The next Tuned City will take place in September 2017 in Ancient Messene / Greece in collaboration with the Onassis Cultural Centre Athens
We will announce a call soon, please stay tuned!

For the Polish Institute Berlin we curated and produced a solo show of Konrad Smolenski.

Phantom – something, what exists only in your imagination or fantasy, something not real, an illusion, a confusion of the senses.
Stage, gallery, institution – Konrad Smole?ski utilises the icons, artefacts, spatial determinations, codes and social syntax of contemporary culture production and presentation and undercuts their conventions and formats.
PHANTOM POWER plays with symbolic assignments, presence and absence and shows, how Foucault formulated so spot on “[...] that we do not live in a homogeneous and empty space, but on the contrary in a space thoroughly imbued with quantities and perhaps is full of phantoms as well.”

Konrad Smolenski (1977) works with sound, film, object in-between installation, performance and situation. In 2013 the internationally successful artists represented Poland at the 55th Venice-Biennale. http://www.konradsmolenski.com

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Just contributed an article (Acoustic Knowing – Formats of Mediation between City and Sound) to this book.
This publication on the theory and history of artistic practice in the field of sound art illustrates themes and debates concerning the homonymic meeting that was held last summer at the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig. In the field of sculptural art that uses sound, interventions using sound have developed since the 1980s into an area of their own, to which practice, artistic application, and theory are matched within the context of teaching at the UFA. Ingo Schulz, Ulrich Eller, and Christoph Metzger motivated renowned curators, artists, and theorists of sound art to take their inventory of the resonant art form. The book reflects the status of university teaching across Germany as well as curatorial practice and is so designed as to further the aesthetic debate in this field beyond music.

Editor: Christoph Metzger, Ulrich Eller
Authors: Andreas Oldörp, Anne Müller von der Haegen, Annette Tietenberg, Antimo Sorgente, Bärbel Schlüter, Carsten Seiffarth, Carsten Stabenow, Christoph Metzger, Dennis Graef, Franz Martin Olbrisch, Fraucke Stiller, Ingo Schulz, Jens Brand, Johannes Meinhardt, Julia Gerlach, Maija Julius, Robin Minard, Sebastian Pralle, Ulrich Eller

ISBN 978-3-86828-641-0

Conferences, concert, roundtable / September 21 – 23, 2015
Oboro: 4001, rue Berri, # 301; Goethe-Institut: 1626, boul.St-Laurent, Montreal/Canada

The Goethe-Institut Montreal, Hexagram, Oboro and DOCK Berlin unite forces to present a series of events exploring the relationship between sound, art and urban space.

Three evenings of public events are planned, including a sound walk by artist Nicolas Dion Buteau, presentations by curators Carsten Seiffarth and Carsten Stabenow on artistic platforms in Germany promoting the research, presentation and creation of sound works and the urban environment (bonn hoeren and Tuned City), the presentation of a listening map of Bonn by sonic artist Sam Auinger, a performance by Ernst Karel of a composition integrating both human and non-human voices emanating from an urban environment, and finally a roundtable on the transformation of urban sounds in the built environment. Details >>>

In collaboration with the Goethe-Instituts of New York, Boston, Mexico, Sao Paolo and Montevideo.

In November/December 2014 we had the chance to do a research trip to Valparaiso. On invitation of the Tsonami Festival and Goethe Institut Chile we spent 2 weeks at this highly interesting place and carried out a workshop and a seminar under the Tsonami’s 2014 topic “GEOGRAFÍAS AUDIBLES”. We hope to develop that collaboration further…

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The great closing concert of tuned city Brussels 2013 ma-ta-ta-bi by Akio Suzuki + Aki Onda was just released by ORAL_records Montreal. Read the conversation of Akio and Aki about this project. “Amazing clash and collaboration of two giants of Japanese Sound art and improvisation. A new duo who is there to stay for a long…. long… time ! A MUST !!!”

12th – 22nd of june 2014

in the fifth year of bonn hoeren a large FESTIVAL project will take place from the 12th to the 22nd of june 2014, in which the results of the fundamental thematic research of the first four years will be condensed and developed further both artistically and discursively. around two concentrated weekends, bonn will be transformed into a vast platform for artistic production and presentation, discussion and intermediation of sound art and music in public spaces through a variety of formats. the city-wide event will present a series of newly commissioned site-specific works by renowned sound artists and an international symposium (18.-22.6.2014) extending the theoretical and practical discourse. students of architecture, music and sound art from diverse institutions will conduct investigations in various parts of the city and develop projects and perform on-site interventions. next to a series of concerts and site-specific performances, a big city symphony with hundreds of participants will be premiered in the city center of bonn on the 20th of june.

12.11.2013 / 18 Uhr / Aula
Lecture at Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Saarbrücken
Artistic interventions in the city – methods and formats of mediation using the example of the Tuned City project (Berlin, Tallinn, Brussels).
(On Invitation of Prof. Andreas Oldörp, sound art class at HBK Saar)
http://www.hbksaar.de/aktuell/news/news-lesen/article/aus-der-praxis-vortragsreihe-an-der-hbksaar/

Symposium: Sound and public space
30.10.2013 / 11:00 – 17:00
[...] Urban space and sound: John Grzinich will introduce Tuned City, which has been held in different cities of Europe since 2008 and in Tallinn in 2011. Mapping connections between the built environment and sound, it pays attention to sounds that we usually do not consider to be important, sounds that don’t seem “interesting” or seem to be just background noise. But once they are noticed we actually sense our surroundings differently. Besides “amplifying”, the project experiments with what kind of sounds can be added, and how we can use the city as an instrument. Besides raising the awareness of city soundscapes, it explores how other fields can use the outcomes of such projects as Tuned City, and what the sound artist’s point of view offers to urbanists, architects etc. [...]
http://www.kumu.ee/en/visit/calendar?view=event&id=1530

The Symposium is part of the large scale exhibition “Out of Sync. Looking Back at the History of Sound Art”
http://www.kumu.ee/en/visit/calendar?view=event&id=1170

MUTEK_LAB – CREATIVITY IN THE PUBLIC SPACE
international symposium in the frame of MUTEK_MX at Centro de Cultura Digital, Mexico City

Monday 30th Sept 2013
SOUND & SPACE/CITY/URBAN ENVIRONMENT 3.30 – 3.45pm
Introduction by Carsten Stabenow, initiator and artistic director, Tuned City, Berlin

CASE STUDY 3: TUNED CITY (3.45-4.15pm)
Presentation of the Tuned City platform & projects – the relation between sound & space/city/urban environment, the research and methods of mediation, how to translate to an audience and into the design of public policies.

PANEL 1: Architecture, sound & new technologies in the future city (4.15-5.30pm)
Building audiences, mediating, mixing fields, and blurring the limits of the art fields. How to collaborate with local institutions, with their infrastructures, to try to make things change from the very inside?
Modetator: Carsten Stabenow, Tuned City, Berlin / Speakers: Martin Craciun, Soco Festival, University Montevideo / Abel Perles, Productora, Mexico DF / Natalia Britos, Museo universitario el Chopo

http://www.mutek.mx/mutekmx/mutek_lab/

A first documentation with fotos, reports, interviews and recordings of all lectures is online now >>>

Listen to the new edition of radio emission framework:afield by felicity ford and valeria merlini in collaboration with students from RITS school of arts.
During the workshops in March, Felicity Ford and Valeria Merlini worked with students from R.I.T.S to explore the sonorities of Brussels in advance of the main Tuned City Festival. This workshop involved exploring the sites where Tuned City will take place, and practising a variety of listening techniques adapted from R Murray Schafer, Pauline Oliveros and CRESSON. The workshop emphasis lay on establishing an imaginative and appreciative listening-focussed investigation of the city, and the outcome was a series of experimental shorts, reflecting the students’ engagement with experimental documentation techniques. This work celebrated some of the sounds of Brussels in advance of the festival in June. This first workshop in March also lead to the production of a radio show for framework:afield, which celebrates students’ sonic discoveries of Brussels and conveys an ephemeral impression of the city in sound and which will air as part of the framework:afield broadcast schedule on Friday, 21st June, 01:00, Brussels, on Radio Campus 92.1fm.

http://www.frameworkradio.net/2013/06/425-2013-06-16/

Lectures, talks, performances, installations, walks and workshops with Hillel Schwartz (US) / Christoph Cox (UK) / Shelley Trower (UK) / Mattin (E/BASK)(tbc) /Dawn Scarfe (UK) / Joanna Bailie (UK) / Christina Kubisch (D) + students / Kabir Carter (US) Der Wexel – Wessel Westerveld (NL) + Yuri Landman (NL)(tbc) / doc-team; Szilvia Kovács, Carina Lesky, Anamarija Batista (AT/INT) / Francesco Careri (I) / Joost Fonteyne (B) / Brandon LaBelle (US/D) / Akio Suzuki (JP) / Lee Patterson (UK) / stalker (I) / Felicity Ford + Valeria Merlini (UK+IT/D) / aifoon (B) / Udo Noll (D) / Lukas Kühne + Robyn Schulkowsky (D/US/URG) / David Helbich (D/B) / Marina Rosenfeld (US) / Okkyung Lee (US) / Guy de Bievre (B) / Franziska Windisch (D/B) / Rie Nakajima (UK) / Roberta Gigante (I/B) / Pierre Berthet (B) / David Maranha & Patricia Machás (PT) / Gernot Böhme (D) / Timothy Morton (UK) / Jean-Paul Thibaud (FR) / Will Schrimshaw (UK) / Aki Onda (US) / Zoe Irvine, BBOT/BNA (B) / ZENIAL Lukasz Szalankiewicz (PL)…

Tuned City Brussels Lecture-event #2 will introduce the work of 8 artists dealing with sound, public space, architecture and the city. Space and its sound can be considered an artistic subject or field of operation in both a physical sense as well as in terms of symbolic and metaphorical associations. Artist presentations will open these various layers of meaning, giving insight into working methods while exploring specific approaches to sound and the urban.

This will be followed by a collaborative workshop week March 25th – 28th together with Sint Lucas Architectuur, Erasmus Hogeschool RITS/Radio, Sint Lukas Transmedia, a.pass, okno and La Cambre (ENSAV) option Espace Urbain and l’Escaut.
Closing presentations on march 28th, Q-O2, Koomijnenkaai 30-34, 1080 Brussels, 18:00.

Tuned City Brussels – co-organised by Q-O2, workspace for experimental music and sound art is starting in collaboration with Sint Lucas Architectuur, Erasmus Hogeschool RITS/Radio, Sint Lukas Transmedia, a.pass and La Cambre (ENSAV) option Espace Urbain, with a series of lecture-events, artistic presentations, mini-residencies, university projects and workshops over the first half year. (see PRE-EVENTS) Those will be followed by an international four day festival from June 27th-30th mixing a conference with artistic  realisations such as concerts, walks, installations and interventions in situ. Looking forward to see you in Brussels!

30th of December 2012  15:00 (3 p.m.)
Berlin, Alexanderplatz    (meeting point: world-clock / Weltzeituhr)
initiated by Florian Tuercke (D)
Take part!!

about the flashmob
2012 was the year of John Cages 100th birthday. The musical, and philosophical accomplishments of this outstanding composer were celebrated with conferences, festivals, performances, lectures and publications all over the world. The 4′33” flashmob wants to set a proper ending point to the John-Cage-Year. You are invited to take part in this intervention. Further informations and instructions here: http://floriantuercke.net/news.html

about 4′33”
The composition was first performed by David Tudor in 1952 (which means it had its 60th anniversary this year). Though often referred to as “four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence” the composition isn’t about silence at all. The musical content rather is all the sounds that happen while a musician (or an orchestra) doesn’t play. 

Opening of “Tvísöngur” by Lukas Kühne
September 5, at 17.00 /mountainside above the town of Seydisfjördur / East Iceland

“Tvísöngur” is built of concrete and consists of five interconnected domes of different sizes. The heights of the domes are between 2 and 4 meters and they cover an area of about 30 square meters. Each dome has its own resonance that corresponds to a tone in the Icelandic musical tradition of five-tone harmony, and works as a natural amplifier to that tone.

The sculpture can be seen as a visualization of the five-tone harmony tradition. The round form is chosen for its acoustic properties as well as its visual function in the landscape. It results in a unique combination affecting visual and auditory senses. The Icelandic “Tvisöngur“ becomes a sculpture of “singing concrete”.

“Tvísöngur” is is open to everyone. It is embedded in the mountainside above the town, in a quiet area with a breathtaking view of the fjord. It offers an acoustic sensation that can be explored and experimented with by the visitor.  The site’s solitude and tranquility offers a perfect setting for singing or music playing, alone, in harmony, for ones own pleasure or for an audience.

At the opening in Seyðisfjörður there will be performances by local musicians, both professionals and amateurs, and guests are encouraged to bring their own version of five tone singing.

Lukas Kühne’s artworks are dedicated to space and frequency. He lives in Berlin and Montevideo, Uruguay, where he heads the workshop ”Form and Sound” at the Faculty of Arts of the State University.  The sculpture “Tvísöngur” relates to a series of works by the artist dealing with musical forms, one of which is the sculpture “Cromatico” built in Tallinn, Estonia as part of Tuned City Tallinn 2011.

Tvísöngur is realized in cooperation with Skaftell – Center for Visual Art,  East Iceland. It is supported by the Municipality of Seyðisfjörður, Sídarvinnslan hf, Blue Water Shipping, Goethe Institute Denmark and Nordecon Betoon, Estonia, Rosario Nuin architect.

Arno Brandlhuber Im Archipel
featuring BUG by Mark Bain
produced by Tuned City 2008
08.09.2012 – 21.10.2012 / Opening Sep 7, 8 pm / KOW Berlin / Brunnenstrasse 9, D-10119 Berlin

Brandlhuber is one of the most interesting voices in the current city development discourse. His collaboration with Mark Bain for Tuned City 2008 lead to a permanent installation which made the building acoustically transparent with the help of seismic sensors.
In the frame of the current show at KOW the sounds of this living organism and its social sourrounding will be played back in to the basement which will be flooded – blocked and set back to the primitive state of the investment ruin from 2008.

About the exhibition: Built structures (architecture and urban planning) shape social relations, and they present an unambiguous trend: homogenization. Urban environments that used to be shared or that would have lent themselves to sharing in the future are now being subdivided into the niches of social Darwinism. Like and like congregate on urban islands clearly staggered according to income classes. In Berlin, where heterogeneity was once a defining feature of the urban fabric, it is especially evident that the reorganization of the city serves the redistribution of participation in social life: a wealthy clientele takes possession of the central areas around prestigious new residential developments, displacing to the periphery all those who cannot, or do not want to, keep upping the ante. Social archipelagos take shape, new cities within the city, all of them similarly homogeneous: the unemployed here, an arts scene there, the migrants somewhere else.

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30. 08. 2012 / 20:00 / KIBLA, Ulica kneza Koclja 9 / Maribor, Slovenia
Udo Noll (Berlin/Köln) and Patrick McGinley (Tartu/Estonia) talking with Carsten Stabenow (Berlin) about the MariborMaps Project(Berlin)
radio aporee is a platform for artistic research of concepts and practices in the field of sound, location and their specifications in space. Two terms, periphery and resonance, build the main focal foundation, bound to sound and space and also to social and communicational viewpoints. The term periphery can be defined as a spatial or qualitative differentiation, as movement away from the centre, towards the borders. At the same time, every conscious perception builds peripheries, where the main focus lies in the centre of those peripheries. The term resonance defines two poles: the answer of the place or of the opposed to our mere presence or address, in contrary to the resulting muteness. Do we succeed in establishing a fruitful relationship with the surrounding world or are we left out? Field recordings as the main source and method of the willing approach towards places and situations can be read as communicative relationships: the recorded sound is, at best, the answer to the question, defined by our search and approach. In this case, resonance is the stroke of luck, where a contact with Space and the World is established. Conscious listening is the key and the access point to an intensified reception and experience of the surrounding world.

http://aporee.org/maribor

a project by Goethe-Institut within the framework of the European Capital of Culture MARIBOR 2012.

http://www.aswespeak.eu