Helmi Vent Helmi Vent

Lectures and Seminars

18 October 2024

Unity as the unpredictability of multiplicity. Examples of Film-documented Field Work in Performative Arts Lecture with Screenings in the frame of the WAAE Summit “Arts, Nature, Technology, Education: Harmony in Unity”, 17–19 October, 2024, Athens, Greece

Lecture with Screenings from the Lab Inter Arts, Salzburg
Conference Site: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Abstract excerpt
From a cultural anthropological perspective, the idea of unity is a millennia-old phenomenon, for example, with cultures living close to nature, often based on holistic world views. In some Western traditions of thought, various cultural and artistic currents have tried to recapture an integral view of things, also the view of unity, albeit with a different slant. Unity appears as the unpredictability of multiplicity. This interwoven idea allows diversity and polyvalence to exist in unified forms. Against this philosophical-aesthetic background excerpts from cross-over projects in performative arts are presented and discussed, field work in the context of arts education, carried out with people from various fields of study, work and life. The aim of the work is to develop and apply integral forms of cultural and social participation with artistic means in the unpredictability of diversity.

In some so-called Western traditions of thought, various cultural and artistic currents in the 20th and 21st centuries have tried to recapture an integral view of things, also the view of unity, albeit with a different slant, such as the Dada movement or the metaphorical model of the rhizome according to G. Deleuze and others. In contrast to holistic worldviews, some concepts of the 20th and 21st centuries do not appear as unity in the 'classical' sense, but rather as the unpredictability of multiplicity. This interwoven idea allows diversity to exist in the unified form. It seeks contingencies (in the sense of “everything could also be different”), not causalities; it seeks polyvalence, not unambiguity.

30 July 2024

Dialogical competence as a sustainable resource. Performative vocal and instrumental practice in connection with film-based research Roundtable – spoken paper with screenings in the frame of the 36th ISME World Conference Advocacy for Sustainability in Music Education, 28 July – 2 August, 2024, Helsinki, Finland

Time TBA, Roundtable – spoken paper with screenings from the Lab Inter Arts, Salzburg

Conference Site: Sibelius Academy

Abstract excerpt
When the ISME congress in Helsinki takes Sustainability in Music Education as its theme, the question arises as to what sustainability might mean in the music-oriented education sector in 2024. When shaking this complex of questions intensively, elementary human basic competences push themselves into the front row of sustainable resources for the author of this paper in the midst of our current world events, among them the genuinely human ability to come into contact with each other through vocal and instrumental sounds and to communicate with each other in the context of changing social-cultural circumstances. This is where the paper finds its thematic focus: in the challenging dialogue-performative practice at music universities.

04 September 2023

On the Move along Fault Lines Lecture in the framework of the InSEA World Congress “Fault Lines”, September 4-8, 2023, Çanakkale, Western Turkey

16:00 Lecture with Film Sreenings from the Lab Inter Arts, Salzburg
Venue: Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (COMU), Terzioglu campus

The lecture is based on the understanding that, from a cultural anthropological and social point of view, human beings are permanently on the move between unbroken and broken lines. Via film documentaries from the Lab Inter Arts (directed by Helmi Vent) international collaborative projects in public spaces will be presented, in which young people from different countries, including Austria, attempt to perceive fault lines as a stimulating driving force and to work them up under artistic and socio-cultural issues. This raises question for both the protagonists and the recipients about their own possible shares to the mostly culturally conditioned fractures. The latter call on all parties involved to adopt faultlines-friendly forms of co-responsibility within the cultural circle of the hosts.

17 June 2023

“Voices of Resistance”: Performative signals to question concepts of teaching and learning in university music education Lecture as a part of the “Paris Conference on Arts & Humanities”, 16–19 June, 2023, Paris

16:00 Lecture with Film Screenings
Venue: Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (COMU)

The paper refers to the topic of the Paris Conference 2023, New Revolution, in the sense of some original aspects of meaning of revolutio (Latin): upheaval, redesign, turnaround. In detail, it is about a redesign of existing teaching and learning cultures in music-artistic university education. The implementation platform for the “Voices of Resistance” are video-documented projects at various art universities in German-speaking countries, initiated and accompanied by the author of this paper.

The people who essentially shape the projects are students from different musical artistic disciplines. What unites the “Voices” are their common concerns: They protest against one-sided Eurocentric art and knowledge production, especially in the vocal and instrumental main subjects of their music studies, and demand a reorientation and a more open redesign of existing music arts courses. The artistic means of the young protesters are their performative skills with their various vocal, instrumental, physical-dance expression and public presentation forms (see film documentaries).

27 May 2022

Next Door is Everywhere. Cycles of Cultural Work Lecture at the conference "Creative Interactions 2022. Creative learning, creative teaching and teaching for group creativity in music education" at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, Germany, from 26-27 May 2022

15:00, Lecture with film documentaries from the Lab Inter Arts Salzburg, Austria
Venue: Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, Building Luisenstraße

The paper joins the Munich symposium topic with a project example in which people from different social and cultural forms of existence and life were brought together to initiate cycles of connecting cultural work with artistic means. We're talking about Next Door – Between Live Art and "Leberkas", a project that took place in the Lab Inter Arts in the public space of Salzburg over a time frame of two semesters in the academic year 2012-13. Based on film-documented excerpts, this project will be presented in its main features and put up for discussion: its concept of bartering, its location- and situation-oriented project practice, its dialogical forms of encounter, its approaches to film-supported and arts-based research.

Film trailer for the project: Next Door – Between Life Art and “Leberkas”

10 May 2022

„Which way?“ Spaces as co-directors in performative arts Guest lecture and seminar as part of lecture series at the Institute of Music and Movement Pedagogy/Rhythmics of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Austria)

14:00–17:30, Guest lecture and seminar with film documentaries from the Lab Inter Arts Salzburg
Venue: Franz Liszt-Saal, Lothringer Str. 18, 1030 Vienna

„Which way?“ asks about the localization of people who are looking for their place or their field of activity in a performative process in various spaces. Which way? questions localizations and settlements again and again, leads to reorientation of establishments and changes of direction on a physical, sonic and mental level. What happens when spatial conditions become performance and reflection plateaus for a wide variety of narratives by participants? What happens when such spatial and situational conditions appear as co-directors on action stages?
For illustration Which way? uses cinematic documentations of RaumKlangKörper (SpaceSoundBody) projects with performers at the Lab Inter Arts, Salzburg.
The text material used in the projects will be made available for further use.

17 September 2021

Nature – Man, an old-new Covenant Statement in the frame of the kick-off event of “SALZBURG fairantworten – netzwerk natur”

15:30, Statement, Alter Markt, Salzburg, Austria

How do the destruction and sell-out problems of the Salzburger Land mentioned on the event poster come about? In my own professional field of reflection and work, art-culture-education, there are a few intersections that protrude into what is being questioned and thematised here and now, for example overarching aspects of history of thought and intellectual development of our Western culture.

Full text (German version): Natur – Mensch, ein alter-neuer Bund (PDF)

11 July 2019

Experimentation as an Artistic and Anthropological Principle, as Illustrated by the example of Lab Inter Arts, Salzburg Lecture with Film Documentations within the frame of the “36th InSEA World Congress”, Vancouver, Canada, 09–13 July 2019

11:00, Lecture with film documentations, followed by a discussion
Venue: University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver BC, Canada

This paper, with its accompanying audiovisual examples, examines the following core potentials of experimentation: From a fundamental perspective, experimentation is a platform for inter- and trans-disciplinary practice in the arts; from an overall perspective, experimentation transforms new experiences and insights into ways and means of form creation and opens up alternative scopes for action and thought in the context of changing realities of changing human life.

31 May 2019

Contextual Contingencies of Performative Interactions Lecture with Film Documentations within the frame of the “Conference Creative Interactions – Dynamic Processes in Group Music Activities”, May 30th–June 01st, 2019, Munich, Germany

11:00, Lecture with film documentations, followed by a discussion
Venue: Hochschule für Musik und Theater München (University of Music and Performing Arts, Munich)

Interactions in artistic realms have many manifestations—depending on the cultural area, on the traditions of thought and belief of the people who are interacting in each case.
Against the backdrop of the complexity of the conference’s guiding term: „interaction”, the paper focusses on different situational, sociocultural, and social contingencies of interactions in diverse sound and movement scenarios. The involved actors’ forms of expression and representation, their narratives, their sound and body images, through to overarching paradigms, are always contextual, just like the interactive working processes themselves. They are rooted in the site of their origins, and can neither be transferred nor demarcated with clear parameters.

30 March 2019

“I have a question: Do Europeans sing in trees?” Lecture with Film Documentations within the frame of the “Asian Conference on Arts&Humanities: Reclaiming the Future”, March 29–31, 2019, Tokyo (Japan)

14:00, Lecture with film documentations, followed by a discussion
Venue: Toshi Centre Tokyo
Organisation: The International Academic Forum (IAFOR)

The paper focuses on people from Salzburg, Austria, who, despite the increasing turbulence in society, consider democracy to be a particularly estimable anthropological and societal concept. They perceive the human capacity for change as a valuable potential, intervene publicly in undemocratic happenings in their cultural and social environment by performative means, express criticism – usually from below, directed towards those above – and make alternative suggestions for action between the Arts&Humanities.

08 June 2018

Es war einmal ein Lattenzaun mit Zwischenraum hindurchzuschaun. (“One time there was a picket fence with space to gaze from hence to thence.”) – Christian Morgenstern. Thoughts on the INTER in interdisciplinarity in the arts. Lecture with film examples within the framework of the preliminary conference of the “Kolleg für Musik und Kunst Montepulciano”, 2018, Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln / Dependancy Wuppertal

11:00, Lecture with film examples, followed by a discussion
Venue: Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln / Dependancy Wuppertal

What interdisciplinarity really means is not all that clear. Sometimes it means a networking idea between various arts, between arts and science, or between arts and media; sometimes it means a method, a form of work, or a form of organization; sometimes it is instrumentalized as a fashionable program in order to acquire external funding. In some cultures, interdisciplinary networking concepts are perceived as peculiar, given that – according to the respective tradition – the various forms of artistic expression have always belonged together, so that it is impossible, even in the present day, to imagine them as being separate.

Taking a look at a variety of manifestations and perceptions of interdisciplinarity, a focus is placed on interfaces of “discipline”-oriented picket fences and the spaces between the pickets, which, when the attempt is made to look through them, reveal a wide variety of perspectives and panoramas. The film excerpts present possibilities for generating interdisciplinarity, for example in the “spaces from hence to thence” of performance art at Lab Inter Arts, Salzburg.

24 February 2018

Something New under the Sun? Paper with Film Documentations in the frame of the the “Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts: Exploring New Horizons”, February 22nd – 24th, 2018, Québec (Canada)

10:30, Paper with Film Documentations
Venue: Université Laval, Québec City, Québec (Canada)

The lecture focuses on questions raised by the subject of the 2018 International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts: Exploring New Horizons. What are possible new horizons in the arts: experimental art, mixed media, digital art, avant-garde-art of the 21st century? Do these new trends contradict Solomon’s statement in the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament that “There is Nothing New under the Sun”?

Complete Abstract: Something New under the Sun? (PDF)

23 November 2017

Engaging with Communities through Performative Interventions in Public Spaces Pecha Kucha Presentation in the frame of the “7th World Summit of the World Alliance for Arts Education Conference: Engaging with Communities: Creative Pedagogies”, 22 - 25 November 2017, Auckland (New Zealand)

10:30, Pecha Kucha Presentation
Venue: Owen G. Glenn Building; University of Auckland, Auckland (New-Zealand)

The Pecha Kucha slides present excerpts from crossover arts projects in public spaces, which since 2009 have been, and are still being, carried out as field studies in European and Asian cultural spheres by students from various disciplines and various universities. The specific challenge for the participating persons is the unpredictability of location-specific and community-related situations.

Complete Abstract: Engaging with Communities through Performative Interventions in Public Spaces (PDF)

19 November 2016

Songs of(f) Stage Impulse Lecture in the frame of the Symposium “Sound – Traces – Moves. Soundtraces in Motion”. Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung, gtf (Society for Dance Research), Germany, 18 - 20 November 2016, Salzburg (Austria)

14:30 Impulse Lecture
Venue: Mozarteum University Salzburg, Orff-Institute (Austria)

This lecture will push a performance project into the centre of attention which was developed with performers of the DanceMusicTheatre Workshop of the Mozarteum University Salzburg Salzburg and had its premiere at the opening of the 22. Inter- national Festival of Contemporary Music Aspekte Salzburg in May 1998: Songs of(f) Stage. The SpaceSoundBody Theatre, which is dedicated to Mauicio Kagel, takes in its 90-minute performance a closer look at the open and covered spaces in classically built theatres, in order to converse with the actually exiting space sounds and sound spaces with the help of its own ‘equipment’.

Complete Abstract: Songs of(f) Stage (PDF)

10 April 2016

In the Space between Art and Culture: Performance Art as an Integral Form of “Doing Culture” Paper within the framework of “The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities 2016”, 7–10 April 2016, Kobe (Japan)

12:00 Paper, Art Center of Kobe, Kobe (Japan)

In the space between art and culture: Excerpts of field studies are presented involving multi-disciplinary artistic media, which use an artistic research approach to seek integral forms of artistic, cultural and societal input in the sense of “Doing Culture”. ... When considering study concepts which – in keeping with the theme of this conference – relate the Arts and Humanities with each other, the performance projects presented here as audiovisual documentation examples can be categorized under Applied Humanities on the basis of performative arts.

Complete Abstract: In the Space between Art and Culture: Performance Art as an Integral Form of “Doing Culture” (PDF)
unter http://iafor.org/acah2016-speakers (downloaded on the 15 Sept. 2016)

16 February 2016

Performing Arts – Performance Art: Interspaces and Flexible Transitions Lecture within the framework of the “18th International Conference on Communication, Visual and Performing Arts Studies”, 15-16 February 2016, Istanbul (Turkey)

10:30 Lecture, Istanbul (Turkey)

“Performing Arts – Performance Art: Interspaces and Flexible Transitions” is the title of a four-year artistic research project, which has set itself the goal of exploring the adaptable transitions within the realms between the two genres. This paper will single out one research question from the entire project for its focus, namely on how and under what circumstances such transitions between a reinterpretation and a new creation can take place during the performative process.

Complete Abstract: Performing Arts – Performance Art: Interspaces and Flexible Transitions (PDF)

02 June 2015

Other Spaces – Other Sound Spaces. Space as a Catalyst for an Art of Openness Paper within the framework of the “6th International Conference on Visual and Performing Arts”, 1-4 June 2015, Athens (Greece)

10:00 Paper, Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER), Athens (Greece)

When musicians leave their customary rehearsal and performance spaces and one day play their instruments in a park or in a cemetery or start singing while up in a tree, or in a barber’s chair or even lying under a pile of rocks (see film examples), then it usually involves more than just a superficial change in location. A deep-seated longing is often behind this relocation -- a desire to sweep away the connotations that the standard spaces and sound spaces have in the university establishment with their conventional rituals – a wish to discover one’s own spaces for action and thought in terms of an art and culture of openness.

Complete Abstract: Other Spaces – Other Sound Spaces. Space as a Catalyst for an Art of Openness (PDF)

03 January 2015

Arts and Humanities in a Global World - Artistic and Transcultural Field Studies Paper and Round-Table Discussion within the framework of the “2nd Annual International Conference on Humanities & Arts in a Global World”, 3–6 January 2015, Athens (Greece)

10:30 Paper, Athens (Greece)
16:30 Round-Table Discussion

The paper begins by reflecting on the terms that comprise the conference’s theme: “Humanities”, “Arts” and “Global World”, and goes on to address questions about the potential for transforming the ‘big’ concepts into manageable categories of thinking, feeling and acting, that means to ‘humanize’ the “Humanities”. The attempt to bring about a transformation seeks to establish connections between the Humanities as academic disciplines and the Humanities as Applied Human and Cultural Sciences and/or as Applied Life Sciences.

Complete Abstract: Arts and Humanities in a Global World - Artistic and Transcultural Field Studies (PDF)

20 August 2014

Lab Inter Arts - a Platform for Cross Cultural Performance-Projects Concept presentation and discussion within the framework of “Alpbach Higher Education Symposium”

16:00, Alpbach (Tyrol, Austria)

Within the framework of the agenda item “Universities of the Future – Showcasing Transformation in Action” at the “Alpbach Higher Education Symposium”, Helmi Vent will present her teaching concept LIA – Lab Inter Arts, for which she was awarded the “Ars docendi State Prize for Excellence in Teaching” in July 2013. In her concept presentation, H. Vent will explore the following questions: “How can research-and-arts-based teaching overcome academic, artistic and cultural boundaries? How can artistic performance inspire sociocultural and societal participation? How can we enable transitions from professional and artistic qualifications to interdisciplinary cultural work?”

According to a statement by the European Forum Alpbach, the Higher Education Symposium is intended to provide an informal dialogue platform for national and international experts and stakeholders in the university sector.

WS and SS 2012–2013

Life Artists – Life Art Seminar in conjunction with an interdisciplinary project of the same name

Seminar Content:

  • Text studies that encourage us to perceive so-called artistic activity according to the current socio-political and socio-cultural points of view,
  • Basis for the text studies: 2 to 3 projects in the field, in which we utilize the ‘stories‘ of the life artists we encounter and their respective life 'works' on their own life stages as an opportunity to engage in small, on-site collaborations.
Required reading

BIANCHI, Paolo (1998): Das LKW. Vom Gesamtkunstwerk zum Lebenskunstwerk oder Ästhetisches Leben als Selbstversuch (Part I)
In: KUNSTFORUM international: Lebenskunstwerke (LKW), vol. 142, Oct.–Dec. 1998, p. 50 ff
KUNSTFORUM international (1999): Lebenskunst als real life, vol.  143
SCHMID, Wilhelm (1998): Das Leben als Kunstwerk. Versuch über Kunst und Lebenskunst
Ihre Geschichte von der antiken Philosophie bis zur Performance Art
In: KUNSTFORUM international: vol. 142 Oct.–Dec. 1998, S. 72–79
SCHMID, Wilhelm (1998): Philosophie der Lebenskunst. Eine Grundlegung
(Suhrkamp TB Wissenschaft No. 1385)
Frankfurt/M., 10th edition 2007
WELSCH, Wolfgang (2010): Was ist eigentlich Transkulturalität?
In: Lucina Darowska. Thomas Lüttenberg, Claudia Machold (Ed.): Hochschule als transkultureller Raum?
Kultur, Bildung und Differenz im Unterricht. (transcript) Bielefeld

02 November 2012

Songs and Hurdy-Gurdies. Voices in a Dialogue with the Familiar and the Foreign within Themselves and in Others Presentation and Discussion of Film Dokumentaries on Vocal-Laboratory-Projects in the framework of the 9th International “Stimmtage Stuttgart”University of Music and Dramatic Arts Stuttgart, 09:00

The performer of the presented vocal projects are are students from various fields of study at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, guest voice artists, as well as people from in and around Salzburg who are interested in creating new songs through improvisation and in making ‘old’ songs new again. Depending on the origin and the teaching situation, the vocal idioms of the performers are also based on the techniques in western and classical singing cultures (film exerpt).

Because the tonal idioms used are also the embodiments of the respective performers’ imaginations and the worlds they inhabit, this permits “Songs and Hurdy-Gurdies” to expand into small expressions of the art of living (film exerpt). Similarly, the “Songs and Hurdy-Gurdies” are a constant inspiration to raise awareness about the processes of incorporating and excluding ‘foreign’ elements and to cope with them by singing and playing the ‘songs’ of others within the context of their respective life stories and their cultural and social circumstances (film exerpt).

29 September 2012

A Laboratory for the Arts? No Thanks! It’s Better to Study Something Solid. A Lecture, film presentation and discussion Bremen, Haus der Wissenschaft (House of Sciences), 11:00

Defining what is ‘solid’ is an art in itself. As soon as something solid has solidified, it slips from our grasp. Surprisingly. Unpredictably. But it is just this unpredictability of the wing flaps of self- or externally-created butterflies that is the lecture’s focus – it is passionately dedicated to experimental laboratory tests (not only) in the arts, to shaky attempts to search and strive which demonstrate that their strength lies in the prudent management of uncertainty.
Laboratory model: the LIA – Lab Inter Arts at the Mozarteum University Salzburg

SS 2012

On the Relation between Music and Dance after 1970

In exploring the multi-faceted relationship between music and dance – be it according to hierarchically ordered principles or the interpenetrating principles of dance and music gestures or in the form of autonomously enacted dialogues of both arts – our work, which will be supported by audiovisual documentations, will focus on:

  • anthropological and cultural backgrounds and conditions of selected manifestations of the Central European music-and-dance landscape (mainly from 1950 on);
  • aesthetic peculiarities that determine the interaction of the two arts in these selected manifestations;
  • various functions of the individual forms of expression in reflecting sociopolitical concepts.

Our studies will be based on selected writings by music and dance artists, music and dance experts and art philosophers of the past decades.

Required reading

VENT, Helmi: Funktionen musikalischer Komposition im zeitgenössischen Tanztheater
In: Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung (publication) / KLEIN, Michael (ed.): Tanzforschung, vol. 2/1991
Nötzel Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 1992
REININGHAUS, Frieder/SCHNEIDER, Katja (ed.): Experimentelles Musik- und Tanztheater. Series: Handbuch der Musik im 20. Jahrhundert – Vol. 7.
Laaber, Laaber 2004

WS 2011–12

From Dada to the Present. Process-Oriented Concepts in the Arts

This course casts a few spotlights on various movements, works and key figures of the arts in the 20th century, including artistic crossover laboratories of our day. In the selected movements, we will focus on the art-making process, i.e. the process of the development and emergence of art: dada, Fluxus, happening, performance, site-specific art, occuring art, etc. In these fields, exploring the situational conditions of the art-making process and experimenting with materials and techniques, with forms of communication and interaction etc., themselves become a subject of art and, in the laboratories of the 21st century, frequently entail a search for new experimentation spaces that are appropriate for an integration of the arts into societal, political and social life.

The course orientation and discussion will be based on selected texts as well as on audio and film examples.

Required reading

DREHER, Thomas: Performance Art nach 1945. Aktionstheater und Intermedia.
Wilhelm Fink, Munich 2001

WS and SS 2009–10

Project Work in the Intercultural Context Focus: Western (Central European) and Southern Asian Culture (India)

The seminar in the context of “aesthetic theories” is a supplementary course to the intercultural project “ConCom”, being carried out in cooperation between LIA – Lab Inter Arts (Mozarteum Salzburg), Boston University (USA) and Kala Academy/Goa (India). The seminar is being offered in the context of the “Schwerpunkt Wissenschaft und Kunst” (Focus on Science and Art) of the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg and the University Mozarteum Salzburg.

The seminar focuses on:

  • philosophical and religious issues as well as social and societal issues, in relation to Indian culture and in relation to the planned performative laboratory work in India;
  • aesthetic manifestations of selected Indian arts in the fields of sound, dance and performance;
  • project conditions that will be oriented on contextual circumstances and resources;
  • documentation forms of the initial project development phase and its planned evaluation in the SS 2010.

In its first phase, the ConCom-project, which has been planned for a period of several years, will go to Mumbai and Goa in December 2009. In January 2010, after the participants' return, the course will continue on a regular basis.

Required reading

MALL, Ram Adhar: Philosophie im Vergleich der Kulturen. Interkulturelle Philosophie – eine neue Orientierung
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1995
HAN, Byung-Chul: Hyperkulturalität. Kultur und Globalisierung
Merve, Berlin 2005

WS 2008–09

Intercultural Projects in the Arts – Concepts and Models

The course will begin by focusing on the interrelationship between art, culture and interculture. Against this background, with the help of film examples, concepts of artists who have integrated their designs into intercultural contexts will be presented and discussed. The discussion of these concepts will be supplement by live presentations by representatives from various fields of art and culture.

Cooperating partners for this course: Leopold Kohr Akademie, Salzburg; Kulturelle Sonderprojekte Salzburg; K. - initiative junge kultur salzburg

Required reading

VENT, Helmi: Intermediale künstlerische Bildung in der Projekt- und Kulturarbeit. Statement. In: PASUCHIN, Iwan (ed.) (2007): Intermediale künstlerische Bildung. Kunst-, Musik- und Medienpädagogik im Dialog
Kopaed, Munich, pp. 63–69

08 May 2008

Arts Based Research Project: Video-Supported Study Materials at the Interface of the Performance Arts Lecture and Film-presentation in the frame of the "16th Anniversary of fnma (forum neue medien austria)", Section: Media Production for Education and Continuing Education, 8 and 9 May 2008, University of Salzburg

16:00 Lecture and Film-Presentation
Venue: University of Salzburg, Salzburg (Austria)

This study describes an ongoing project in the context of teaching and research at Mozarteum University Salzburg, the object of which is to produce film-and-text-related study materials at the interface of the performance arts (focus: SpaceSoundBodyTheater; experimental music and dance theater). The materials, produced in both German and English, are conceived for use in university and non-university programs of education and continuing education – first as a DVD series and later as a Web platform.

Complete Abstract: Arts Based Research Project: Video-Supported Study Materials at the Interface of the Performance Arts (PDF)

Conference Programme: 
http://www.uni-salzburg.at/fileadmin/oracle_file_imports/554462.PDF

WS 2007–08

Spatial Dimensions in the Arts

The course is devoted to selected contemporary trends and ideas in the field of laboratory and staging work, in which spaces or places have inspired arts involving movement/action/sound/sculpture/etc. In order to be able to understand and classify the aesthetic, sociocultural and sociopolitical backgrounds of such trends in the present day, 20th-century predecessors of current concepts of the occupation and transformation of spaces will be presented. In connection with the concept of “Doing Culture”, the theoretical studies pursued in this course will be complemented by practical artistic and cultural aspects in laboratory spaces on site and reflected upon from a didactic perspective.

The course is being offered in the context of the “Schwerpunkt Wissenschaft und Kunst (Focus on Science and Art) / Paris Lodron University of Salzburg and Mozarteum University Salzburg”.

Required reading

ANGERMANN, Klaus / BARTHELMES, Barbara: Die Idee des klingenden Raumes seit Satie. In: JOST, Ekkehard (ed.): Musik zwischen E und U
Schott, Mainz, London, New York, and Tokio 1984, pp. 107–126
SEITZ, Hanne: Räume im Dazwischen. Bewegung, Spiel und Inszenierung im Kontext ästhetischer Theorie und Praxis
Klartext, Essen 1996
SCHROER, Markus: Räume, Orte, Grenzen. Auf dem Weg zu einer Soziologie des Raums
Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 2006

SS 2007

“Doing Culture” Part II

As a continuation of the seminar “Doing Culture” in the WS 2006-2007, the course will be devoted to the discussion of various subjects related to the theme area “cultural philosophy – art – pedagogy”, this time focusing particularly on process-oriented cultural work in the form of performative practice. The raw materials developed in the interdisciplinary project “SpaceSoundBodyTheater” in the WS 2006/2007 (see Course 12.0005) will be evaluated, discussed in connection with conceptual parameters for performance work and, finally, used to create concepts for scenic work.

The course is being offered in the context of the “Schwerpunkt Wissenschaft und Kunst (Focus on Science and Art) of the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS) and the Mozarteum University Salzburg (MOZ)” and the course content is related to the interdisciplinary project taking place in the Catholic collegiate church (Kollegienkirche) in Salzburg.

Required reading

HÖRNING, Karl H. und REUTER, Julia (eds.): Doing Culture. Neue Positionen zum Verhältnis von Kultur und sozialer Praxis
Transcript, Bielefeld 2004

WS 2006–07

“Doing Culture” Part I Positions on the Relation between Culture and Social (Music and Dance) Practice

As a continuation of the “philosophical café” in the SS 2006, we will again engage in discussion of subjects related to the theme area “cultural philosophy – art – pedagogy”, this time focusing particularly on process-oriented cultural work (“Doing Culture”) as well as on its sociocultural relevance and its relevance for (music and dance) pedagogy.

The course is being offered in the context of the “Schwerpunkt Wissenschaft und Kunst” (Focus on Science and Art), a cooperation of the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg and the Mozarteum University Salzburg. The course content is related to an interdisciplinary project being carried out by the DanceMusicTheaterLaboratory of the Mozarteum University (see: Interdisciplinary Project).

The themes of the artistic performance work are in close dialogue with the text-oriented work in the “philosophical café”. The focus is on concepts that challenge the arts of today, on the one hand in order to question their sociopolitical relevance and on the other hand, at the performative level, in order to experiment with sociocultural practice as a theatrical form.

Required reading

HÖRNING, Karl H. und REUTER, Julia (eds.): Doing Culture. Neue Positionen zum Verhältnis von Kultur und sozialer Praxis
Transcript, Bielefeld 2004

01–13 September 2006

“Art as Device” – A Theory of Perception by Viktor Shklovsky Series of lectures and seminars held by Helmi Vent, guest teacher at the College of Music and Dance and the Mongolian University of Arts and Culture, September 1–13, 2006, Ulanbaatar (Mongolia)

The series of lectures and seminars revolved around the essay “Art as Device”, a theory of perception by the Russian literary critic Viktor Shklovsky, written in 1916. “This thing we call art exists in order to restore our perception of life, to enable us to feel things, to make a stone ‘stony’”, wrote Shklovsky. The remark refers to the intensification of the perception process, which, according to Shklovsky, is “an end in itself” and should be prolonged through the device of art that he calls “defamiliarization”.

In the music theater project “Strings in Conversation”, which was directly linked with this series of lectures and seminars, we explored the ramifications of this device of art through improvisations, and the experiences and insights that arose from our experiments, coupled with our study of Shklovsky's text, raised our awareness of its meaning.

As a supplement to the theoretic reflections from the seminar and the individual experiences of the artistic project practice, film documents from Helmi Vent’s performance work at the Mozarteum University Salzburg provided insights into artistic works that were developed in line with the main idea of Viktor Shklovsky’s theory.

Note:
The essay “Art as Device” (German: “Kunst als Verfahren”) was available to all participants in both the original Russian version and in the German translation. An interpreter was also on hand for the entire duration of the series of guest lectures and seminars.

Project Page: Strings in Conversation

Basic Reading

ŠKLOVSKIJ, Viktor: Die Kunst als Verfahren [1916]. In: Juri Striedter, Texte der russischen Formalisten, Vol. 1, München 1969, p. 3–35

SS 2006

A Different “Café for Socrates”

Following Marc Sautet’s model of philosophical practice (his “Café for Socrates”), we will engage in discussion of a variety of subjects ranging from philosophical anthropology to art to pedagogy. The course participants will propose the topics and prepare them for workshop discussions, one for each topic (i.e. one class period each).

The “Café”-Lab is open to students from all fields of study as well as to guests from Salzburg and elsewhere. Tea and coffee will be served, at first at the course location, later perhaps at other places as well.

Required reading

SAUTET, Marc: Ein Café für Sokrates. Philosophie für jedermann.
Translated into German from the French by Eva Moldenhauer
Winkler, Düsseldorf 2001

10 January 2006

Will you Play your Hurdy-Gurdy to my Songs? A Mobile Configuration of Questions at the End of Schubert’s Winterreise Lecture with video documentations, presented within the framework of the Ringvorlesung lecture series “Mobile Gefüge. Zum Verhältnis von Kunst und Wissenschaft im 19. Jahrhundert” (Mobile Configurations. On the Relationship between Art and Science in the 19th Century) during the 2005/2006 winter semester, as part of the cooperation Schwerpunkt Wissenschaft und Kunst ("Focus area Science&Art") being carried out by the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg and Mozarteum University Salzburg.

5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m
Venue: Faculty of Law of the University of Salzburg, Toskanatrakt, lecture hall 208

One of the bridges between present-day arts and science is the parameter of experimentalism, which was (re)discovered in the Romantic era. In the meantime, this parameter has brought a great deal of “mobility”, which is another way of saying potentiality, to the relationship between arts and science: open search processes, bifurcation with various options, categories of indeterminacy, imprecision and uncertainty. The resulting relativism has increasingly put the spotlight on phenomenology, in other words, on manifestations and the forms that they take.

The music and dance theater project Willst zu meinen Liedern Deine Leier drehn? (Will you Play your Hurdy-Gurdy to my Songs?), developed with students of Mozarteum University Salzburg in the academic year 1994/1995, is an example of such mobile processes. Excerpts from documentations on film enable us to see and hear divergencies in connection with the physical and audible socialization of the performers. In nearly all the scenes, the piece seeks possibilities for communication with the “other”, the cultural outsider, through body movement and sound.

Note: Willst zu meinen Liedern deine Leier drehn? – quoted from Der Leiermann by Wilhelm Müller and Franz Schubert, the last song in the poetry collection and Lieder cycle Winterreise of 1827

Project Page: Will you Play your Hurgy-Gurdy to my Songs?

WS 2005–06

Concepts of Identity – Examined and Questioned in the Context of Experimental Project Work

Identity – a construct? A legitimating formula for power interests? An “archetype of ideology” (T. W. Adorno)?

In the interplay between individualization and de-individualization, between self-determination and heteronomy, identity will be examined in connection with artistic and art pedagogy laboratory work (music and dance) from the perspective of temporary and dynamic conceptual designs for life, which have to be constantly reconstructed. The exploration of selected aspects of personal and interpersonal identity will be based, for example, on a consideration of the concepts of the “patchwork identity” (Heiner KEUPP), the “vagabond” identity (Zygmunt BAUMAN) and the “diversity of partial selves” (“Vielfalt der Teil-Selbste”) (Helga BILDEN).

Required reading

BAUMANN, Zygmunt: Vom Pilger zum Touristen – Postmoderne Identitätsprojekte
In: KEUPP, Heiner: Lust an der Erkenntnis: Der Mensch als soziales Wesen.
Sozialpsychologisches Denken im 20. Jahrhundert
Piper, Munich 1995, pp. 295–302
BILDEN, Helga: Das Individuum - ein dynamisches System vielfältiger Selbste
http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~huebner/Studium/ws0001_pollack_aest-kom/Helga_Bilden_-_Das_Individuum.pdf, summarized by Chri. Hübner, pp. 1–7
KEUPP, Heiner et al.: Identitätstheorien. Das Patchwork der Identitäten in der Spätmoderne
Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1999

SS 2005

Staging in the Context of Aesthetic Theory and Aesthetic Laboratories

“Staging” has become a central concept of our societal reality. In this course, in addition to looking at various approaches to the processes of staging (Martin SEEL, Dieter MERSCH, Erika FISCHER-LICHTE), stagings created by the instructor with the DanceMusicTheaterLaboratory at the University Mozarteum will be discussed and their specific parameters – from interactive impulse dramaturgy to the staging of non-staging – will be investigated on the basis of years of documentation work. These investigations will be supplemented by reflections on philosophical, sociocultural and sociopolitical aspects in the context of other open stagings. If the participants wish to do so, selected examples of event impulses will be used as a point of departure for scenic work in the form of short joint projects.

Required reading

FISCHER-LICHTE, Erika: Ästhetik des Performativen. Ch. 7.1 Inszenierung
Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 2004, pp. 318–332
MERSCH, Dieter: Ereignis und Aura. Ch. III „Vom Werk zum Ereignis“
Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 2002, pp. 157–244
SEEL, Martin: Inszenieren als Erscheinenlassen. Über die Reichweite eines Begriffs
In: FRÜCHTL, Josef: Ästhetik der Inszenierung
Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 2001, pp. 48–62

WS 2004–05

Performance as a Conceptual Design for Life and Society

In the search for an understanding of an anthropologically oriented art, the course takes up concepts of a broadly interpreted definition of art, a basic formula of human existence in which conceptual designs for society and life as a whole are defined, in the sense of practical philosophy, as art.
With regard to the interplay between aesthetics and existence, between art and science, and between cultural and social practice, a special focus will be placed on the question of the extent to which selected performance concepts can be fruitfully used in artistically oriented education and in aesthetic fields of practice.

Required reading

VENT, Helmi: Performance – Facetten von Lebensentwürfen
In: BASTIAN, Hans Günther / KREUTZ, Gunter: Musik und Humanität
Schott, Mainz 2003, pp. 89–106

WS 2003–04

Dance and Complex Culturalism

The course will follow the theme of the conference of the Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung (society for dance research) entitled Tanz Anders Wo – Tanz und komplexe Kulturalität“ being held at the Tanzquartier Wien from November 6 to 9, 2003 (s. notice posted at the Mozarteum University). Due to the integration of selected topics being dealt with at the aforementioned conference in Vienna, only students who also attend the conference may register for this course.
(Total length of stay in Vienna: Nov. 5–10, 2003)

From the conference brochure:
“Our experiences of space and time are becoming increasingly disengaged from traditional geographic and cultural contexts. As a result of migration, electronic communication and international tourism, identity is no longer defined only by a birthplace, but also by the journey that it makes through the world and its cultures. Traditions are gathered along the way, taken along, rethought and transformed. Differences are experienced and remembered, constructed and deconstructed. Dance, as a physical memory of this process, is a privileged medium.”

Required reading

KAROSS, Sabine / WELZIEN, Leonore (eds.): Tanz – Politik – Identität.
Jahrbuch Tanzforschung, vol. 11, published on behalf of the Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung
LIT Verlag Münster/Hamburg/London 2001

SS 2003

The “Expanded Work of Art” Positions in Art and Education

This course continues the exploration of Joseph Beuys’ “expanded concept of art” begun in the WS 2002/2003, this time in connection with the “Beuys-Symposion” being held from April 30 to May 4, 2003 in Achberg near Bodensee.

Oriented on the lectures of the symposium, the course will focus particularly on the following issues:

  • Positions of aesthetic and political education against the background of the “expanded concept of art”
  • Implications of Joseph Beuys’ “theory of sculpture” for art education and, analogously, for music and dance education
Required reading

SCHNEEDE, Uwe M.: Joseph Beuys – Die Aktionen
Hatje Verlag, Ostfildern 1994

WS 2002–03

“The Mystery Happens in the Main Railway Station” (Joseph Beuys) On the Anthropological Dimension of Art

In the search for an understanding of an anthropologically oriented art, this course follows up on the “expanded concept of art” (Joseph Beuys), a basic formula of existence in which conceptual designs for society and life as a whole are defined, in the sense of practical philosophy, as art.

Against this backdrop, the following central questions arise with respect to processes linking

  • art and human beings
  • art and science
  • cultural and social practice as open performance
  • art and art education.

With regard to the interplay between aesthetics and existence, a particular focus will be placed on sharpening awareness both of one’s own artistic practice and of the artistic practice (in music and dance) that is to be taught.

Required reading

HARLAN, Volker: Was ist Kunst?
Werkstattgespräch mit Joseph Beuys
Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1986

SS 2002

Art and its Function in the Education Process

If, in principle, art potentially exists in all of us – be it in the form of discovery, creation, interaction, interpretation, symbol production or lifestyle – the question arises as to how to prepare fields of encounter in which functions of art can be experienced and worked with. If, in addition, the numerous and varied functions of art can be brought into interplay in the context of education processes, there is a chance that a rich scope for new forms of creation and communication can be opened up.

In this connection, a pedagogy of the arts will ask about ways and means for constituting artistic education in processes and discourse.

Required reading

(Lecture) texts by developmental psychologists, education experts and music teachers who spoke on subjects related to the theme area "Art and its Function in the Education Process" at the convention "Musik und Mensch", March 7–9, 2002, at the Mozarteum University: Rolf Oerter, Horst Rumpf, Hans Günther Bastian, Wilfried Gruhn, Franz Niermann.

SS 2001

The Idea of the “Lebenskunstwerk“ Anthropological Aspects of Creative Work

After our exploration of the “Idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk in the 20th Century“ in 1999/2000, this course follows up on last year’s concluding discussion and leads into the concept of the “Lebenskunstwerk“ (life art work). While the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk ultimately has to do with the transformation and expansion of creative action into a social, anthropological sphere, the aesthetics of the Lebenskunstwerk explore life as a work of art itself. “When yellow flows into blue, it creates green. When art appears in life, you get life art... an art that grasps and permeates life, so that a new culture emerges“ (Paolo Bianchi, 1999). A central issue to be explored in the course is the extent to which Lebenskunst (life art), as ethical and aesthetic culture, can create new realities in our cultural sphere – especially sound-integrative and body-integrative realities.

Required reading

BIANCHI, Paolo: Lebenskunst als Real Life. Kunstforum, vol. 143, Jan./Feb. 1999

WS 2000–01

On the “Unknown” in Education Or: An Exercise in Socratic Teaching

There is nothing to be said against various and sundry teaching techniques, nor against a thorough discussion of objectives and content, nor against capably implemented methodical steps based on a well-thought-out lesson plan, nor against solid, specialized knowledge and skillfully mastered special techniques. Nevertheless... Didactic fitness constitutes only a part of the process of teaching and learning. This course deliberately focuses on the unknown and the unplanned as parameters of teaching processes. The ‘planned’ (!) exercises of this course will be able to develop their full effectiveness if we allow a state of not-knowing, an emptiness in our heads, that makes it impossible for us to be on the receiving end of any routine balls that tell us which methodological card we could draw next in the respective simulated ‘teaching’ situation. The lifebelts for our swimming exercises in unknown waters will be writings by various authors (above all Horst Rumpf) who encourage us to leave our emergency baggage on shore and endure the resultant supposed loss of assurance in order to encounter the unforeseen with both composure and attention. Our objective will be to let various parameters of ‘emptiness’ lead us to fruitful reflection and critical discussion of topical education issues.

Required reading

RUMPF, Horst: Belebungsversuche. Ausgrabungen gegen die Verödung der Lernkultur
Weinheim and Munich 1987

WS 2000–01

On the Culture of “Proficiency” Searching for Subject-Oriented Parameters

The course is being presented in partial cooperation with students of other fields of study at the University Mozarteum. The point of departure for our joint practical and theoretical work will be the vocal or instrumental proficiency of the individual participants on the basis of ‘learned’ techniques of singing and playing. Through suggestions made by the instructor, the respective techniques will be applied in expanded communicative contexts and made artistically manageable in correspondingly expanded aesthetic contexts. The processes of redirection

  • from a solo-performance-oriented activity to a partner-oriented, communicative activity, and
  • from a reproductive activity to a productive activity

are to be documented in written form by the participating students of the 2nd study section of the field of study “Music and Movement Education” under selected perspectives and reflected upon from a didactic perspective. To facilitate cooperation with students of different fields of study, the course is offered in compact form on two weekends (see above).

Required reading

MANTEL, Gerhard (ed.): Ungenutzte Potentiale. Wege zu konstruktivem Üben
Schott Verlag, Mainz 199

SS 2000

The Idea of Staging and Transforming Spaces

This course focuses on contemporary approaches to and central ideas about “space as a laboratory for occupation and transformation”, the main areas of emphasis being “music and dance in the public space” and “the mediatized space” in their various social, economic and political aspects. In order to understand and classify the aesthetic backgrounds of the aforementioned approaches, several 20th-century predecessors of current manifestations of the occupation and transformation of spaces will be presented. The central questions dealt with in the course will be:

  • What conception of art lies behind the ideas about occupying and transforming space?
  • What functions are assumed by public and mediatized space in the context of music and dance or music and dance education?
  • What didactic significance can these interdisciplinary concepts have for music and dance education, and with what specific approaches can teachers react to the developments that have been presented?

The orientation of the course as well as the aesthetic and didactic discussion will be based on selected texts and on audio and video examples (a list of reading and audiovisual material will be provided in class).

Project Page: In Endless Halls

Required reading

FOUCAULT, Michel: Andere Räume
In: BARCK, Karlheinz et al. (eds.): Aisthesis. Wahrnehmung heute oder Perspektiven einer anderen Ästhetik
Reclam, Leipzig 1990, pp. 34–46

WS 1999–2000

The Idea of the “Gesamtkunstwerk” in the 20th Century

The debate about the term Gesamtkunstwerk, accompanied by controversy over the purpose and self-conception of such an art form, has intensified since 1960. The viewpoints come from a variety of schools of thought and conceptions, ranging from “total theater” through “action art”, “performance art”, “audiovisual experiments” and “multimedia art” to the renewal of the societal organism in the sense of Josef Beuys’ “social sculpture”. Here the term Gesamtkunstwerk has very little to do with a “synthesis of the arts”; rather, it refers to a transformation and expansion of creative action into the social, anthropological sphere that undertakes to shape society as the Gesamtkunstwerk through artistic means. The extent to which the aforementioned manifestations in the context of broadly conceived art terms can be fruitfully used in artistically oriented education, including music and dance education, will be a central theme of this course.

Required reading

SZEEMANN, Harald and SCHEEL, Walter (eds.): Der Hang zum Gesamtkunstwerk.
Aarau and Frankfurt a.M. 1983

WS 1998–99

Modern Trends in Central European Art

Lecture (Postgraduate Study Course)
Teaching language: English

The lecture aims to point out:

  • innovations and movements of the early twentieth century (especially “Dada” and Surrealism) as important sources of contemporary art in Europe
  • art movements in Europe and their sociological, political and cultural contexts after the Second World War
  • aesthetic ideas and paradigms in selected phenomena of contemporay art (settings, determinants, elements and materials, forms and structures; compositional techniques and practices; communicative components) selected works and concepts of artists (musicians, dancers, painters etc.)
  • Relations between the arts; between art and science; between art, science and culture; between art and art education
Required reading

HUXLEY, Michael and WITTS, Noel (ed.): The Twentieth-Century Performance Reader
Routledge, 1996

WS 1998–99

Mauricio Kagel – Music, Movement, Theater, Film

Throughout his creative career, Mauricio Kagel composed, in his stage and film productions, heterogeneous mixtures of sound, movement, action, materials and light sources. This heterogeneity of the setting corresponds with Kagel’s aesthetic viewpoint, which sees “contradictions and misunderstandings as something tremendously creative”. Such an aesthetic of contradiction tends to mistrust everything that is finished, unchanging or representative, and this will be a central focus in this course.

With his concept of “decomposition”, Kagel proposes a re-evaluation of the music of the past, not in order to negate historical music or art, but to reinterpret values and structures of the past, the ultimate goal being reflection (also from the didactic perspective). In this respect, Kagel’s works, particularly his writings and his film compositions about cultural, societal and psychological problems, reflect the rapprochements between scientific and artistic thinking that are characteristic of our time.

The orientation of the course as well as the aesthetic and didactic discussion will be based on selected original texts and films by Mauricio Kagel.

Required reading

KAGEL, Mauricio and KLÜPPELHOLZ, Werner: Kagel ... /1991. Ostfildern 1998
SCHNEBEL, Dieter: Mauricio Kagel. Musik Theater Film. Cologne 1970

24–28 February 1997 – Block Seminar

Concepts and Designs for ‘Space-Sound-Body’ in the 20th Century

The block seminar gives the participants an opportunity to become familiar with concepts and basic ideas relating to the subject of the course and – depending on each participant’s preference – to choose one concept, try out the first part of it in practice, and explore it didactically. In addition to new trends and manifestations of contemporary space-sound-body art, several precursors from the first half of the 20th century will be introduced (e.g., the idea of the acoustic furnishing of interior spaces [Erik Satie], the idea of different types of sound events in motion [Charles Ives], the concept of moving sound masses [Edgar Varèse], etc.)

The block seminar is open to students of all departments of the Mozarteum University.

Required reading

ANGERMANN, Klaus/BARTHELMES, Barbara: Die Idee des klingenden Raumes seit Satie
In: JOST, Ekkehard (ed.): Musik zwischen E und U, pp. 107–126
Mainz, London, New York, Tokio 1984
SCHNEBEL, Dieter: Anschläge – Ausschläge. Texte zur Neuen Musik
Chapters: Klang und Körper, pp. 37–49, and Sichtbare Musik, pp. 262–300
München, Wien 1993
VARÈSE, Edgard: Die Befreiung des Klangs
In: DANUSER, Hermann (ed.): Amerikanische Musik seit Charles Ives, pp. 223–235
Laaber 1987

SS 1997 – Seminar and Interdisciplinary Project

Mauricio Kagel: “Sur Scène (1959–60). Chamber music theatre piece in one act” Concept, scenographic compositional elements (Kagel) and learning parts of scenes from “Sur Scène” (Direction: Seminar- and project participants)

“Sur Scène” by Mauricio Kagel is a type of Gesamtkunstwerk, a combination of sound, word, movement, cabaret elements, and chains of association that tie in with surrealistic stylistic means; critique (of critique). Behavior is transformed into musical compositions, music into actions. Tonal is linked with non-tonal, with set pieces, events, backdrops, etc.

As a mandatory requirement for completing the combined seminar / interdisciplinary project, the participants choose between

  • Learning a self-selected part of a score from “Sur Scène” with the course group and where necessary guests; or
  • A written compilation of a concept for a scenic piece based on the compositional structures from “Sur Scène”.
Work material

Score: Mauricio Kagel: “Sur Scène. Chamber music theatre piece in one act”. C. F. Peters Musikverlag. Frankfurt · Leipzig · London · New York 1963

SS 1996 – Seminar and Exercise

Phenomenological sketches “Things and ‘non’-Things” by Vilém Flusser A training of perception and sensuality

The seminar focuses on studying the collected essays in the work by Vilém Flusser from 1993, “Dinge und Undinge” (Things and ‘Non’-Things). The cover text calls Flusser’s essays, “A training of perception and sensuality without solid ground as free, fascinating play.”  

Looking at things and ‘non’-things as though seeing them for the first time is a method, as the cover text goes on to say, to discover their hitherto unnoticed aspects. “It is a powerful and productive method,” says Flusser, “but it demands strict discipline and can easily go wrong. The discipline comprises, basically, a forgetting, a disregarding of the familiarization with the seen thing, that is, all experiences with and knowledge of the thing. This is difficult because, as is generally known, it is easier to learn than to forget.”

The seminar integrates practical exercises for trying out these “productive methods” and defines itself as stimulus for all who are interested in a training of perception “without solid ground.”

Basic Reading

FLUSSER, Vilém: Dinge und Undinge. Phänomenologische Skizzen. München, Wien 1993

26–29 February 1996 – Block Seminar

Interdisciplinary action and career fields and new alliances in artistic and art pedagogical practices

The seminar for students in their graduate studies focuses on art practices that treat music, dance, and theater arts under the new social, cultural, and societal conditions of a current information society. In our society, in which restricted fields of vision are expanding ever more rapidly to global informational spaces, extremely diverse media play an essential role in the construction of artistic reality. Both mapping of media and expansion of overlapping artistic and cultural competencies will be among the next decade’s artistic practices.

The seminar takes up these developments and focuses on the following questions:

  • What new fields of work do these practices based on an expanded concept of art, open up for artistically oriented educators?
  • In what way can the interdisciplinary and intercultural competence that will be demanded in the future, be supported/promoted and expanded for artists and art educators? 
Work material

Concepts and programmes of various cultural institutions as well as educational and training institutions in the German-speaking countries

WS 1994–95

Art studies and university policies

Just as concepts of cultural and educational policy are located within the charged field of socio-political trends, every individual who either teaches or studies at a university also moves within the complex relations of such concepts, on the one hand, and organizational and administrative authorities for education, training, and instruction, on the other.

The seminar aims to elucidate what is politically prescribed to students at a department of an Austrian university of the arts in terms of laws, regulations, guidelines, etc., from ‘outside’; the authorities and factors that influence educational/training decisions; and in which ways it is possible to influence existing situations and regulations with the goal of supporting, reinforcing or changing them from ‘within’.

Final Qualification: The so-called scientifically-oriented seminar paper will be the exception with the rule being a mixed form of creating texts, interpretational work, taking on diverse roles in discursive processes, evaluation of selected seminar contents, and drafts of alternative concepts on existing programs and regulations.
It is also possible to attend the course out of personal interest, without the intention of earning a qualification, as part of a quasi-‘political team’.

Basic Reading

Kunsthochschul-Studiengesetz (KHStG) 1991. Österreichische Studienvorschriften, Textedition Volume 15. Ed.: Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung. Vienna 1991
Kunsthochschul-Organisationsgesetz (KHOG) 1991. Organisationsrecht der österreichischen Hochschulen, Textedition Volume 1. Ed.: Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung. Vienna 1991

SS 1994

John Cage – Selected Criteria of Music Composition

In the 20th century, the concept of composition underwent an intense process of evolution and transition, which at times gained such momentum that it seemed about to spin out of control. A primary driver of this process was John Cage, who substantially expanded the meaning of the terms composition and composition material and redefined them against the background of previously uncommon philosophical concepts.

The theoretical part of this course will examine the implications of Cage's new, broad definition of composition material insofar as they relate to artistic and pedagogical studies at a university of the arts. In a second part of the course, devoted to artistic practice, selected parameters of composition will form the basis for a performance project in a workshop format.

On 13 October 1994, the project will become part of the celebrations for the opening of the academic year 1994–1995 at the Orff Institute of the Mozarteum. Composition ideas: John Cage. Project curator: Helmi Vent.

Project Page: Opening

Basic Reading

CAGE, John: Lecture. In: DU – Das Kulturmagazin. Issue 5, pp. 18-23, Zurich 1991
CAGE, John: Silence. Lectures and Writings by John Cage. New Hampshire (1931) 1961
CHARLES, Daniel: John Cage. In: BARCK, Karlheinz et al. (eds.): Aisthesis. Wahrnehmung heute oder Perspektiven einer anderen Ästhetik. Leipzig 1990, pp. 336-353
KOSTELANETZ, Richard: John Cage im Gespräch zu Musik und geistigen Fragen unserer Zeit. Cologne 1989

WS 1993–94

Total Art: Environment – Happening – Performance

Since the 1960s, we have seen, in the North American happenings movement as well as in the provocative European precursors of the Dada movement, Italian futurism, and the actions of the surrealists, a change in direction towards a tradition of performance practice that combines art and practical life.

The seminar focusses, on the one hand, on the aesthetic structures and political and social functions of Total Art in their interdisciplinary juxtaposition and combination of (not only) artistic forms of expression and, on the other hand, on the special attempts of representatives of the Total Art movement to deal with reality. Whether these attempts can provide impulses for artistically oriented teaching and learning today will be discussed towards the end of the seminar.

The seminar will begin with a visit to the Dada exhibition currently being presented at Kunsthalle München (see separate notice).

Basic Reading

BECKER, Jürgen and VOSTELL, Wolf (eds.): Happenings. Reinbek bei Hamburg 1965
HENRI, Adrian: Total Art. Environments, Happenings and Performance. London 1974
JAPPE, Elisabeth: Performance Ritual Prozess. Handbuch der Aktionskunst in Europa. Munich, New York 1993
SCHILLING, Jürgen: Aktionskunst. Lucerne 1978

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