programme (pdf, German) ECAS WP 2 - Stage

im Steirischen Herbst
»An enharmonic change«
04.10. - 07.10.2012 / Graz, Austria

In 2012 musikprotokoll had its special ECAS edition, built on the theme of the Working Period 2 „Networks of Advanced Sound and Related Arts. Bridging cultural sectors and different media, and enabling citizen innovation“. The main research question under the title „Enharmony“ was: How does the context influence/change the music?

Intro of musikprotokoll 2012

Sounds rouse us to change the world and to perceive the world in a different way. But the meaning of the world, the meaning of a sound may change without the sound itself changing. The truth of the sound is not absolute – and the twentieth century took advantage of this fact not only by means of a veritably explosive increase in possibilities of sound, but also in the possible meanings of every single sound. The apex of this refinement is constituted by pieces of music that use only a singly produced sound (or, in radical cases, no sound at all), whose meaning, however, constantly changes by means of repetition.

So what sounds are still symbols, and thus instructions on how to act today? Instructions for what, in what context and under what social circumstances? A world as sound between iconic commercial sound logos and private ringtones, instrumental avantgarde, abstract electronica, sound design and pop songs. Why and how does the selfsame sound work and function in different contexts as a symbol of different meanings? What effect can music have under these conditions? What produces the pictorial quality of sounds and thus their reference to the world? And how does music take advantage of this relationship?

Curated by Christian Scheib (A) & Susanna Niedermayr (A)