Tripping on Organ-Ologies
Organology' is a term from biology and musicology alike and denotes the study and exploration of both musical instruments and the structure and function of organs.
In this project module we develop and play - play and develop - develop while playing - and play developing instruments. What are and can instruments actually be? Technologies, practices, means, tools, extensions, sensors and transformers of conceptual and physical kind - musical/artistic, cosmological and scientific - researching and oblivious. Can instrumentalities expand our human perception and scope of action in a way that make our grasp of ‘being-one-part-of-many’ processes and shared habitats grow?
Methodically we move in the broad spectrum of activating and using our own bodies and body parts as instruments, as well as experimenting with fragmentary parts of musical-instruments, instrument principles and materials. Central is also the examination of choreographic and somatic principles. We work theoretically and practically.
The aim is to conceive our own and/or idiosyncratic instruments from the process of mutual analysis and playing, and then start to try them out resp. realize them.
Teaching in the project module will take place together with composer and artist Bnaya Halperin-Kaddari. Another guest in the semester will be the sound artist Katrin Emler (katrinem), who will create a workshop day on bodies as instruments and perception choreographies. Directly after the lecture-free period, an intensive examination and practical introduction to the construction of microphones and advanced sensors as instruments is planned in a block of several days with the experimental, electronic artist Víctor Mazón Gardoqui.
Instructor: Prof. Kerstin Ergenzinger