Hearing or listening is not a mere execution of the ear’s physiology. It is culturally relative. Yet, whenever hearing happens, the borderland between the audible and inaudible has already been crossed. Read an essay exploring the multiple potentials of acoustic perception.
How to cultivate community, self-awareness and emotional health through music-making? In which ways has the mechanical clock in Western Europe influenced composing? And if one can never listen, what are the multiple potentials of acoustic perception?
Commissioned for the MaerzMusik festival 2023 of the Berliner Festspiele and in collaboration with Norient, the groundbreaking composers Pauline Oliveros (R.I.P) and Jakob Ullmann, and the artists and writers Sophie Emilie Beha and Timo Kreuser reflect on these questions in a series of essays. Curated by Philipp Rhensius.
Short Essay by Jakob UllmannHow one measures time influences how one thinks. In his unedited essay draft, commissioned by the MaerzMusik Festival 2023, the composer Jakob Ullmann reflects on how the mechanical clock in Western Europe has influenced the composition and making of music.
Meditations by Pauline OliverosWith her series of word pieces «Sonic Meditations», the U.S.-composer Pauline Oliveros proposed a way to cultivate community, self-awareness and emotional health through listening and music-making. Read the first five lessons that we are happy to publish exclusively.