The fabulous poster was designed by the best graphic artist in Germany, Chris Rehberger of Double Standards.
Visual Music Studies 2019
Annual show of student's Visual Music projects February 1st, 2019
Every year composer Marcus Schmickler and I host the show Visual Music Studies at Dusseldorf's Filmwerkstatt. This year Sebastian Fecke, Johannes Leppkes, Suhyun Park, Laura Rizzo, Magdalena Treutwein, Laurenz Ulrich, Lambert Windges, and Valentin Zuckmantel will show their pieces on February 13th.
Creating a work for this show is part of the assignment in my Visual Music class at the Institute for Music and Media at Dusseldorf Robert Schumann conservatory. Many of the students decide to show a transmedia installation, but some of them are also interested in video clips, experimental film and animations, as well as audiovisual performances. Have a look at the best projects of the past ten years.
The Raumbewegungen project by Jannis Hannover is concerned with the sonification of environmental data. The focus of the study is the public space, which is created and used by human beings, and the way it changes physically within a particular time span. The sonified environmental data include temperature, air pressure, humidity, vibrations in the ground, CO2 levels, and movement. The translation of the fluctuating environmental data in an open space into sounds yielded an abstract composition, which made the constant reconfiguration of the environment audible. In addition, it provides the new soundtrack of a synchronized and alienated film of the place. The result is an audio-visual interaction between electronic, abstract sounds and a video, which demonstrates the influence of people on the characteristics of their immediate environment.
Raumbewegungen by Jannis Hannover was an exam project for the Visual Music major at the Institute For Music And Media of the Robert Schumann conservatory. Marcus Schmickler and I supervised the project.
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Christoph Beck
Focus April 1st, 2018
Participants in the Focus installation by Christoph Beck attempt to focus their attention on a mantra in front of them. When they allow themselves to be distracted, they transform the distraction into the focus. If they ignore the distractions this suggests that their internal thinking processes were 'louder' than the external impulses. The installation reflects how the way we interact with ourselves and the external world leaves traces within us. It links up with the internal processes of the autonomous nervous system in order to show that participants direct their own well-being by means of conscious processing of distractions.
Focus by Christoph Beck was an exam project for the Visual Music major at the Institute For Music And Media of the Robert Schumann conservatory. Marcus Schmickler and I supervised the project.
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Vincent Stange
Transformation in Sync March 31st, 2018
The installation Transformation in Sync by Vincent Stange reflects the connection and separateness of rooms. Both, the sound and the lighting, play a crucial part in this installation. On February 14, 2018 Vincent Stange presented his sound and light composition on the two floors of Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf. The audience was exposed to equally strong auditory and visual stimuli. What they heard was converted to light and back again to sound. The central question in this study is whether a light composition can replace musical elements or whether it remains only a visual event.
Transformation in Sync by Vincent Stange was an exam project for the Visual Music major at the Institute For Music And Media of the Robert Schumann conservatory. Marcus Schmickler and I supervised the project.
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Valentin Dudeck
they don’t need repair March 10th, 2018
The audiovisual installation they don’t need repair by Valentin Dudeck establishes a link between object and sound. The deliberate destruction of an object made of glass is transferred to the sound level. As a result, the destruction continues to be audible beyond the moment of disintegration. The chance configuration that occurs is scanned by a camera. The individual positions of the broken pieces of glas determine the sound, which is also made visible by the projection of the camera picture.
they don’t need repair by Valentin Dudeck was an exam project for the Visual Music major at the Institute For Music And Media of the Robert Schumann conservatory. Marcus Schmickler and I supervised the project.
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Jannis Carbotta
Moiré Patterns March 8th, 2018
The Moiré Patterns installation by Jannis Carbotta reflects upon the moiré effect. This is a graphical effect created by overlaying screens onto each other and produces endless new forms according to the angle from which they are viewed. In the installation the effect is reconstructed analogously and made perceivable in the form of light and sound. Jannis Carbotta transfers this optical illusion to sound and shows a large-screen visualization in the room.
Moiré Patterns by Jannis Carbotta was an exam project for the Visual Music major at the Institute For Music And Media of the Robert Schumann conservatory. Marcus Schmickler and I supervised the project.
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Leon Eckard
Relativity March 2nd, 2018
In the VR production Relativity by Leon Eckard the public can hear hip-hop beats against shifting polyrhythms. This also shifts the sense of the downbeat as well as the type of meter. At the visual level users find themselves in abstract spaces with geometric figures. These are linked to the individual elements of the music and shift accordingly with the result that the sense of space also changes.
Relativity by Leon Eckard was an exam project for the Visual Music major at the Institute For Music And Media of the Robert Schumann conservatory. Marcus Schmickler and I supervised the project.
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Bennet Meyer
V&T [Vernunft & Triebe] December 17th, 2017
Vernunft & Triebe by Bennet Meyer is an expressive and jarring digital collage that shows a violent inner fight between the human's good sense versus its instincts impulses and desires.
Via Bennet Meyer: "The human mind’s good sense requires its natural origin, but condemns it at the same time. V&T is an experimental video clip that shows an audiovisual interpretation of an inner fight between good sense and urge."
Vernunft & Triebe is the diploma project of Bennet Meyer in the Motion Design post-graduate program at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy, and was supervised by Alexander Hanowski and me.
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Johannes Geier
Red Orange Ground November 6th, 2017
Red Orange Ground is a contemporary sports film about the sense of temporal dimension during a 100 meter sprint. Johannes Geier's idea for the film developed over a period of six years until he finally decided to produce it as his graduate film for his Motion Design diploma at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy. He translated his feeling of temoral expansion when he runs with immersive metaphors and unique key visuals on to film.
Red Orange Ground was supervised by Alexander Hanowski and me. Johannes Geier's final presentation and exam were in spring this year, and now, finally, all rights are clarified and the clip is online.
In close collaboration with my inspired colleague Prof. Julian Rohrhuber we created the amazing Klang und Realität master's degree program at the Institute For Music And Media.
Via Institute For Music And Media: "Following the principle of the unity of research and teaching, the Klang und Realität master’s degree program combines aesthetic, technical and theoretical approaches. The program benefits from the unique academic situation at the Institute for Music and Media: the multiple facets of time-based art, such as composition, performance, and algorithmic art forms, have been established here for many years.
IMM students autonomously develop their own stance, and learn to integrate it with a range of artistic, technological, economic, scientific and cultural contexts. Graduates of the Klang und Realität master’s degree program are ideally prepared to shape, influence, advance and even anticipate developments in the 21st century.
Musicality is not attached to musical instruments exclusively – it includes many aspects of artistic and scholarly work. That is not least of all the reason why this degree program is generally open to graduates from all disciplines. It is therefore particularly appropriate for those who are interested in the diversity of media forms, schools of thought and topics. The institution of a Musikhochschule is ideally suited for promoting exchange among interests and abilities in different domains.
Student projects play a vital part in this exchange. In the course of their studies, students learn to re-conceptualize their proposed project on the basis of critical and differentiated feedback and to bring it to fruition at a high level through collaboration with other students. They carry out their project in one of two areas of focus – Epistemic Media or Transmedia Forms – both of which open up completely new perspectives in the environment of a state conservatory."
