Sounds of the Living
Listening
session of the audio papers by the students of the Master programme Studies in Art and Culture for the
seminar Sonic Thinking (Kristina Pia Hofer), followed by a concert of Conny Frischauf in
the framework of their AIL residency.
The series of Sounds of the Living at the Otto Wagner
Kassenhalle explores the concept of living matter and questions the notion of nature.
Our understanding of nature has changed over time, as has the soundscape on planet Earth. Natural sounds of abiotic
elements such as wind, water or earth movements were thus continuously augmented by the sounds of living organisms like humans
and further their technology. With these sound performances we want to take a closer look at our surroundings and soundscapes
of today.
"Third nature" – as Anna Tsing suggests in The Mushroom at the end of the World – is everything that
exists alongside and in the face of the destruction caused by the capitalist exploitation and what creates new synergies and
coexistences. It is a moment of awareness of the living activities of all beings and emerges within a temporal polyphony.
But can we acknowledge this agency and this activity of making worlds as a political act?
What if agency and political
are not functions of a body which must necessarily be a human one to enact them, questioning hence the anthropocentric assumption
behind Western definition of politics?
PROGRAMME
18.30
Listening session of the audio papers by the students of the Master Program Studies in Art and Culture for the seminar ‘Sonic
Thinking’ (Kristina Pia Hofer)
Participating students: Nike Bekemeier, Anita Buss, Isa (Matthias) Conrady,
Alexandra Elzbieciak, Josephine Engelmeier, Camilla Hagenauer, Maria Harrison, Max Heirens, Olivia Pingpaya Hemsuthipan, Aljosha
Kronberger, Anna Mielke, Anna Rupp, Hannah Waniek, Nadja Webel, Annka Weber
20:00
Concert by Conny Frischauf
with Q&A afterwards
Conny Frischauf will present Dwin City, a long-term work engaging with the Danube River and its
environments between Vienna and Bratislava, focusing on collective memory, heritage, and spaces in between scientific and
(art) historical narratives. Through sound-based and installative-performative approaches, the work explores questions of
knowing, not knowing, and acknowledgement.
Conny Frischauf is a sound and visual artist based
in Vienna, Austria. They studied transdisciplinary arts (TransArts) at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. They regularly
perform, sound, conduct workshops and lectures, repair and build audio equipment, score films and performances, host, listen,
write and walk. Since 2024, they have been running Sedimente, a platform that slowly inter-layers through text,
sound, space, and more. 
