On Music Archives

On Music Archives: Between Preservation and Appropriation

Listening session and discussion with Oswaldo Lares, Gilles Aubry, Peter Cusack and Christopher Kline, presented by Laura Jordan and Guillermo Lares

Saturday, July 18, 2015 / 17:00 – 20:00h

Errant Bodies
Kollwitzstrasse 97
10435 Berlin
www.errantbodies.org

In parallel to the current exhibition Inside the Archive of Oswaldo Lares (1969-89) at Kinderhook & Caracas, this event will focus on material and political aspects of music documentation and preservation practices. After an introduction by Oswaldo Lares about his own collection of traditional Venezuelan music, Gilles Aubry will present elements from the “Paul Bowles Collection of traditional Moroccan Music” (1959). By evoking concrete aspects of these recording initiatives, such as technical, performative, social and archival ones, the participants will discuss the possibilities and limitation of such approaches for preservation purposes, as well as perspectives for creative and critical reappropriations of historical music collections today.

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Oswaldo Lares (b. 1932, Maracaibo, Venezuela) began making weekly excursions from Caracas along rural roads spanning from Caribbean villages to the plains to the Amazon rainforest, intent on meeting those people who continued to embody Venezuela's musical heritage. Inspired by the diverse indigenous, African and European influences he found in each town, Lares began to document the musicians, dances and festivals in order to introduce them to a wider audience. In 1971 he acquired a portable Nagra reel-to-reel recorder with which he built an expansive audio archive over the next two decades.

Gilles Aubry is a Swiss sound artist based in Berlin. Informed by researches on cultural, material and historical aspects of sound productions, he uses field recordings, audio archives and interviews to create live performances and sound installations. www.earpolitics.net

Peter Cusack is a sound artist and (improvising) musician, and is also active as a field recording artist and a teacher. The focus of his current work – which he presents in appearances and performances, radio and CD productions, lectures, exhibitions and installations – is our man-made sound environment; the works’ categorical context is shaped by the conceptual approach of acoustic ecology. www.petercusack.org

Christopher Kline is a Berlin based artist, he is co-director/founder of the project space Kinderhook & Caracas. www.christopher-kline.com

Errant Voices

Errant Voices

Max Negrelli
Kerstin Möller
Christina Vinke
Pham, Minh Duc
STRWÜÜ

Presentation of works: Friday, July 10th – 18:00 - 21:00h

Errant Bodies
Kollwitzstrasse 97
10435 Berlin
www.errantbodies.org

There are always edges to the operations of speech, peripheries by which other types of communication and contact can be imagined and produced. Considering these edges and peripheries, Errant Voices brings together sound works by students from the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe. Developed through a semester-long course led by members of Errant Bodies, the works search for ways to manifest, perform or occupy creative ways of voicing.

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Max Negrelli
Posing plants

Zwei Pflanzen, eine naturbelassen, die andere aus Plastik, stehen nebeneinander.
Die subtile (Video-)Projektion eines Textes löst ihre dekorative Funktion auf und lässt sie zu Akteuren im Raum werden. Es entsteht ein Dialog, der sich inhaltlich und formal auf einen Prosatext von Francis Ponge bezieht, in dem er das Dasein und die Aussagefähigkeit von Pflanzen beschreibt (in 'Im Name der Dinge' 1942). Nach Ponge drücken sich Pflanzen nur durch ihre Stellungen aus. Diese Ausdrucksform ist für ihn im Vergleich zur mündlichen und mimischen der Tiere, schriftlich. Ein Text, bestehend aus zahlreichen Wiederholungen, der sich wie das ständige Wachsen der Pflanzen, erweitert und durch Anhänge korrigiert. Die Textprojektion wird begleitet von einer Soundcollage, die auf die Künstlichkeit bzw. vermeintliche Natürlichkeit der beiden Objekte Bezug nimmt.

Two plants, one natural the other artificial, stand next to each other. A video projection of a dialogue changes their role from ordinary decoration objects into protagonists of the gallery space. The written conversation is based on a prose text by Francis Ponge in which he reflects upon the existence of plants and their possibilities of expressing themselves (in 'The Voice of Things' 1942). For Ponge, plants only express themselves "through their poses". Compared to oral and mimetic communication of animals, he sees this form of expression as a written one. A text consisting of many repetitions, which extends and corrects itself constantly. Next to the projection there is a sound collage which refers to the artificiality and the alleged naturalness of the two objects.


Kerstin Möller
No Games on Private Land

Diese Installation ist eine Kollage von Verboten und Instruktionen die aus verschiedenen europäischen Städten stammen. Was bedeutet es für das Individuum, wenn er oder sie ständig Verhaltensregeln im öffentlichen Raum befolgen muss? Und was bedeutet dies für unsere Demokratie, wenn die Sphäre des Öffentlichen langsam in private Hand übergeht und somit gegebenenfalls Zusammenkünfte verhindert. Spielen ist fast überall nicht so gern gesehen.

A collage of instructions collected in various European cities, outlining how these instructions try to influence and regulate our behaviour in urban public or private-public spaces. What does potentially losing our public sphere mean for our democracy and capabilities in meeting others? Who has a right to space and who has not?
Games are not really welcome at all.

Stimmen/Voices: Kerstin Möller und Ernesto Estrella


Christina Vinke
Gleich. Semantische Zerlegung / Semantic disassembly

Gleich porträtiert den Prozess der semantik-offenen Sprachgenerierung, indem das Wort „gleich“ seiner semantischen Bedeutung enthoben wird. Der menschliche Akteur zerstört die Buchstabenkombination und setzt sie kontinuierlich durch die kalte Mechanik der Kombinatorik immer wieder neu zusammen. Durch die Interaktion des Betrachters verschwindet die akustische Ebene des Werkes in visuellen Ebene, wodurch ein Spiel mit der semantischen Ebene des Wortes "Gleich" ermöglicht wird.

Gleich portrays the process of semantic-open speech generation by relieving the German word "Gleich" of its semantic meaning. The letter combination is destroyed by the human actor over and over again and continually put back together through the cold mechanics of combinatorics. Through interaction with the viewer the acoustic level of the work disappears into a visual level, creating a semantic game of the German word "Gleich".


Pham, Minh Duc
Akustischer Spiegel / Acoustic mirror

Stell Dich in die Ecke und erhebe Deine Stimme! Zurückgedrängt in eine Ecke voller Reue und Scham, erkenne ich das Potenzial meiner Stimme. Auf und ab, laut und leise ertönt der Protest. Der Körper schwingt. Und wie es in die Enge klingt, schallt es wieder nach draußen. Das Gesicht bebt. Resonanz.

Go in the corner and raise your voice! Repressed in a corner full of repentance and shame, I recognize the importance of my voice. Up and down, loud and quiet sounds, the voice protests. The body is pulsating. And as it sounds in the narrowness, it sounds out. The entire face trembles. Resonance.


STRWÜÜ
Auch wenn du durstig bist, wirst du im Pazifischen Ozean kein Trinkwasser bekommen / Even if you are thirsty, you will not get drinking water in the Pacific Ocean

Wie bist du hierher gekommen?
Was tust du hier?
Bewegst du dich unbewusst?
Folgst du einem Plan?

Bist du müde?

Im Pazifischen Ozean schwimmt ein Wal, welcher von seinen Artgenossen vermutlich nicht verstanden wird.

How did you come here?
What are you doing here?
Are you moving unconsciously?
Are you following a plan?

Are you tired?

There is a whale living in the Pacific Ocean which is presumably not understood by his fellow species.