Sounds Typically German Klangkunst

by Christoph Metzger

I.
Tokyo, Kyoto, New York, San Francisco,
San Diego, Vancouver, Barcelona, London,
Paris, Wien, Graz, Bregenz, Eindhoven,
Stockholm, Roskilde, Ystad: all of these are
larger or smaller metropolises where the
history of sound art has been written. The
label Klangkunst the German term of
this interdisciplinary genre prevailed despite all discussions of alternatives. Although sound art is now well established
in the field of contemporary music, very
few artists have established themselves in
fine arts institutions. Sound art is a category of installation art, and involves working
with spaces both acoustically and sculpturally. The primary medium of sound art is
its location, and Berlin, for many years, has
been the capital. Since the end of the
1970s, the western part of the formerly divided city has emerged as an artistic and
institutional network of festivals, periodic
events, large presentations. As well, many
artists have taken up residence in the city.
The presence of artists working in this
field as well as presenters, curators and
theorists have lead to development of the
most active sound art scene anywhere in
the world.
Also, the academic perception of sound
art and an historic evaluation of the genre
from the perspective of Berlin has been
untaken by the musicologist Helga de la
Motte-Haber, who between 1978 and 2005
has taught at the Technische Universitt
Berlin and has formed a respectable band
of young sound art theorists. Besides her
authorship on numerous articles on this
subject, she is co-editor of the two catalogues of the exhibitions sonambiente
Festival fr Hren und Sehen (festival for
listening and watching) in 1996 and 2006.
Moreover, she is editor of the musicologiwww.pfau-verlag.de

cal publication series Handbuch der Musik

des 20. Jahrhunderts and of the 12th volume Klangkunst. Tnende Objekte und
klingende Rume (1999), an extensive encyclopedia of more than 140 artists. De la
Motte-Haber has given sound art a strong
visibility within German musicology, despite the fact that German musicologys relationship to contemporary music production has degraded to an academic desert.

II.
Innovation of artistic productions and activities at academic institutions, especially
in Berlin, have created an artistic base in
sound art which is both remarkable and
unique. Through cultural policy and institutional support it became possible to create a large body of new works in Berlin.
The primary institutions and programs responsible for the majority of the creative
activity are: the Artists-in-Berlin programme by the DAAD (German Academic
Exchange Service), the Technische Universitt Berlin (though its musicology department is soon to close and its studio for
electronic music resides in the Department
of Communication Science), the senate
Department of Sciences, Research and Culture with its scholarship for sound art, the
Universitt der Knste (University of Arts),
the gallery Giannozzo, the associations
Material und Wirkung (Material and Effect) and Freunde Guter Musik (Friends
of Good Music), the Knstlerhaus Bethanien, the Klanggalerie (Sound Gallery) of
the Radio Berlin-Brandenburg, the Akademie der Knste (Academy of the Arts), the
Initiative Neue Musik (INM), Podewil and
tesla, singuhr-Hrgalerie im Parochial, the
music gallery Gelbe Musik, the Berliner
Gesellschaft fr Neue Musik (BGNM; BerWorld New Music Magazine 16 53

lin Association for New Music), the Klangkunstforum (Sound Art Forum) Potsdamer
Platz, the galleries Anselm Dreher and Rafael Vostell, the Berliner Festspiele, the
Deutsche Gesellschaft fr elektroakustische Musik (Degem; German Association
of Electroacoustic Music), the Haus Flora,
and the Stadtgalerie Hellersdorf.
For many years these institutions have
built up a cultural environment which other cities on the map of sound art simply do
not have. Compared to other centres, the
predominance of artistic production and
the prevalence of theoretic discussion by
the Berlin institutions and artists far exceeds the activities of other cities such as
Saarbrcken, Karlsruhe, Kln, Marl and
Bremen which also have regular sound art
exhibitions.

Sound art in Germany is mainly presented in festivals in Donaueschingen, Darmstadt, Witten, Kassel and Frankfurt/Main as
subdiscipline of New Music, and is nearly
always received in this context. As well,
the influence of the radio stations is not to
be ignored (for example the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Cologne or the Sdwestrundfunk Baden-Baden), whose departments of ars acustica initiate produce radiophonic sound art with artists such as
Alvin Curran, Bill Fontana, Pierre Henry,
Gerhard Rhm, Rolf Julius, Thomas Schulz,
and Johannes S. Sistermanns.
Journals such as Neue Zeitschrift fr
Musik, MusikTexte and Positionen frequently report on new developments,
sometimes in issues dedicated to this field,
while the German fine arts magazines such
as Kunstforum or Texte zur Kunst have
been silent with respect to sound art. For
example, the issue sounds, published for
the 15th anniversary of Texte zur Kunst,
the description of sculptural and installation works with acoustic components
failed completely. Dedicated indifference?
Perhaps. If sound art was only presented
in music festivals, this might be understandable. But since sound art is frequently
presented as exhibitions in art galleries
the institution that plays a key role in the
artistic criticism of cultural activities, as Brian ODoherty elaborates in his often quoted compendium Inside the White Cube
the apparent ignorance of art criticism at
least reflects its narrow horizon.

III.

Ulrich Eller, Zweitonform (1999)

VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2006

54 World New Music Magazine 16

In the field of art education in Germany

the Hochschule fr Bildende Knste Saar
(Saar College of the Fine Arts, Saarbrcken), the Hochschule der Bildenden
Kunst Braunschweig and the Universitt
der Knste Berlin apply themselves to the
development of sound art. While in Berlin
the discipline is just being established,
Christina Kubisch in Saarbrcken and Ulwww.pfau-verlag.de

rich Eller in Braunschweig have been

teaching for many years and already have
generated scholars like Frauke Eckhardt,
Stefanie Hoppe, Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson, Hlynur Hallson, Stefan Roigk, Frank
Bartz, Martin Schne, and Ingo Schulz.
Ulrich Eller, born in Leverkusen in 1953
shaped the first-generation development
of sound art comprehensively and diversely. His inscriptions on surfaces unfold in
the media of drawing and sculpture. They
create resonances inspired by the drawing
uvre, which are then acoustically reflected. Reflection and resonance impact one
other both intellectually and physically.
Drawings in chalk, charcoal, and coloured
pencil on paper, stone walls, plaster, and
glass quote musical procedures. Material is
played upon. Acoustic sculptures arise out
of processes of scanning, sanding, and
beating. Figures grow that emerge on the
other side of musical forms and are eternalized in the material. Music is abstracted
and becomes sculpture in the medium of
hard surfaces and drawing on paper. In
early works, Eller played musical instruments like electric guitars, pianos, etc. with
stones and other hard objects; their sound
pick-ups and strings were then used in the
context of work implements for the garden
and field, like rakes and brooms; with
these new tools, he carried out acoustic
explorations of surfaces. With this set of
artistic tools, Eller explores the surfaces of
buildings, their windows and floors, and
the resonances of exterior spaces in relation to those of interior spaces. Streets become a symbol for drawings in motion.
Everything is amplified and becomes
sound in space. His materials search out
hidden acoustic qualities that are given
rhythmic structure through motions. The
processes of such inscribings sometimes
leave optical traces on the material as well.
Ellers work centres on the perspectives of
movement and materials.
Rolf Julius is another of the first generation
sound artists. Since the mid-1970s, he has
www.pfau-verlag.de

Rolf Julius, Music for the Bronx 3

VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2006

worked with the interactions between music and visual art. This interest first led him
to photo-body actions in 1976. Like some
of his artist colleagues in Berlin, Julius also
presented his first sound art pieces in the
Galerie Giannozzo. He developed his artistic language in minimalistic photo series
and in his first tape compositions. Actions
with musical elements outdoors were given poetic titles. His material includes ink
drawings on his projects, musical actions
with interval buzzers, and installations
with pigments, tea bowls, stones, and
loudspeakers. The loudspeakers are controlled with finely-veined wires and often
look like drawings. Fascinating contrasts
arise from these elements, and connections to nature are an essential component
of his work.
As early as 1975, Peter Vogel (born 1937 in
Freiburg) was invited to exhibit at the
Donaueschingen Music Days. At this renowned festival, he showed cybernetic objects which appeared like small machines
World New Music Magazine 16 55

with electrical circuits. Against the background of kinetic sculptures, Vogel quotes
and develops the fluctuations of light,
sound, and wind. The sculptures create
movements that are triggered by the viewers. Vogels objects are characterized by
complex technical constructions. The circuits are intelligent, i.e. learning systems
developed from cognition research, the
field in which the Vogel worked between
1965 and 1975 for Hoffman-La Roche in
Basel, Switzerland, before he became an
artist. Sequences like stimulus response
learning are taken as a model in order to
quote excerpts of complex processes. But
the cognitive achievement of the circuits in
these pieces reaches the level of onecelled organisms, at best. If movements of
the sculptures result in sequences that recall natural movements, then, in the kinetic
tradition, this alludes to relationships between human and machine in the sense of
ironic allegories. In this way, Vogels interactive sculptures represent movements
that run their course without recognizable
goals. The movement is sufficient unto itself as a play of form; it abstracts previously planned sequences and engages in actions that the sculpture then reflects. The
sculptures movements reward the visitor
for his curiosity, a concept that creates an
ambivalence: Who is playing with whom
here? The stimulation determines the shaping of time; it the stimulus is lacking, the
result is a standstill.
Christina Kubisch, born in Bremen in 1948,
is a Professor for Plastic and Audiovisual
Art at the Hochschule der Bildenden Knste Saar (Saar College of the Fine Arts).
Along with Ulrich Eller, she belongs to the
first generation of the internationally leading sound artists. Since the end of the
1970s, Kubisch has realized works with the
phenomena of electromagnetic inductions
which are found over wherever electrical
cables are laid. However, for her installations she also generates electromagnetic
induction fields by electric wires tightened
56 World New Music Magazine 16

Christina Kubisch, Oasis (2000)

VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2006

through the space, and draws hidden

sounds from them. Visitors are given specially developed headphones so that the
information fed into the cable network can
be experienced like compositions. This
principle is the starting point for numerous
installations she has realized around the
world since 1980. At first she filtered the
quiet humming of the electric wires out of
the headphones, but since 2003, precisely
these sounds led to a series of new works.
Now superficial or underground currents
are not longer suppressed, but made audible. Her Electrical Walks are conducted as
strolls through public space with headphones and city maps marked to show interesting electromagnetic sites. Timbres
and rhythms are caused by transformers,
broadcasting towers, surveillance cameras,
cell phones, computers, wireless internet
connections, GPS systems, automatic teller
machines, and advertising signs.

IV.
The generation of German sound artists
born in the late 1950s until the mid-1960s
is formed by Tilman Kntzel, Robert
Jacobsen, Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag, Jens
Brand, and Thomas Kner. By the incorporation of extensive pictorial material from
the recent media world (Sonntag, Brand,
Kner) as well as explicit references to
subjects of historic design (Kntzel, Jacobsen) the sound art tradition was taken up
www.pfau-verlag.de

Frauke Eckhardt, KlangMobil (1999)

photo: Frauke Eckhardt

again and advanced. The installations by

Thomas Kner, such as Banlieue du Vide
(2003), Suburbs of the Void (2004) and NUUK (2004), in an imposing yet simplistic
manner, pick up acoustical and visual perspectives that deal with the traces in landscapes and urban spaces. While the titles
of the works allude to outskirts of larger
cities and film sequences provide a sense
of melancholy, passages of polyphonic
hissing and smatterings of playing children
break up the scenes. Kner creates breathing images. Acoustic and visual atmospheres crossfade, comment and interpret
the film images which are almost unmoving. The black and white format creates an
historic appearance.

sic lessons would not have to be cancelled

at German schools if only teachers had
enough musical or sound artistic imagination and creativity. Other projects of basic
pedagogical work have been undertaken
at the Baltic Sea Biennial of Sound Art
2006 with classes from Rostock and Stralsund as well as with the Mecklenburg-West
Pomerania chapter of the Federation of
Blind and Visually Impaired People. Together with Stefan Fricke, Tilman Kntzel,
Georg Grabowski, Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag
and Christoph Metzger the pupils were
taken on diverse tours and given questions
about the acoustical environment they
were experiencing. The students notated
their experience using a variety of notations and models of mapping. The results
then formed part of the exhibition Baltic
Sea Biennial of Sound Art 2006 at Rostock.
In the area of sound art pedagogy there
are many possibilities of sharpening the
senses and generating orientation guides
for everyday life. Of course such a pedagogy, which is not only for children, has to
be developed in close contact with lessons
in art and music. It is not about pitting one
art form against the other, but rather, of ensuring that there are fewer missed artistic
opportunities.

V.
Without question, new ways of an integrating aesthetic education in the field of
sound art must be found: for schools, and
for museum pedagogy and adult education. Incidentally, the combination and
challenge of senses that sound art provides
is an excellent way to attract a new public
to contemporary art. Some such activities
have already started though there are not
yet enough. For example, the project
Musik fllt aus (Music Lesson is Cancelled), has been underway since 2000 by
the Leipzig composer and instrument maker Erwin Stache, who tests his futuristic instruments with pupils and proves that muwww.pfau-verlag.de

Tilman Kntzel, Roseboard (2001)

photo: Hans-Jrgen Wege

World New Music Magazine 16 57