resonanzen

Date:2022-05-17

Category:exhibition, installation, performance, release, work

lärm/silence? ansatz #30: resonanzen

05/13/22 – 06/06/22

interactive sound installation within exhibition “wechselwirkungen” (05/13/22 – 06/06/22) with christel fuchs & arthur goldgräbe, kulturmühle, rechberghausen

resonances are a big part of our lives. they define our relationship to subjects, objects, space, time and the world.
the installation “noise/silence? approach #30: resonances” makes resonances tangible and presents not only the classical understanding of the concept of resonance as a system of interacting impulses, but also the concept of resonance loss derived from resonance theory, a progressive alienation between people and the world.
against this alienation, the sociologist hartmut rosa sets the concept of “resonance” as a sounding, unpredictable relationship with a world that is no longer available, which only occurs when we engage with the strange, the irritating, with all that is beyond our controlling reach and is unavailable, unpredictably linked to the event of resonance.
in the course of the preparations for this multi-layered work, resonance studies were carried out in an attempt to stimulate various objects or materials to vibrate by means of impulses. in doing so, they deliberately refrained from using classical instruments (guitar, violin…) with resonance bodies, but rather unusual things like flower vases, styrofoam or stone. the results of these studies form the basis of the acoustic work.
as a tribute to the us composer and sound artist alvin lucier, who died in 2021, individual resonance studies were played back again and again in the room and recorded simultaneously, analogous to the working method of one of his most famous compositions “i am sitting in a room”. this process was repeated until the original recording was no longer recognisable, but only the resonance of the room acoustics, amplified many times, remained audible. these results were also incorporated into the acoustic work.
as well as field recordings of historical mills and mill wheels. these may have served as an impulse to bring back to the kulturmühle rechberghausen, where this installation was exhibited for the first time in 2022, even the long-forgotten and in the meantime inaudible.
the video and spatial installation, which deals with resonance in the sociological concept, is interrelated to this. according to harmut rosa, every human being is born with all the resonance bands that connect him or her to the world we all live in. unfortunately, in the course of their development, people consciously or unconsciously lose one or the other band. in sum, this is revealed in all the major crisis tendencies of contemporary society.
the resonance-theoretical reconstruction shows the three crises of late modernity. the core of the ecological crisis is not that we do not use natural resources wisely, but that we lose nature as a sphere of resonance if we regard it only as a resource.
the political crisis, in turn, is not rooted in the fact that democratic politics delivers poor results, but in the fact that it no longer seems to respond to citizens, that it no longer forms a sphere of resonance. finally, the psychological crisis of late modernity can be interpreted as a fundamental alienation. the rapid increase in depression and burnout illnesses is not primarily the result of work, speed or excessive demands, but rather of the collapse of the resonance axes that are constitutive for the subjects.
according to rosa, conscious deceleration, sensitisation to relationships or allowing oneself to be affected by something strange or even irritating are ways of becoming aware of resonance bands that have gone off track or even of bringing them back into harmony.