Various ideas on something around & between sound, art, culture, movement, silence, chaos and structure.
Kunst.
Music and copyright.
When it comes to musical recordings we are faced with the bitter truth that what seems like a resource is in fact an industrial product. Right now (29.05.2019) when we find recordings we are working with cultural artifacts that almost always are corporate or private property.
So what chances for creative minds are there and why is this the way it is? A nice podcast (in German) is ChaosradioExpress No. 164 – here you’ll find history, ideas and cases about German/international/Internet copyright.
Another important guideline might be The KLF manual which is also available as an audiobook.
There is a lot more to be worried about but as long as you create something new your lawyer can always win your case due to the concept of Threshold of originality. Be sure to have a lawyer at hand if you publish something that uses recorded material from someone else.
Be creative and restructure!
Scars filled with ink
In 2008/9 I played with the idea of getting a tattoo. A good friend (thanks Nora!) told me to print the template and hang it over my bed for a year. So my journey began with gathering inspiration, drawing sketches and five years later I printed my final sketch to become comfortable with it. It was the summer of 2015 and I had just moved from Gießen to Hannover in order to write my master thesis on electronic organs. The process itself was as painful as it should be but that’s part of the experience of getting a tattoo. Also what eased me into doing it was the artistic knowledge, great care and empathy an old friend of mine executed the tattoo with – her input to the artwork I’m wearing were the colours and the dotwork style.
A great deal of thought went into the concept & some are gathered here:
1. Form. The ideas and symbolic allusions of wheels, circles and perfect unity. Also cogwheels might be seen as a nice symbol for teamwork, harmonic movement and an understanding of mechanical forces behind material processes. The two complete cogwheels next to each other also give a hint to the figure of eight as a symbol of eternity.
2. Numbers. There are 3 cogwheels with 24, 30 and 42 teeth which leads us to the symbolic meaning of the numbers. For a solid structure the triangle is the most important principles of material construction and every human culture has an understanding of the significance that comes with three of a kind – from folklore to family and in such huge ideas as past, present and future.
The 24 is a little easier since it is ‘only’ 2x3x4 and the number of keys in the Western harmonic system (and hour per day). It is also the age with which I started the whole tattoo thing.
30 is the 3 in a more human sense due to the 10 fingers and the 1s and 0s of our digital age. But much more than that it is also the centre and the age I finally got the tattoo.
42 is a number that needs no explaining – if you are in doubt please finish the novel you’re reading right now and get a copy of D. Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the galaxy”.
3. Position. The tattoo is something to make me feel grounded so I placed it on the front of my body. As life left the ocean and began walking on dry land we developed the collarbone and I thought it would be nice to allign the tattoo with this evolutionary benefit. Also it is a position that is not visible at first sight even though the fading end of it sits on the front of my shoulder.
Unliteratur – Der Wert vom gedruckten Wort
Das Sprichwort “Das ist das Papier nicht wert, auf dem es geschrieben steht” ist völlig unlogisch. Das Papier kann nicht weniger Wert als das bloße Material welches es ist haben – zur Not kann man es zu Recyclingpapier verarbeiten, ein Geschenk darin verpacken oder ein Feuer mit anzünden.
Doch der Begriff ‘Unliteratur’ kam im Laufe meiner Beschäftigung mit einer Idee: Ich wollte aus meinem Lieblingsbuch – dem Diercke Weltatlas – vorlesen. Dies Unterfangen erscheint heute recht banal, denn überall gibt es billige Bildschirme und Kameras; oder auch eine GoPro und nen Beamer: Ratze fatze bringt man die Bilder vor dem Vorleser einem Publikum nahe.
Doch 2006 war die Technologie auf einem anderen Stand & ich hatte genug Gelegenheiten, mir Gedanken über mögliche Umsetzungen zu machen. Und ich konnte Dinge sammeln, die ebenso wenig für eine Lesung geeignet sind – dies war die Geburtsstunde der Unliteratur! Über die Jahre habe ich einen Blick für den Bodensatz der gedruckten Dinge entwickelt und eine Menge obskurer Schriften angesammelt; Bedienungsanleitungen, Groschenromane, Schmuddelheftchen und dergleichen mehr.
Als ich mich dazu entschloss, diesen Reichtum an vermutlich minderwertigen Druckwerken auf die Bühne zu bringen, musste ich mich zuerst ein wenig auf die richtige Auswahl beschränken. Mit einem Koffer bin ich dann letztlich im Sommer 2019 auf die Bühne des Spielefloor vom Camp Tipsy gegangen. Der Rest ist Geschichte…
… und jede gute Geschichte hat eine Fortsetzung. Denn in einer der kommenden Lesungen werde ich ins Digitale gehen und aus eBooks lesen. Zum Beispiel aus dem Anfang des letzten Jahrhunderts erschienenen Werk “
Das Zuhältertum in Berlin” – Prädikat: Grenzwertig, historisch-sexistisch und absolut unterhaltsam!
Art & Science
2018: How often do people speak of art and science as though they were two completly different things with no interconnection. An artist is emotional they think and used only intuition, has no need for reason. A scientist is cold, rational and uses mainly logic and reason, explaining step by step with no need for imagination. That is all wrong. A true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and anticipates action an reaction. If this is not the case the art suffers. A true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational and leaps to solutions reason only follows at a slow pace. If this is not the case the science suffers. Do not leave behind half your capabilities.
