Time to Listen 2023. An Open Space on Sustainability in Contemporary Music

The Academy of Arts and inm/field notes are welcoming participants to the second part of the symposium Time to Listen – Sustainability in Contemporary Music. Through open discussions, expert presentations, and artistic contributions, the symposium will explore issues surrounding the knowledge and agency within music and sound, and the extent to which engagement with sustainability influences the practice of composing and performing music.

In an Open Space format, the conference brings together artists, curators, activists from the field of contemporary music, and sustainability experts to rethink our relationships with each other and the environment, as well as to develop new visions for the future through the means of contemporary music. The conference provides an opportunity to gain knowledge, form new networks, and launch initiatives.

While discussions about sustainability and culture often focus on reducing the negative impact of the sector, this year’s “Time to Listen” conference will centre on the aesthetic dimensions of artistic engagement with the topic and the unique potential of music to have a positive impact on social change. The symposium will also examine the extent to which listening is a condition for a deep understanding and engagement with the environment. Furthermore, it will address the role and responsibility of art in sustainability and pose the necessity of a global perspective to answer these questions.

On the first day – in addition to sound walks and tours with presentations on sound installations by David Monacchi, Frau von Da, Jacob Kirkegaard, Susan Ibarra, Claudia Gonzáles Godoy, Marcus Maeder, and the Acoustic Ecology Lab – there will be open discussions with artists on the topics of Artistic Practice Between Community, Science, and Aesthetics and Autonomy of Art and Political Engagement.

On the second day, the symposium will continue with an Open Space, where open discussions and workshops will address the central themes and questions of the symposium. 

Programme

Saturday, 19 August 2023

10 am
Arrival and registration

10:45 am
Welcome: Johanna Keller, programme officer at the Akademie der Künste, Julia Gerlach, Katharina Ortmann

11 am
Sabine Vogel: Tuning-in

12 pm
Marcus Maeder: soil, sonification
Talk

2–2:45 pm
Exhibition Tour 1
FrauVonDa, Jacob Kirkegaard, Daniel Rothman

3–3:45 pm
Open exchange of ideas
Artistic practice between science and aesthetics; moderation: Kirsten Reese

4 pm, Studio
Concert Rain Forests, Loss of Sound and Sound Memories

5:30–6:30 pm
Exhibition Tour 2
Winfried Ritsch and Peter Ablinger, Susie Ibarra, Claudia González Godoy

6:30–7:30 pm
Open exchange of ideas
Artistic autonomy, community work and political engagement; moderation: Kirsten Reese

Sunday, 20 August 2023

10 am
Arrival and registration