Sonic Sensibility

topic

Sonic Sensibility

Critical Engagement in Sound – As part of the program of Angewandte Festival, Sonic Sensibility will focus on the material and relational conditions as well as the social and political dimensions of sound.

TOPIC CONTENT:

Exhibition View: Sonic Sensibility

Sonic Sensibility

Akustische Aktion für die Kassenhalle

Performance View: Sounds of the Living IV

Sounds of the Living IV

Performance View: infinity rug

infinity rug

Sound is never limited to a single place but penetrates bodies and space.

An acoustic event always has a social dimension. Sound can be translated, communicated and collectively evaluated.

The panel discussion will focus on sound as a research instrument: How can situated hearing and acoustic thinking affect the things we do, and how can a feminist practice influence the composition process? What constitutes the materiality of sound, and how does a spatial analysis of sound change the human perception of time and space?

The performances Sounds of the Living and infinity rug invite us to delve into a tapestry of sound to experience the sounds of nature as well as a new kind of collective being and hearing.

The multimedia work RE:SONANZ represents a performative approach to polyphony by focusing on the act of listening. As a collective, the artists have developed an artistic position to scrutinize the economization of art and knowledge production, team work, friendship and care.

Connecting Acoustic Spaces by Natalia Domínguez Rangel call into question our own acoustic actions and acoustic environment. Audio recordings from six different continents recorded during the Corona pandemic emanate from the glass objects.

In Para-Listening, Ricarda Denzer analyzes and deepens the practice of listening through form-finding, both textually and spatially. The artistic work revolves around the understanding of learning and mediation as a sonic act, and also as a correlation of different sensory experiences.

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Exhibition View: Sonic Sensibility

Critical Engagement in Sound – Part of Angewandte Festival, June 2022

About social dimension of sound and practices of listening

Sonic Sensibility Program

Sound is never limited to a single place but penetrates bodies and space. An acoustic event always has a social dimension. Sound can be translated, communicated and collectively evaluated.

For Angewandte Festival 2022 AIL explored Sound from different point of views and presented a program of formats, this exhibition was part of it.

Curated by Elisabeth Falkensteiner

Photo: Lea Dörl

Photo: Simon Veres

Photo: Simon Veres

Photo: Simon Veres

Photo: Lea Dörl

Photo: Lea Dörl

Photo: Lea Dörl

The multimedia work RE:SONANZ represents a performative approach to polyphony by focusing on the act of listening. As a collective, the artists Leah Dorner, Maria Kanzler, Stella Krausz, Lena Michalik have developed an artistic position to scrutinize the economization of art and knowledge production, team work, friendship and care.

Photo: Jorit Aust

In Para-Listening, Ricarda Denzer analyzes and deepens the practice of listening through form-finding, both textually and spatially. The sound paper revolves around the understanding of learning and mediation as a sonic act, and also as a correlation of different sensory experiences.

discussion

29 Jun 2022, 16:00

Sonic Sensibility

Within the Angewandte Festival 2022

The panel discussion will focus on sound as a research instrument.

Discussion with Ricarda Denzer, Peter Kutin, Pia Palme and Karl Salzmann

Moderation by Elisabeth Falkensteiner

Ricarda Denzer

Ricarda Denzer studied architecture in Innsbruck and visual arts at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna where she was member of the TransArts directorial team (2013-2018), currently involved in the Angewandte Performance Lab and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Art and Communication Practices.

Her cross-media works - audio-visual research spaces - combine video, text, photography, audio pieces, drawings, objects, installations, editorial and curatorial work. Most recently, she realised the Sounding Research Listening Session #1, University of Applied Arts, Vienna (2022), edited the eJournal #13 of the ZHDK Zürich (with Jo Schmeiser, 2016), curated the art project About the House and edited the books Perplexities (Revolver 2013) and Silence Turned Into Objects (edition NÖ, 2014). Her most recent solo exhibitions were at Kunstraum Lakeside (2019) and at Neue Galerie Innsbruck (2018). Currently Denzer is involved in the project Communities in Movement (KMD Bergen, August 2022); She is a member of the board of the Vienna Secession since 2019. Ricarda Denzer lives and works in Vienna.

Peter Kutin

His artistic output has been exhibited, commissioned, performed, screened or discussed at various notable occasions and venues across the globe. He has composed music and developed sonic-environments for film, theatre, performance, ensembles, contemporary dance, and multimedia-works.

His interest in moving image expands beyond music, having also written and directed a series of experimental short films and radioplays. He received several awards & scholarships: For the composition Desert Bloom, a cooperation with the german composer and pioneer of sound-art Christina Kubisch & Kutin's long time collaborator Florian Kindlinger, the trio received the prestigious Karl-Szucka award in 2016. In 2019 he was praised with the Prix Ars-Elctronica for the kinetic sound-sculpture Torso#1. Kutin’s music and art has been described as ’undeniably effective’ (The Wire Magazine), and ’not only good but important’ (A closer listen). He is a founding member of the label Ventil-Records, Velak (platform for experimental music) and

the RealDeal Festival.

Pia Palme

Pia Palme is a composer and artistic researcher from Vienna, Austria, with a focus on experimental music theatre. Known for her interdisciplinary formats, her practice often involves interactions with electronic music, writing texts, and visual art. The backbone of her work is the physicality of performance, a theme she regularly and personally revisits as a musician with her bass recorders. Since 2019 she directs the comprehensive artistic research project ‘On the Fragility of Sounds’ funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Austria, where she explores alternative forms of music theatre and composition as feminist practices. The project ends in mid-2021. In her music and research, she regularly collaborates with the theatre scholar Dr. Irene Lehmann, musicologist Christina Lessiak, ensembles such as Airborne Extended, Phace (Vienna), and Schallfeld (Graz), with singers Juliet Fraser, Anna Clare Hauf and Annette Schönmüller, as well as with harpsichord soloist Sonja Leipold, the specialist in historical oboe instruments Molly McDolan and the dancer Paola Bianchi.

Karl Salzmann

Karl Salzmann is an artist, curator and researcher using sound within performance, concept and installation art. Within process-oriented and experimental setups, he develops and presents works that study the materiality of sound and its social, cultural and metaphorical levels of meaning. His artistic activities mainly concern the interaction between sound and visual arts and often relate to works and topics of (sound) art history.

He was teaching at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, the University of Applied Sciences in St. Pölten as well as HDPK - Hochschule der populären Künste Berlin, was the founder and artistic director of the Soundart Festival Klangkunsttage and Co-Founder of Zentrale – Raum für Klang- und Prozesskunst (2016-2019).

Solo exhibitions (among others) at ACFNY New York (2017), Kunsthaus Graz (2013) & Kunsthalle Bratislava (2014). Prizes: 2017 Erste Bank Art Prize, 2019 Austrian State Scholarship for Media Art. Currently he is a Phd candidate in the Doctor Artium Program of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

exhibition

Opening: 28 Jun 2022, 11:00

Running: 29 Jun 2022 – 22 Jul 2022

Sonic Sensibility

Critical Engagement in Sound

The exhibition focuses on the social dimension of sound and explores the practices of listening.

In Para-Listening, Ricarda Denzer analyzes and deepens the practice of listening through form-finding, both textually and spatially. The sound paper revolves around the understanding of learning and mediation as a sonic act, and also as a correlation of different sensory experiences.

sound performance

29 Jun 2022, 18:00

Akustische Aktion für die Kassenhalle

Within the Angewandte Festival 2022

Sound intervention by Karl Salzmann at the Kassenhalle

By means of Karl Salzmann’s sound intervention, which is precisely coordinated with the architecture and materiality of the hall, the cashier's hall and the building of the Postal Savings Bank itself become an instrument and sound body.

Credit: Stefan Seelig

Karl Salzmann

Karl Salzmann is an artist, curator and researcher using sound within performance, concept and installation art. Within process-oriented and experimental setups, he develops and presents works that study the materiality of sound and its social, cultural and metaphorical levels of meaning. His artistic activities mainly concern the interaction between sound and visual arts and often relate to works and topics of (sound) art history.

He was teaching at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, the University of Applied Sciences in St. Pölten as well as HDPK – Hochschule der populären Künste Berlin, was the founder and artistic director of the Soundart Festival Klangkunsttage and Co-Founder of Zentrale – Raum für Klang- und Prozesskunst (2016-2019).

Website

Credit: Markus Gradwohl

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Performance View: Sounds of the Living IV

Performance by Paul Ebhart, Pia Palme, Fabian Lanzmaier – Part of Angewandte Festival 2022

The series of sound interventions at the Otto Wagner Kassenhalle explores the concept of living matter and questions the notion of nature.

Paul Ebhart performing Beuma, with gadgets and in costume | Image by ©

Paul Ebhart performing Beuma, with gadgets and in costume, audience applauding | Image by ©

Paul Ebhart – BEUMA

With BEUMA, Paul Ebhart stages the story of a sound researcher who investigates and documents the sonic environment in search of the origin of a creature that is believed to be real. He scours various locations and finds different receivers, through which he captures the noises and sounds. As a kind of intermediary, the scientist sees himself as an explorer of another reality beyond the human one. He is utterly convinced that there is more to be found than what we humans are capable of perceiving.

In his piece BEUMA, Paul Ebhart explores the question of what sonic reality surrounds us and what we perceive as such. Is the pure imagination of sounds capable of shaping our reality and sonic environment or our understanding of the sonic nature?

Pia Palme Performance Setting | Image by ©

Pia Palme – In a former Post Office | a performative ecology

A performance ritual, using voice, bass recorder, electronics, video, paper

Consider the old hall: it sounds by itself. In my performance, it is my living collaborator. I ask for permission. It is alive and speaks WITH me. It allows me to project my video onto its surface. The hall performs WITH my instrument, reflecting, resonating, masking sound waves. My voice is WITH the floor, crawling into the basement. No, this is another kind of animism, it is purely scientific thinking. My breath enters my instrument, flows through the big tube and exits through holes and openings. Softly, my sounding breath touches the walls, the columns, and moves up towards the glass ceiling. I listen to its history. We bow to each other.

Fabian Lanzmaier Performance Setting | Image by ©

Fabian Lanzmaier – renaming bugs

In the live audio work ‘renaming bugs’ Fabian Lanzmaier is following his interest in audio synthesis and the possibilities to juxtapose ideas of natural / artificial sounds, fluid and ambiguous environments and the mimesis of an organic world. Synthetic voices of different characters and surroundings, strain the imagination of the listener. A maze into surreal structures, in constant movement and disruption.

café exchange during sound performance, people sitting and lying around | Image by ©

Outside Psk building, many people standing and chatting | Image by ©

sound performance

29 Jun 2022, 19:00

Sounds of the Living IV

Within the Angewandte Festival 2022 - Performance by Paul Ebhart, Pia Palme, Fabian Lanzmaier

The series of sound interventions at the Otto Wagner Kassenhalle explores the concept of living matter and questions the notion of nature.

Paul Ebhart – BEUMA

With Beuma, Paul Ebhart stages the story of a sound researcher who investigates and documents the sonic environment in search of the origin of a creature that is believed to be real. He scours various locations and finds different receivers, through which he captures the noises and sounds. As a kind of intermediary, the scientist sees himself as an explorer of another reality beyond the human one. He is utterly convinced that there is more to be found than what we humans are capable of perceiving.

In his piece BEUMA, Paul Ebhart explores the question of what sonic reality surrounds us and what we perceive as such. Is the pure imagination of sounds capable of shaping our reality and sonic environment or our understanding of the sonic nature?

Pia Palme –

In a former Post Office | a performative ecology

a performance ritual, using voice, bass recorder, electronics, video, paper

Pia Palme – Credit: Jussi Virkkumaa

Fabian Lanzmaier –

renaming bugs

In the live audio work 'renaming bugs' Fabian Lanzmaier is following his interest in audio synthesis and the possibilities to juxtapose ideas of natural / artificial sounds, fluid and ambiguous environments and the mimesis of an organic world. Synthetic voices of different characters and surroundings, strain the imagination of the listener. A maze into surreal structures, in constant movement and disruption.

image

Performance View: infinity rug

Sound & Lecture Performance by Lou Drago and marum within the Angewandte Festival 2022

infinity rug is a series of sonic-seances where sound, collective learning and intimate care create a space of togetherness

Setting of infinity rug: people lying on floor of Kassenhalle space | Image by ©

Conceived during 2020's quarantines in the form of small home listening gatherings and converging years of experimentations from other artistic projects, infinity rug is a series of sonic-seances where sound, collective learning and intimate care create a space of togetherness.

Hosts Lou Drago and marum bring the domestic into the public realm, tentatively exploring new ways of being-together and offering a space for reflection, rejuvenation and introspection. From 18h to 22h, we were gently guided through a soundscape of field recordings, ambient, experient and deep-mind music, interwoven with soft, somatic and ceremonial performances and hosting, texts and poetry, scents, textiles, teas and other sensorial treats.

Photos: Lea Dörl

sound performance

30 Jun 2022, 18:00

infinity rug

Sound & Lecture Performance by Lou Drago and marum within the Angewandte Festival 2022

infinity rug is a series of sonic-seances where sound, collective learning and intimate care create a space of togetherness.

You are invited to bring your own rug to contribute to a rug-constellation. Lay down and get cosy with us, drift off with us.

Credit: Luca Guadagnini

Hosts Lou Drago and marum bring the domestic into the public realm, tentatively exploring new ways of being-together and offering a space for reflection, rejuvenation and introspection. From 18h to 22h, we will gently guide you through a soundscape of field recordings, ambient, experient and deep-mind music, interwoven with soft, somatic and ceremonial performances and hosting, texts and poetry, scents, textiles, teas and other sensorial treats.

marum

Risen to prominence from Lisbon’s scene, marum is a multidisciplinary artist, DJ and curator based in Berlin, working between the fields of music and the history queer rave culture, exploring deep psychedelia and care practices through sound and moving image, and researching on feminist hacktivism.

marum is a resident and co-founder of the queer rave mina cultural club space Planeta Manas in Lisbon, co-founder of the label suspension and ambient sonic seance Infinity Rug, a knit-tight collaborator of the hybrid dance & sex party Lecken and community radio Quântica, marum holds a refined and thoughtful sonic signature casting spells in entire communities, minds and dance floors.

Their sets are unashamed worship sessions oscillating between meditative soundscapes and fast-paced high-energy beats, hypnotic and dubby techno, trippy trance waves weaved with alien scores taking influence from film scores, minimalist composers and musique concrète. marum has played internationally from renowned to underground parties, clubs and festivals such as Berlin Atonal, Säule - Berghain and CTM (Berlin), ∄ (Kiev), TAG (Chengdu), Forestlimit (Tokyo), Ver Siden Af (Copenhagen), Whole Festival (Germany), Sónar Lisboa, among many others.

marum’s sensorial performances and programs have been shown internationally in museums, galleries and festivals such as Gropius Bau and Sophiensaele (Berlin), Mimosa House (London), Transart Festival and Museion (Italy), ICCG Ramallah (Palestine) to name a few.

marum, Credit: Andras Vizras

Lou Drago

is a Berlin-based multi-disciplinary artist, curator, writer and radio producer/DJ. Working across various mediums, they draw connections between the healing potential of sound, the necessity for collectivity during neoliberal times, queer-feminisms, and meditation and related theories. Their artistic works works Suspending Time: meditations for accessing alternate space/time in music (2018), Dissident Vespers (2019), and Fragments for Affinity (2022) fuse Drago’s experiential-theoretical research with their sound-based work to create what they call ‘listening occasions’ for being-together and being with oneself, with others. Drago’s practice is always collective to varying degrees, and they reject the prevailing notion of the singular artist in favour of acknowledging the pluralities of experiences that contribute to any given work. This trajectory of thought is exemplified in recent works New Feathers (2021) and Female Copulatory Vocalisation (2020), in which Drago transcribes and arranges fragments of conversations with comrades into texts that reveal the collective (un)conscious of the group of the selected subjects.

Together with marum, they host sonic seances called infinty rug (2021) where they hold space for community, collectivity and healing through expanded listening sessions, that weave together music, poetry, other spoken word impluses, somatic practices, performative interventions, film screenings, tea ceremonies and other sensorial delights.

Since 2017 Lou has been regularly curating and producing, Transience, on Cashmere Radio, Berlin with 43 episodes to date. The radio show focuses on experimental, drone, ambient and experient music that aims to offer anxiety relief for its listeners.

They have shown work, curated shows and spoken on panels across Europe and internationally.

Lou Drago, Credit: Kasia Zacharko