Deutsche Version weiter unten!
This is the documentation of the meetings at 15th and 16th Jan. 2024 on which we talked the first time about the research project vocal ecotism.
The recording of my English presentation you find here:
I don't want to reproduce my presentation at the meeting in a full written version here! Just one or two sentences: After a few general thoughts on the nature of the vocal ecotism research, I presented a graphic that can be used to visualise the various fields in which the research can take place. The three circles in the centre are relevant here. The fields are called reflection, practice and action.
In the second part of the lecture, I was interested in narrowing down the concept of art for this research. In short, I understand art on the one hand as an inner attitude that goes hand in hand with a poetic understanding of the world and becomes a way of life. From this attitude, it is then a matter of becoming artistically active. In the background is the thesis that there was a pre-modern relationship to the world that can be called poetic and that retreated into the realm of art in the era of modernity. Is it our task as artists today to ensure that this understanding of the world and people becomes common again?
In the discussion about the three fields of research that I presented: Reflection, Practice and Action there were a couple of very important contributions that I want to enlist in a brief form. It is not in the recording.
- There was the question if Kozana Lucca, the RHT-member who included ecological questions into her work had any contact to Pauline Oliveros and her “deep listening”. I don´t know but Oliveros project that is still going on is surely something worth to look at. Her idea of listening in the world has similarities to what we have in mind. But this needs more and deeper investigation. (link! Book!)
- When I talked about practice I mentioned the possibility to work with the four or five elements as a starting point. We discussed the risk that is included in this kind of work. It is easy to fall into the trap of something like shamanism. I do agree that we should be careful to go into this direction. Although Shamanism is a fascinating phenomenon I am more interested in finding ways of relating to the world and maybe the elements that are adequate to our times. One way of avoiding the trap is for me, to be aware of the fact that the elements also suffer from the current situation. Water, earth and air are polluted, they suffer from what has done to them by humankind. There is nothing like the pure elements any longer – or only as a metaphor.
- There was an exercise mentioned that Enrique Pardo has offered in a workshop. He invited people to work with some material but not in the usual way that we work with the things and objects and dominate them but to play with the idea that things dominate us! This has to do with one of the aspects that I like to emphazise. Even as artists we often have the idea that things, objects and sounds etc. are mere material that we are able to use in our art work. This is a capitalistic form of understanding the world and a form that I would like to overcome.
- “How do I live with the world?” There was the proposal to start from this question into an artistic research to find a concept for an “artwork”. This seems to me a very promising idea. To take this question and ask myself rather than ask in a general way of how we live in the world. Let´s continue with this idea!
- “For me art in relationship to ecology is mainly not to be alone!” this was another important contribution. Not to be alone as a point from where we start. This indicates very beautifully that the idea of vocal ecotism is also looking for support for us, for the artists who feel the need to be active in this field of ecology.
- When I talked about the idea that every sound in the world – not only the sounds made by humans or animals – are singing, the question arose how we want to understand the difference between natural sounds and non-natural sounds like urban sounds for instance. In this discussion the name John Cage came up who is one of the pioneers of the open way of listening to every sound. For me one of the tasks for vocal ecotism will be to overcome the differentiation between nature and, well, something else. I am looking towards a vocal art that is not working with this differentiation. But listens to every sound as something that is singing.
After the second part of my talk in which I tried to articulate two meanings of art (as a life form and as a form of activity) a couple of comments and questions came up:
- There was the question where I would draw the line between art and meditation. Something to consider more. For me meditation is a certain practice that maybe has some familiarity with certain artistic practices. But meditation comes from another field. I would rather not call art a form of meditation or the other way round. But this is only my personal view.
- There was the question if I am looking for some sort of harmony in a time in which confrontation would be the necessary thing to do. Again a big question. For myself it is clear that harmony is definitely not what I am looking for but I also do have my doubts if confrontation is what helps us on our artistic paths. Once again my personal view that has to be questioned and discussed.
- We talked about the need to overcome the thinking that art is just connected to culture and not so much to nature. In my words I say that we have to overcome this distinction between nature and culture that has been fundamental for at least the last 300 years in the West and find a new way of understanding our relationship to the world.
- Another point that came up was, that finding the artistic path is a very individual question. We need the individual view on things and not only the general or philosophical.
- In the end the issue arose that our relationship to nature is changing at the moment very much. One of our participants said that he for a long time had a relationship to nature that was mainly positive. He liked to be in the nature, there was love in the space. But now this is changing. He feels a conflict between himself of being part of nature and the nature outside who seem to start to be against “me”. There is a sort of fear now. I think this is a very interesting and important observation and something that we can maybe use as a starting point for an artistic intervention. Definitely we can talk more about our feelings in relation to what we use to call nature.
Now I give you a short excerpt of the discussion we had at our meeting on Tuesday 16th Jan. in Köln.
During the meeting, there were some important contributions from those present, which I would like to list here.
- In the discussion about the question of what it could mean that the whole world sings, reference was made to Joachim Ernst Behrendt and his book "The World is Sound". His book certainly has a lot to teach us on the subject. At the same time, it is important for me that I don't need a sound cosmology for the artistic research project vocal ecotism. That would be asking too much, so to speak. There are very differentiated sound cosmologies, for example in ancient India - to which Behrendt refers - but in my opinion they "explain" more than we need for our purposes. The poetic relationship to the world that I keep talking about and that I seek for myself and my work is an inner attitude, but not a cosmology! The difference is important. I am looking for an attitude that allows me to develop a more respectful and possibly healing relationship with the world.
- The difference between song and noise arises in the poetic relationship to the world in the ear! In addition, situations, atmospheres, textures etc. can also be heard. The beautiful term "the poetic ear" came up in conversation!
- After I had spoken about the fact that modern art in general, but also vocal art in the tradition of Wolfsohn/Hart, is part of modernism, which has also produced the destructive forces that we are dealing with today, the important fact was pointed out that Wolfsohn and his approach to a vocal avant-garde also emerged from a crisis, namely from his experiences in the First World War. The sense of crisis surrounding this war was a kind of catalyst for art as a whole. Could it be that this is also a point of reference for us, who are living in a different but also very serious crisis today?
- The topic of the role of art in early cultures and in capitalism was then touched on. Did art emerge from a surplus, a surplus of time, potential, etc. and is it this surplus that has provided the impetus in the capitalist emergence of art as an independent field, of which the question is then how it can be kept going? There were different views on this. From the internal perspective of the early artists, the production of art was probably more a necessity resulting from the relationship and understanding of the world that these people cultivated.
- Finally, there was a very lively discussion about whether we needed to try to get big enough with a project like vocal ecotism to have any real impact at all. For me and some of the others present, this idea tended to activate hopelessness. But the question is of course very justified. How do we deal with probably not being big enough?
One of the dangers of large-scale actions is that they can immediately be absorbed into the larger system of art and thus lose their intended effect.
- I provided an answer to these questions in the blog post "Hope for change?", where I put forward the theory that there are also tipping points on a social level that, when reached, change the system. It is not possible to say when the tipping point for an ecological turnaround will be reached, but every contribution helps to get closer to it.
- This meeting took place at the same time as a large anti-right-wing demonstration was taking place in Cologne and some of the participants were considering going. We are currently facing these conflicting priorities. On the one hand, we feel the urgency to show our colours, so to speak, and at the same time we are aware of the quality of togetherness in a group like stimmfeld, which can give us strength and energy.
- On the subject of the position of artists in the world, a distinction was made between being a mouthpiece and being a transit station.
Deutsche Version:
Das ist die Dokumentation unseres Treffens am 16.1.24. in Köln, wo wir zum ersten Mal über vocal ecotism gesprochen haben.
Ich möchte meinen Vortrag während des Treffens hier nicht in aller Ausführlichkeit schriftlich wiedergeben, sondern verweise auf die etwas gekürzte Aufnahme:
Nach ein paar allgemeinen Gedanken zum Charakter der Recherche vocal ecotism habe ich eine Grafik vorgestellt, mit der man sich ein Bild machen kann von den verschiedenen Feldern, auf denen die Recherche vonstatten gehen kann. Dafür sind die drei Kreise in der Mitte relevant. Die Bereiche heißen Reflexion, Praxis, Aktion.
Im zweiten Teil des Vortrages ging es mir um eine Eingrenzung des Begriffs Kunst für diese Recherche.
Kurz gesagt verstehe ich Kunst einerseits als eine innere Haltung, die mit einem poetischen Weltverständnis einhergeht und zu einer Lebensform wird. Aus dieser Haltung heraus geht es dann darum, künstlerisch aktiv zu werden. Im Hintergrund steht die These, dass es ein vormodernes Weltverhältnis gegeben hat, das man poetisch nennen kann und das sich in der Moderne in den Bereich der Kunst zurückgezogen hat. Ist es unsere Aufgabe als Kunstschaffende heute, dafür zu sorgen, dass dieses Verständnis von Welt und Mensch wieder zum allgemeinen wird?
Während des Treffens hat es einige wichtige Beiträge von den Anwesenden gegeben, die ich hier auflisten möchte.
- In der Diskussion um die Frage, was es heißen könnte, dass die ganze Welt singt, kam der Hinweis auf Joachim Ernst Behrendt und sein Buch „Die Welt ist Klang“. Da gibt es sicher einiges zu dem Thema zu lernen. Zugleich ist für mich wichtig, dass ich für das künstlerische Rechercheprojekt vocal ecotism keine Klangkosmologie benötige. Das wäre sozusagen zu viel verlangt. Es gibt ja sehr ausdifferenzierte Klangkosmologien wie z.B. im alten Indien – auf die sich Behrendt ja bezieht – aber meines Erachtens wird da mehr „erklärt“ als wir für unsere Zwecke brauchen. Das poetische Weltverhältnis, von dem ich immer wieder spreche und das ich für mich und meine Arbeit suche, ist eine innere Haltung, aber keine Kosmologie! Der Unterschied ist wichtig. Ich suche nach einer Haltung, die es erlaubt, ein respektvolleres und womöglich heilendes Verhältnis zur Welt zu entwickeln.
- Der Unterschied zwischen Gesang und Geräusch entsteht bei dem poetischen Weltverhältnis im Ohr! Darüber hinaus können auch Situationen, Atmosphären, Texturen usw. gehört werden. Im Gespräch fiel der schöne Begriff „das poetische Ohr“!
- Nachdem ich darüber gesprochen habe, dass die moderne Kunst im Allgemeinen, aber auch die Stimmkunst in der Tradition von Wolfsohn/Hart Teil der Moderne ist, die eben auch die zerstörerischen Kräfte hervorgebracht hat, mit denen wir es heute zu tun haben, wurde auf den wichtigen Umstand hingewiesen, dass auch Wolfsohn und sein Ansatz einer stimmlichen Avantgarde aus einer Krise hervorgegangen ist, nämlich aus seinen Erfahrungen im 1. Weltkrieg. Das Krisengefühl rund um diesen Krieg war ja für die gesamte Kunst eine Art Katalysator. Könnte es sein, dass auch darin ein Anknüpfungspunkt für uns liegt, die wir heute zwar in einer anders gearteten, aber ebenfalls sehr ernsthaften Krise leben?
- Im Anschluss wurde das Thema der Rolle der Kunst in frühen Kulturen und im Kapitalismus gestreift. Ist die Kunst aus einem Surplus, einem Überschuss an Zeit, Potential etc. entstanden und ist es dieses Surplus, das in der kapitalistischen Entstehung der Kunst als eigenständigem Bereich, von dem dann die Frage ist, wie er am Laufen gehalten werden kann, den Antrieb gegeben hat? Dazu gab es unterschiedliche Ansichten. Aus der Binnensicht der frühen Künstler war die Kunstproduktion vermutlich eine Notwendigkeit, die sich aus dem Verhältnis und Verständnis der Welt ergeben hat, das diese Menschen pflegten.
- Zum Schluss gab es noch eine sehr lebhafte Diskussion darüber, ob wir mit einem Projekt wie vocal ecotism versuchen müssten, groß genug zu werden, um überhaupt eine echte Wirkung hervorzurufen. Diese Vorstellung hat bei mir und einigen anderen Anwesenden eher Hoffnungslosigkeit aktiviert. Doch die Frage hat natürlich ihre große Berechtigung. Wie damit umgehen, wahrscheinlich nicht groß genug zu sein?
Eine Gefahr, die bei den großen Aktionen besteht, ist, damit sofort in das große System Kunst vereinnahmt zu werden und dadurch eine eigentlich beabsichtigte Wirkung wieder zu verlieren.
- Eine Antwort auf diese Fragen habe ich in dem Blogbeitrag „Hoffnung auf Veränderung?“ gegeben, wo ich die These vorstelle, dass es auch auf sozialer Ebene Tippingpoints gibt, die, wenn sie erreicht wurden, das System verändern. Wann der Tippingpoint für eine ökologische Wende errreicht wird, kann man nicht sagen, aber jeder Beitrag hilft, ihm näher zu kommen.
- Diese Diskussion fand statt vor dem Hintergrund, dass zur gleichen Zeit wie unser Treffen in Köln eine große Demo gegen Rechts stattfand und einige Teilnehmende überlegt hatten, dorthin zu gehen. In diesem Spannungsfeld stehen wir gerade. Einerseits fühlen wir die Dringlichkeit, sozusagen Flagge zu zeigen und zugleich wissen wir um die Qualität der Zusammengehörigkeit in einer Gruppe wie stimmfeld, die Kraft und Energie geben kann.
- Zum Thema der Position von Kunstschaffenden in der Welt wurde die Unterscheidung gemacht zwischen Sprachrohr sein und Durchgangsstation sein.
Wenn du die Beiträge der Diskussion vom online-Treffen am Montag 15. Jan. nachlesen willst, empfehle ich, in den englischsprachigen Teil dieses Blogbeitrages zu wechseln und zur Not die Texte mit deepl. ins Deutsche zu übersetzen!
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