Discourse Sound & Politics

“Can something be said in music solely through the use and combination of sound materials?” asks philosopher and social scientist Roger Behrens in Ton Klang Gewalt. What is the relation between sound conditions and social conditions, and can the term “sound-politicisation” – as used during the protests against the inauguration of the government formed by the Austrian Freedom Party and the Austrian People’s Party in order to label the collective oppositional activities – be an answer to the search for possible forms of political expression in music?

In his lecture, “Das Paradies der Vieldeutigkeiten. Über Sound und Politik (The Paradise of Ambiguities. On Sound and Politics)”, Roger Behrens will deal with the terms, political strategies and contradictions surrounding the socio-critical potential of sound.

The interwovenness of this relationship as well as the question of the possibilities of oppositional forms of expression in music – dependent on a material-aesthetic practice – will be discussed afterwards by Tanya Bednar (aka Tibcurl), Daniel Erlacher (Elevate Festival/Widerstand Records), Canadian sound artist Tim Hecker, Christina Nemec (chra/comfortzone) and Roger Behrens.

3 - 4 pm Lecture (German):
Roger Behrens (Hamburg):
“Das Paradies der Vieldeutigkeiten. Über Sound und Politik (The Paradise of Ambiguities. On Sound and Politics)”

It seems obvious that musical phenomena today essentially define themselves via their “sound” or as “sound”; and it seems just as obvious that “sound” is, in some way, granted a political dimension.
A few questions: What is “sound”, what makes sound “political”? And what is it that’s “political” about it? – When does “sound” become a topos not only of music, but of politics?
This is an attempt at a historical-critical reconstruction of sound: When and why did sound become a) an aesthetic category, b) an aesthetic category used to determine the “political” of art/music, c) a political category of aesthetics, and, ultimately, when did d) the political become a category of aesthetics? It is not only about a critique of sound and politics, but, first and foremost, about a critique of the discourse dealing with sound and politics: Why was it possible or necessary at all to upvalue “sound” as a concept (and against which, possibly devalued, concepts)? And what does politics sound like, if the sound is supposedly political and the political sound? Consequently, it is also about the discursive interrelation between political sound and the sound of politics.
These reflections ultimately lead to a critique of the connection between sound conditions and social conditions: revealing that sound, as an aesthetic concept, in fact always already is “political” and that the “political” that characterises society also always appears in the mode of “aesthetics”.

4 - 6pm Discussion (English):

Christina Nemec (Presenter/Vienna), musician, DJ, author and presenter; under her alias chra, she has released her debut album, “derive”, on label comfortzone, which she founded together with Konstantin Drobil (www.comfortzonemusic.com)
Amina Handke (Vienna), instead of Tayna Bednar
Roger Behrens (Hamburg), co-publisher of book series “Testcard. Beiträge zur Popgeschichte”, author of numerous articles on the critical theory of society, popular culture and music (www.rogerbehrens.net).
Daniel Erlacher (Graz), electronic music producer and founder of Widerstand Records, the Graz-based label for experimental and electronic music; initiator and organiser of monthly agit.DOC documentary series at Forum Stadtpark; co-founder and organiser of Elevate Festival (www.elevate.at)
Tim Hecker (Montreal), sound artist and producer; studied Political Theory at Concordia University and is currently writing his Ph.D on “Urban Noise: Signification and Political Subjectivity in 19th and early 20th century in North America” (www.sunblind.net)

7/05 3-6pm Lecture Hall, Kunsthalle Krems

Film: “Modulations” (1998), documentary on the history and genres of electronic music; 19.00, Filmgalerie

Concept: Ulrike Mayer