The media artist and composer Thomas Wagensommerer studied digital media technology, philosophy and transdisciplinary art. His compositional works are positioned at the interfaces between man and machine – a field of activity which is in rapid transformation, due to permanent technological change and the fundamental deepening of the relationship between man and technology.

Of Making Hear.

[24:37 min] download for: mobile, computer and iPod | send feedback

As a media artist, Thomas Wagensommerer explores the sound faculty of electronic instruments (the existence of sounds produced by it) as well as the possibilities of sound design in the era of the Web 2.0. more »

What happens when you realize that you still love somebody? When you fall in love with someone all over again? When you’ve just fallen in love?

Suddenly, what is normally difficult and heavy becomes easy and light: e.g., one carries a piano into the courtyard.

[3:24 min] herunterladen auf: Handy | Computer & iPod | Feedback senden

In order to catch the last rays of autumn and let your hearts run free, CastYourArt helped with the piano. Uwe Dreysel sings, the courtyard serves as the stage for the actor this time around—take your concert away. . .(wh)

The American sound artist, Douglas Henderson, studied composition and theory at Princeton University under Milton Babbitt, a pioneer of synthesizers and Pulitzer Prize winner, Elie Yarden, and J.K. Randall, co-editor of the magazine, Perspectives of New Music.
Henderson currently resides in Brooklyn and, after receiving a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service in 2007, in Berlin.

Visible Sound

[17:09 min] download for: mobile, computer and iPod | send feedback

Part 2. Playback

[23:11 min] download for: mobile, computer and iPod | send feedback

His artistic work has been supported by renowned foundations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Foundation of Contemporary Art New York, and numerous other grants; his list of exhibition activities and performances is as noteworthy as it is international. His compositional work has been presented at countless computer and new music festivals ranging from Seoul to New York. He has collaborated intensely with modern dance choreographers, composing for the likes of Jeremy Nelson, David Zambrano, and Meg Stuart, as well as for numerous dance theatres across Europe and the US. more »

Most of his sound installations are not recorded. They would not function on loudspeakers or headphones, says Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag, because his compositions typically use the entire body as an acoustic reception space. It can be good that the sound does not penetrate the through the eardrum, but instead, for example, through the soles of the feet - for those who would stand on their own loudspeakers. Sonntag’s artistic achievements involve interfaces between the human body, technical media systems, and sound-mediated space perceptions. For example, in one project, he plunges a randomly vibrating column into the earth, whose upper edge serves as ground-level manhole. Those who step on the manhole can sense the depth of the earth with their bodies through the oscillations of the manhole, as well as experience space in a different, nonvisual way.

The Architecure of Sound

[16:47 min] download for: mobile, computer and iPod | send feedback

The Essence of Electricity

[11:29 min] download for: mobile, computer and iPod | send feedback

Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag was born in 1965. He studied trombone under Heinz Fadle at the University of Music Lübeck, then he studied eight different subjects, ranging from art history to philosophy, in Oldenburg. Since then, he has taught at universities in Istanbul, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Oldenburg, and Darmstadt. more »

Monica Reyes has just released her new CD, “Frühbar”, which features original compositions from the vocalist and actress – witty and tipsy pop-chansons that capture the spirit when wine and words start flowing freely.

CastYourArt met up with Monica Reyes und her guitarist Martin Bayer two weeks ago in the Museumsquartier. After a sudden inspiration, we ended up improvising and recording a spontaneous version of the title song, which resulted in this little “takeaway” concert. Our “stage” was an artwork by Michael Kienzer.

Art performed on art – take your concert away… (wh/jn)

Carlos Sandoval is a sound artist. Sandoval’s own definition of his work includes sound design, sound speculation, improvisation, classical composition, and a combination of all of the above. In the work of the artist, the dissolution of the composer as the ruling subject of the music plays an important role. For example, for his installation of trees, “Baumberauschen”, in the Kreuzberg section of Berlin, nature is the designated composer of the music. The trees are equipped with sensors which detect their movements, caused by wind and growth, and direct these impulses with sounds from sound archives.

Paring Down. Part 1

[18:29 min] download for: mobile, computer and iPod | send feedback

Wind in the Trees. Part 2

[16:31 min] download for: mobile, computer and iPod | send feedback

The artist teaches improvisation and composition as complementary strategies at the Universität der Künste Berlin. The multifaceted approach to planning and spontaneity is a reflection of Sandoval’s focus: the withdrawal of the controlling subject from the music, which can also be found in Sandoval’s 2008 collaboration for the program of the “Interaktion Festival”, called “The Tilt Group”. Sixteen musicians participated, paired up randomly, in a competition for the best musical interaction.

The artist has an experimental and unusual concept of music. His works are sound manipulations, sound improvisations, sound installations. His raw material includes everything from the cries of a flock of birds to street noise to electronic toy sounds to the moans of couples in the throes of ecstasy. The instruments of the artist are experimental developments. For example, over the course of one decade, during repeated stays at the STEIM Foundation in the Netherlands, Sandoval has developed a digital data entry glove from which he is able to control and work on sound samples live from the computer.

Carlos Sandoval was born and grew up in Mexico. After earning his bachelor’s degree, he was trained in piano construction and tuning at Bösendorfer in Vienna. He then completed his studies in Mexico at the National School of Music Composition, studying theory with Estrada. Presently, Sandoval works as a freelance composer and musician in Berlin. (wh/jn)

People go through life with open ears – they cannot close their ears, as they can their eyes, to the sounds of the world, unless they physically block them. The ear is a completely closed off sensory organ. We hear, even when we sleep. We hear sharply only rarely and perceive differently, those noises which surround and penetrate us. If we tune into ourselves and back in time, not only the sounds from streetcar, cow-, door-, recess, fire brigade, church, or bicycle bells resonate within us, but also an amazingly extensive audio cosmos. We come to learn that sounds have emotional connotations, that our feelings have different intonations.

A Hearing Perspective

[27:27 min] download for: mobile, computer and iPod | send feedback

Sam Auinger is engaged with the world of sounds, tones, and noises and their geographical-cultural as well as historical differences. He thereby carries on a tradition of artistic involvement with sound in which people such as Erik Satie, Luigi Russolo, John Cage, and Murray Schäfer made history. Trained at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz and University Mozarteum Salzburg, more »

The production of “living pictures” has a tradition. They could already be found in the royal victory processions of antiquity and they appeared again in Catholic masses, as well as in ceremonial processions during the Renaissance and the Baroque eras. By the end of the eighteenth century, the art progressed to unmoving, held poses, which became one with the scenery, and were displayed “on stage”. Originating in France and from that point on coined Tableaux Vivants, these embodiments of historical paintings and sculptures found their way into the drawing rooms of the elite and became part of the main repertoire of the theatre and revue world of the nineteenth century.

[6:51 min] download for: mobile | computer & iPod | send feedback

The artist Rita Nowak, based in Vienna and London, is carrying on the tradition of the embodiment of living pictures with her held-pose photography. Drawing from historical paintings, she composes living pictures using fellow artists as models thereby bringing the historical works up-to-date. Rather than creating mere reproductions, she investigates the possibilities of interpretation, thereby developing pictures that visualize the past in the present and modern images that are depicted through the visual language of past centuries. more »

As opposed to other media like film or music, in principle, painting does not lend itself to as many possibilities, explains the painter, Thomas Reinhold. Throughout history, there have been painters who have tried to expand the range of the medium of painting time and time again. Take the case of Viennese Actionism, for which action painting or happenings—for example, fluxus art is not meant to extend the possibilities of the painting—always become something else instead.

[6:47 min] download for: mobile | computer & iPod | send feedback

In the mid-seventies, Thomas Reinhold studied at the University for Applied Art in Vienna, when Actionism was still determining the current artistic climate. For many, the medium of painting was still not performative enough, hence, it only held a small part in the curriculum as opposed to other media. Reinhold was doing photography at the time. His work was successful—shown at the Graz Forum City Park as well as in art fairs in Basel and New York. more »