Part 1. Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag - The acoustic perspective of space and the nature of electricity. (en)

What this episode covers

Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag - The acoustic perspective of space and the nature of electricity. Most of his sound installations are not recorded. They would not function on loudspeakers or headphones, says Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag, because his compositions typically use the entire body as an acoustic reception space. It can be good that the sound does not penetrate the through the eardrum, but instead, for example, through the soles of the feet - for those who would stand on their own loudspeakers. Sonntag’s artistic achievements involve interfaces between the human body, technical media systems, and sound-mediated space perceptions. For example, in one project, he plunges a randomly vibrating column into the earth, whose upper edge serves as ground-level manhole. Those who step on the manhole can sense the depth of the earth with their bodies through the oscillations of the manhole, as well as experience space in a different, nonvisual way. Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag was born in 1965. He studied trombone under Heinz Fadle at the University of Music Lübeck, then he studied eight different subjects, ranging from art history to philosophy, in Oldenburg. Since then, he has taught at universities in Istanbul, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Oldenburg, and Darmstadt. Attempts at categorizations place Sonntag’s roots in minimum and conceptual art, as well as in new/experimental music. However, Sonntag prefers not to be pigeonholed. He finds the categories into which the arts are assigned too limiting. He would define himself more as a composer than as a sound artist, but his work is also visual. His favorite term would be inventor. Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag conducts science by way of art, and his prolific artistic invention has been highly recognized. He has received numerous awards and has had exhibitions everywhere from New York to Bishkek. In 2008, he opened the avant-garde festival of electronic art, Ars Electronica in Linz, with his sonArc:: a project which explored elementary forms of electricity. In search of the roots and visions of this media age, Sonntag captured the essence of electricity through the possibilities of taming lightning with his technological devices. The tonal experience and exploration of space and questions of perspective form the other important field of the artist’s research. Sonntag seeks out possibilities of capturing tangible spatiality through sound, and thereby pose alternatives to the visual occupation of the perception of space, with its pervasion of perspective, from the field of psycho-acoustic space perception. For this CastYourArt podcast, Sonntag referred acoustically to his body sounds - the result, an aural sampling of the thought process of the artist as well as a body sound collage… (wh/jn)

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