PROBEBÜHNE KORNHAUSTHEATER 1.8.- 9.8.'98 NORBERT MATH/WOLFGANG TEMMEL "Symphony of daily life"
Everything acoustical is music. Whether this is true
depends on an
individual's tolerance. As human beings, each of us
contributes to an
impressive "symphony of daily life" by producing
sounds and noises with
every movement we make. In the acoustic setting which
permanently
surrounds us, we play both an active and a passive
part, i.e. we are
performers and listeners simultaneously. At the very
instant I am
writing this text, I produce noises by typing on the
keyboard of my
computer; I am also listening to music on the radio;
the door to the
room where I am sitting is open
and so sounds enter from outside, primarily from
passing vehicles,
although in-between a broad array of noises from the
neighborhood is
perceptible: voices, footsteps, etc.
As an interactive medium, everyday acoustics are not
actually perceived
consciously; we select from our surroundings what we
want or need to
hear, we oscillate between the extreme of ignoring
sounds to
over-indulging ourselves in them, i.e. hearing more
than our fill, the
acoustic climax. We constantly move back and forth
between these poles -
for the ear cannot be turned off like a machine. We
never hear NOTHING.
When it happens to be so silent around us that there
is nothing to hear,
then we hear ourselves, our pulse, our breath. There
is always something
there that can be and is heard.
To perceive the world acoustically appeals to the
imagination. Through
my fantasy, acoustic spaces form a virtual and unique
setting which I am
able to constantly control and direct with the mixer
of my own volition. |