Speculative Activism
(2017) | Two Whispering Wall sound-installations at soundgallery ohrenhoch, performing two separate audio-works
ICH WEISS NICHT (I don’t know)
(2016) | Audioinstallation, 4:00 min. in loop
I think of doubt not as an absence of knowing, but rather as another form of knowing; an un-knowing, or dis-knowledge, a pre-stage of knowing, or maybe even a multi-knowledge (after all, it contains lots of yet unknown knowledge). It is a liminal phase, one you shouldn’t fear or try to fill with certain knowledge as quickly as possible, but one that you can use to get ahead, to get somewhere you would never had gotten to if you had only known, instead of un-known.
Ich betrachte Zweifel nicht als Abwesenheit von Wissen, sondern eher als eine andere Art von Wissen; ein Nicht-Wissen, eine Vorphase des Wissens, oder vielleicht sogar ein Multi-Wissen (schließlich hat es eine Menge noch unbekannten Wissens in sich). Es ist eine liminale Phase, die man nicht fürchten oder so schnell wie möglich mit bestimmtem Wissen füllen sollte. Vielmehr kann man diese nutzen, um weiter zu kommen, irgendwohin zu geraten, wohin man nicht gekommen wäre, wenn man nur gewusst hätte, statt nicht-gewusst.
DEDUCTION (Deduktion)
(2014) | Audioinstallation. Stück für zwei Violinisten und Flüsterwand,
7:55 min.
A violin is a very specific instrument. Each violin is different, each note unique. A violin often has one or more notes that sound bad, or need a lot of effort to sound good, called wolf tones. Violinists have a personal relationship with their instrument and with each note: some notes are dearly loved, others can be truly hated. The piece Deduction consists of just one note, played by two violinists. One of them considers this note to be the absolut favorite. The other however hates this note intensely.
Eine Geige ist ein sehr spezifisches Instrument. Jede Geige ist anders, jeder Ton verschieden. Oft hat eine Geige ein oder mehrere Töne, die schlecht klingen oder nur mit sehr viel Mühe gut klingen: sogenannte Wolfstöne. Jeder Violinist hat eine persönliche Beziehung zu seiner Geige und zu jedem Ton: manche Töne werden sehr geliebt, manche aber auch gehasst. Das Stück Deduction besteht aus nur einem Ton. Dieser wird von zwei Violinisten gespielt und ist dabei der absolute Favorit des einen, wird aber von dem anderen zutiefst gehasst.
Speculative Activism
Sound Activism is a contradiction in terms. To be able to listen, I have to stop doing things. As long as I am active, I don’t listen. I may think I do, but I don’t. Listening is passive, not active.
Activism in itself is a contradiction as well. When I try to actively change the present into a future, I’m trying to build something new using the material from the old. I’m trying to find a solution from within the parameters of the problem. That won’t work: rethinking the future from the present simply means extending that present, preventing what could be the future from happening. Changing the present and calling it the future does not work either. Future won’t have it. That’s why revolutions devour their children: when future comes, past goes.
Time is relative. But I can only recognize this relativity from outside the system I am in. The same goes for the present: I need to not be in the present to see its relativity. I cannot change the present to make a better future. I cannot change the future either, because I am not in it. If I want a better future, I must stop being in the present.
The only way for change to happen, is to stop doing what I am doing. I have to let go. This is what I do as an artist on a daily basis: leaving the old, finding the new. My work shows what I don’t (or at least didn’t) know. When past goes, future comes.
Location:
Geräuschladen ohrenhoch
Weichselstrasse 49, 12045 Berlin – Neukölln
