The public lecture series continues to discuss various approaches and critique within the field
of Transcultural Studies. It aims to pursue and deepen the four intertwined thematic strands of ecologies, economies, histories
of European imperialism and colonialism, as well as practices of critique and resistance in image, sound, text, and translation
processes which had been introduced in the spring term.
Guest lectures will also focus on bringing
together disciplines and cultures of knowing and learning that are often treated as being separate from each other when they
are not. Topics include ecology and emancipatory pedagogy, environmental history and fascism, sound (production) and postcolonial
theory, as well as critical infrastructure studies.
Next Event:19.10.2022
17
Uhr
Auditorium VZA 7
„Wie ich höre“ – Populäre Musik und Sound Studies als
repräsentationskritisches
Theorieprojekt
Guest Lecture by Prof.
Dr. Johannes S. Ismaiel-Wendt
Johannes Ismaiel-Wendt argues that popular music is postcolonial music.
Whenever we listen to music, we interlace sounds, melodies, rhythms, and instrumentation – consciously or unconsciously –
with political maps of the world or maps of cultural representation. Popular music emerges against the backdrop of colonial
logics and relates to them in one way or the other. But popular music isn’t just postcolonial background music, it also functions
as overtures that either introduce colonial fantasies or open up spaces of resistance. Before we think about complex concepts
such as political theory, critiques of representational forms or transcultural formations, Ismaiel-Wendt’s lecture tunes us
in to very subtle sounds beyond all the lines spit loudly.
During the lecture and the subsequent listening and interpretation
sessions, we will listen to intros in popular music and opening tracks of albums. A small collection of samples will be created,
which we listen to according to the thesis that the very first seconds and beats of a track – not only on the level of lyrics
– are always already about determining positions somehow: „Menschen wie wir und keine Menschen wie wir. Der Ton der VerAnderung“
(Sabine Hark 2021: 60).
