Published by Mikroton, Moscow September 28th, 2017
Thomas Lehn and Marcus Schmickler hired me to design the cover artwork of their new release Neue Bilder on Mikroton Recordings. I decided to use my old Letraset sheets once again to connect this deep, dynamic, and beautiful album with their 2000 release Bart.
Via Mikroton: "Thomas Lehn and Marcus Schmickler have been known for building their sonic worlds for 17 years since their first album Bart. After 6 years of studio silence, here comes Neue Bilder. Their 5th allbum is a constant flux of musical juxtapositions, collisions and balance of their tour de force with analogue synth and computer. The album features two tracks created from two concentrated performances in Münster and Wels, both being magnificently reworked stereo versions of their quadrophonic live concerts. Neue Bilder goes further in their development of sound with meticulously constructed abruptly appearing and disappearing abrasive and tonal sound clusters, remote echoes, and lonely remnants."
In 2005 I initiated the BASECAMP lecture series at the Institute For Music And Media. For the course of 12 years I curated, and produced this monthly event. I invited over 70 amazing speakers and perfomers. The name BASISLAGER was inspired by my professor Bazon Brock, who gave a lecture on BASECAMPS in January 2006.
For the first BASECAMP lecture on June 17th, 2005 I invited John Tilbury. He talked about the music of Morton Feldman, and played three piano pieces by Feldman. I still show Tilbury's talk every year in my Visualize Music seminar to introduce Morton Feldman's music to the freshman at the Institute For Music And Media.
The last BASECAMP lecture was held by Prof. Sylke Rene Meyer on Developing Content For Non-linear Storytelling. Sylke Rene Meyer is Professor and Associate Director, MFA Creative Writing at California State University-Los Angeles. In her talk she is pointing to the future of storytelling.
Choosing my favorite BASECAMP talk after so many years was no easy task, but Terre Thaemlitz On A Completely Fabricated Evolutionary Trajectory was mindblowing on so many levels. He chose to not allow publishing her lecture online because he has a very specific perspective on ownership. Consider her interview by Dubspot for more information.
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."
As soft as possible November 22nd until 26th, 2016
With my longtime collaborator Marcus Schmickler I organized a festival to celebrate the year of John Tilbury's 80th birthday. It took more than half a year to prepare all events, but once John and his fabulous wife arrived all of that was forgotten. It was a profoundly inspiring week – we learned, experienced, and felt so much. Every single performance blew our minds. Little sparkling epiphanies, one after the other, strung like pearls next to eachother.
Thank you all, but above all: Thank you, John Tilbury !
Tim Turiak ask a group of people to send them illustrations only using a thick black marker for their poster series to promote a new festival in Düsseldorf called Schönes Wochenende [nice weekend].
My illustration was obviously inspired by my favorite game Mountain by fabulous David O'Reilly. They added a few German words meaning ...but work on your preference.
[ Projects ]
Type as image in motion
Including an interview about my projects and research December 2014
Via Hatje Cantz Verlag: "As in no other genre has type in films been set in motion: whether as art, feature and promotional film or music video the type motion film has become firmly established and extended to other areas since the pioneering days of film in the late 19th century. Schriftfilme – Schrift als Bild in Bewegung [Type Films – Type as image in motion] recently published by the publishing house Hatje Cantz Verlag particularly deals with the artistic type motion film and presents examples of analogue- or digital-based films, in which animated, graphically designed and voiced type becomes the protagonist and which exceeds by far what is expected from conventional type and type motion."
This volume also includes an extensive interview about my work with typography in motion and my subject of research, Visual Music.
Festspielhaus Afrika gGmbH, a non-profit public limited company, was founded in 2009 by Christoph Schlingensief with its headquarters in Berlin. Its aim is to strengthen the exchange of information between Europe and Africa incorporating artistic and scientific means, an exchange that has taken shape with the construction of an Opera Village in Burkina Faso. Festpielhaus Afrika gGmbH thereby follows a holistic concept, in which everyday life, art and science work together and open up new directions. It initiated the African Opera Village, runs construction contracts and coordinates the project progress.
As a first project under this cooperation agreement, Nico Neteler, Audio and Video student at the Institute For Music And Media, as part of his Bachelor thesis, is setting up the sound studio in the African Opera Village in Burkina Faso. For the project he will be living and working with his team members on location from October to December 2014.
Hermes Katharis Villena Silva from ComeTogether Projekt invited me to give an interview about my Visual Music Archive and my research residency at Center for Visual Music last year in Los Angeles. The interview was published in their Letter to L.A. pt. II and was released August 18th, on their open-air party to support L.A. based non-profit web radio collective dublab.
More Visual Music for the archive March 2nd until 23rd, 2011
As part of its Music residencies program the Goethe Institute is promoting the further expansion of my Visual Music Archive. By means of the music residencies, the Goethe Institute wishes to significantly increase the number of cooperations and co-productions as well as the intercultural exchange and international networking in the program work.
In March 2011, with the support of the Los Angeles Goethe Institute, I will research on location at the Center for Visual Music. The Center for Visual Music is a non-profit film archive that is involved in the fields of visual music, experimental animation and contemporary media art. It is committed to preservation, curation, education, scholarship, and dissemination of the film, performances and other media of this tradition, together with related historical documentation and artwork.
[ Projects ]
Interview in KRAUT 01
Sammeln im Zeitalter der verlustfreien Reproduzierbarkeit September 12th, 2010
Had a wonderful time conversing with Katharina Hauke last month. She is part of the team who just released the first issue of KRAUT – Magazine for Applied Culture.
We talked about the Visual Music Archive, Moon, Peter Saville, copyright and much more. The headline of the interview could be translated into Collecting in the Age of Loss-free Reproduction.
