Between Architecture, Science, and Sound
June 8–9, 2011 | Stadtkino, Vienna

Past

Conceived as a genuinely collaborative structure, The Morning Line brings together a distinct visual language with a multiplicity of architectural, mathematical, physical and sonic concepts. New spatialized, 47-channel sound compositions supplement The Morning Line’s sonic archive at each location, creating the need for an ongoing process of contextualization in relation to the project’s shifting emphasis. 

An alternating series of panels, lectures and conversations not only addresses the program of new commissions in Vienna curated by Franz Pomassl by focusing on the participants’ practices but also refers to key aspects of the project and the relationship between sound, architecture, contemporary art and science in general. 

Panel: Beyond Background Noise - Perspectives on sound art 
Following the 2006 publication by Brandon LaBelle tracing the history of sound art, the panel explores the development of sound as an artistic medium and illustrates the modes in which it is used within the artistic fields of installation, performance, architecture and environment. 
Participants: Franz Pomassl, Yasunao Tone, Robin Mackay, Carsten Nicolai, Lorenzo Fusi and Brandon LaBelle (moderator)

Conversation: Yasunao Tone in Conversation with Tony Myatt Japanese sound pioneer, Group Ongaku, Hi-Red Center member and Fluxus artist and radical noise experimenter in one of his rare public appearances.

Presentation: Brandon La Belle, "Spatiality and Acoustics" 

Sound can be appreciated as forming a unique cultural paradigm, locating our field of relations according to experiences of listening, acoustics, auditory memory, speech, etc. Following the particularity of sound, the lecture maps out acoustical spatiality as a process of interference, multiplication, and othering, to suggest a more pronounced relational perspective on what it means to hear. 

Panel: The Morning Line - Interventions in public space
Exploring The Morning Line as an architectural installation in the public space which is at the same time transient and nomadic yet radically interactive and site-bound, the panel addresses the specific urban context of The Morning Line  in Vienna in relation to previous installations in Seville and Istanbul and the challenges and questions related to such endeavors. In addition to The Morning Line ’s material and visual presence, its sound archive of advanced compositions amplifies the architecture's own perceptual spectrum. As an open and non-hierarchic auditory space, it emphasizes the movement of individuals through space to generate spatiality.

Participants: Ben Aranda, Petteri Nisunen, Finnbogi Petursson, Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, Roland Schöny (moderator)

Lecture: Ben Aranda/Chris Lasch, "Scalar Invariance"

The architect team behind The Morning Line ’s fractal modules and crystalline structure.

Panel: Disseminating Sound 
In recent years music distribution has changed drastically due to the availability and easy dissemination of music through downloads and streaming technologies. This panel addresses the economic changes within the industry in relation to specialized, small-scale music labels focusing on the participants of The Morning Line who run their own labels and are involved in the creation of alternative dissemination systems. The creation of new legal frameworks – such as the increasingly popular copyleft movement or Apple’s ruling on digital rights management (DRM) – and the overriding dominance of iTunes Store in the distribution of digital content figure as the backdrop for discussion.
Participants: Zavoloka, Anna Ceeh, Carsten Nicolai, Franz Pomassl, Einar Örn, Tommi Grönlund and Rob Young (moderator)

Labels:
Tommi Grönlund / sähkö / www.sahkorecordings.com / Finland
Carsten Nicolai /www.raster-media.net/ Germany
Zavoloka (w Kotra) / Kvitnu / www.kvitnu.com / Ukraine
Franz Pomassl, Anna Ceeh / Laton / www.laton.at / Austria
Einar Örn / Bad Taste/Smekkleysa / Iceland

Dates
June 8–9, 2011 
 
location
Stadtkino Vienna, Schwarzenbergplatz
participants
Alisa Andrasek is an experimental practitioner of architecture and computational processes in design based in London. In 2001 she founded biothing, a trans-disciplinary laboratory that focuses on the generative potential of computational systems for design. 

Aranda\Lasch is a New York-based architectural studio dedicated to experimental research and innovative building. Established in 2003 by Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch, the studio designs buildings, installations and objects through a deep investigation of materials and structure. 

Adam Bly is the founder and CEO of Seed Media Group in New York, an integrated media and technology company committed to helping advance science and its potential to improve the state of the world. 

Anna Ceeh is an artist and academic researcher based in Vienna working with photography, video and electronic music. Receipient if a honorary Mention Digital Music & Sound Art, Prix Ars Electronica 2011 for the project ⁄S⁄O⁄N⁄I⁄C⁄ ⁄Z⁄O⁄N⁄E⁄S⁄ about electronic music scenes in post-Soviet states (with Franz Pomassl). 

Grönlund and Nisunen have worked as an artist duo since 1993 out of Helsinki. Their works are mainly site-specific installations which often use sound, light and kinetic elements. They also run the architectural practice a.men architects, as well as the music label Sähkö (by Grönlund) which released over a hundred records over the years. 

Florian Hecker is an artist, music curator and contributing composer for The Morning Line. He frequently collaborates with academic researchers in auditory perception and computer music, as well as with other artists. 

Brandon LaBelle is an artist and writer based in Berlin. His work explores the meeting of the public and the private, sociality and the narratives of everyday life, using sited constructions, sound and performance as creative supplements to existing conditions. 

Robin Mackay is a philosopher, director of UK publisher and arts organisation Urbanomic, and editor of the journal ‘Collapse’. 

Tony Myatt is Director of the Music Research Centre at the University of York, UK, Myatt researches and coordinates research into audio composition, contemporary electronic music and spatial audio. 

Carsten Nicolai is a visual artist, composer and musician who lives and works in Berlin. As a visual artist, Nicolai seeks to overcome the separation of the art forms and genres to sensitize human perception to the interconnection of the different sensory levels. For several years now Nicolai has released albums under the pseudonyms noto and alva noto. 

Zsolt Olejnik is a composer and electronic musician from Budapest, Hungary. He studied architecture and software engineering at university in addition to self-studies in graphic and sound design, sound synthesis and programming. 

Finnbogi Pétursson lives in Reykjavik and is one of Iceland’s most prominent artists. He is known for works that fuse sound, light, sculpture, architecture and drawings. Sound, a crucial element, is typically incorporated into sculptural installations, but he also performs music with Ghostigital members Einar Örn and Curver. 

Franz Pomassl is a sound artist and curator, musician and composer in advanced electronic music based in Vienna. Furthermore, he founded Soundlab, a teaching and research platform at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he is teaching in the field of sound since 2001 and the music label Laton. 

Matthew Ritchie’s installations of painting, wall drawings, light boxes, sculpture, and projections are investigations of the idea of information; explored through science, architecture, history and the dynamics of culture, defined equally by their range and their lyrical visual language. He is based in New York. 

Roland Schöny is a cultural scientist, contemporary art curator, and author. He holds a teaching position with focus on sound in the arts at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Department for Digital Arts. 

Since 2006, Nicolaus Schafhausen is director of Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam and prolific curator in the field of contemporary art. Previous positions at director of Frankfurter Kunstverein, European Kunsthalle in Cologne and curator of German Pavilion of the Venice Biennial in 2007 and 2009. 

Maria Spiropulu is an experimental particle physicist. In 2004 she moved to CERN’s Physics Department to continue her research at the Large Hadron Collider. She led the search and discovery program of the CMS experiment as co-convener of the SUSYBSM physics analysis group. 

Skylar Tibbits is a trained Architect, Designer and Computer Scientist who’s research focuses on developing self-assembly technologies for large-scale structures in our physical environment. 

Yasunao Tone has been active in the Fluxus movement since 1962 and a participant in music and performance groups such as Group Ongaku, Hi-Red Center, Team Random. Primarily a composer, Tone has worked in many media, creating pieces for electronics, computer systems, film, radio and television, and environmental art. 

Rob Young is Editor at Large of The Wire magazine and writes for Uncut, Sight & Sound, The Guardian, The Word and more. His latest book is Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music. 

Zavoloka is a composer, sound artist and graphic designer from Kiev, Ukraine. Her main interest in music is to present Ukrainian ancient culture through contemporary digital art.