are discussed and compared with regard to spatialization. This leads to the fact that listening spaces can be opened up by different kinds of energy models.

Bio: Christian Tschinkel is a music theorist, composer and sound director of acousmatic music. After studies in psychology, musicology and electroacoustic music, he mainly deals with theoretical, practical as well as quite speculative areas of acousmatics. In 2017, he founded his own experimental space, the AKUSMONAUTIKUM, in order to embark on a "quest for the fantastic" using a multi-channel setting. Since 2023 he is a university assistant for music theory of electroacoustic and experimental music at the MDW Vienna.

Lecture: Gabriele Jutz "Optical Sound in Contemporary Experimental Films" 15:00, ZFF

Lecturer/s: Gabriele Jutz

Title: Optical Sound in Contemporary Experimental Films

Abstract: Optical sound, or sound-on-film, which became established by the late 1920s, is based on an optical process whereby sound waves are transformed into graphic patterns of light alongside the picture area of the film print. Since optical sound emanates from visual patterns, it is possible to create sounds by scratching, drawing, or contact-printing directly onto the filmstrip to make any shape or mark audible.

Instead of being a thing of the past, the more recent history of experimental film proves that handmade sound is back.It would be easy to misinterpret the rise of optical sound in artisanal filmmaking practices simply as anxiety about the obsolescence of film and the dominance of the digital.However, harking back to old technologies and methodsis crucial from both an aesthetic and a political perspective and opens out to broader questions of matter and materiality that dominate contemporary discourse and raisecompelling questions about the afterlife of the cinematic medium.

Bio: Gabriele Jutz is a Film and Media Studies Professor at the Department of Media Theory, University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her current research interests include the history and theory of moving image-based art from experimental film, experimental animation, and hybrid forms to artists’ moving images as well as image/sound relations in audiovisual practices anchored in artistic contexts.

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Frame enlargement Optical Sound (Guy Sherwin, 2007)
© Guy Sherwin

Lecture: Anderwald & Grond "On Certain Groundlessness – Navigating Dizziness Together" 15:30, ZFF

Lecturer/s: Ruth Anderwald, Leonhard Grond

Titel: On Certain Groundlessness – Navigating Dizziness Together

Abstract: Dizziness is more than feeling dizzy. Conceptualized as an unpredictable motion, or the illusion of such motion, dizziness unbalances, bodies, systems, and environments. Not solely a theoretical concept, the physicality of the phenomenon is germane. This long-term artistic research highlights dizziness as a phenomenon of sense in terms of physiological or sensory input but also in terms of emotion, orientation, and epistemic sense-making processes. States of dizziness break up the given – be it habits, beliefs, preconceptions, or patterns – creating space and dynamics between established categories, habits, and perceived oppositions. The lecture introduces the long-term artistic research on dizziness and one of its outputs, the sound installation On Certain Groundlessness.

 

Bio: Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond are artist-researchers, and professors for the Ph.D. program (Ph.D. in Art) at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. Their work has been exhibited, e.g., at Centre Pompidou, Paris, Himalayas Art Museum, Shanghai, Tate Modern, London. Their artistic research projects include EU-funded The Arts of Resistance (2024-2025), ART WORKS! (2019-21), Navigating Dizziness Together (2020-2024, FWF PEEK AR 598) and Dizziness-A Resource (2014-2017, FWF PEEK AR 244).

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On certain groundlessness
© Anderwald + Grond

Lecture: Stefano D’Alessio "Empathy and black boxes: de-abstracting digital sound performance" 16:00, ZFF

Lecturer/s: Stefano D’Alessio

Title: Empathy and black boxes: de-abstracting digital sound performance

Abstract: This presentation explores how to create empathetic connections between the audience, the performer and the sound within the realm of live performed digital music. The aim is to shed light on the complex and often hidden audio processes, making them more accessible to the audience, while simultaneously establishing a sense of relatability through the player's actions. The research advocates for the use of visuals to unravel complex audio systems through graphical representation. Engagement can be further enhanced by controlling the sounds through relatable and expressive gestures, this can be achieved with the implementation of alternative interfaces, which rely on understandable body movement. The main goal is to be able to create sound performances that make use of complex, interactive sound systems, while ensuring they remain comprehensible and relatable to the audience.

Bio: Stefano is a media artist, performer, composer and educator. His works are Audio-Visual compositions, interactive performances and media installations. He holds workshops and teaches in various European universities. His practice focuses on communicative human-machine interaction where sound, light, visuals and human physicality become performing partners.

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Empathy and black boxes: de-abstracting digital sound performance
© Stefano D’Alessio