Sounds of the Living

The series of sound interventions at the Otto Wagner Kassenhalle explores the concept of living matter and questions the notion of nature
Listening session of the audio papers by the students of the Master Program Studies in Art and Culture for the seminar ‘Sonic Thinking’ (Kristina Pia Hofer), followed by a concert of Conny Frischauf in the framework of their AIL residency

Our understanding of nature has changed over time, as has the soundscape on planet Earth. Natural sounds of abiotic elements such as wind, water or earth movements were thus continuously augmented by the sounds of living organisms like humans and further their technology. With these sound performances we want to take a closer look at our surroundings and soundscapes of today.

“Third nature” - as Anna Tsing suggests in The Mushroom at the end of the World - is everything that exists alongside and in the face of the destruction caused by the capitalist exploitation and what creates new synergies and coexistences. It is a moment of awareness of the living activities of all beings and emerges within a temporal polyphony. But can we acknowledge this agency and this activity of making worlds as a political act?

What if agency and political are not functions of a body which must necessarily be a human one to enact them, questioning hence the anthropocentric assumption behind Western definition of politics?

Program

18:30

Listening session of the audio papers by the students of the Master Program Studies in Art and Culture for the seminar ‘Sonic Thinking’ (Kristina Pia Hofer)

Participating students: Nike Bekemeier, Anita Buss, Isa (Matthias) Conrady, Alexandra Elzbieciak, Josephine Engelmeier, Camilla Hagenauer, Maria Harrison, Max Heirens, Olivia Pingpaya Hemsuthipan, Aljosha Kronberger, Anna Mielke, Anna Rupp, Hannah Waniek, Nadja Webel, Annka Weber

20:00

Concert by Conny Frischauf

Q&A with Kristina Pia Hofer afterwards

Conny Frischauf will present Dwin City, a long-term work engaging with the Danube River and its environments between Vienna and Bratislava, focusing on collective memory, heritage, and spaces in between scientific and (art) historical narratives. Through sound-based and installative-performative approaches, the work explores questions of knowing, not knowing, and acknowledgement.

Conny Frischauf is a sound and visual artist based in Vienna, Austria. They studied transdisciplinary arts (TransArts) at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. They regularly perform, sound, conduct workshops and lectures, repair and build audio equipment, score films and performances, host, listen, write and walk. Since 2024, they have been running Sedimente, a platform that slowly inter-layers through text, sound, space, and more.