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Christina Kubisch, Klangkünstlerin in Berlin, fragt sich schon lange, ob Natur und Technik zwangsläufig einen Widerspruch bilden müssen. Zuflucht finden in der Natur? Vogelstimmen sind oftmals Gegenstand ihrer Installationen, so auch einer Arbeit, die Rahmen des Projektes „Stare über Berlin“ zu erleben war an historischem Ort mitten in Berlin. Im roten Backsteinbau des Märkischen Museums, ein merkwürdig eklektischer, historisierender Bau, direkt an der Spree gelegen. An der Einflugsschneise der Stare. Von hoch oben der Blick ins Weite auf die Vogelchoreographien über der Museumsinsel:
Atmos aus Flügelschlag-Installation bereits unter Text blenden, knapp frei stehen lassen, unter folgenden O-Ton Atmo von Kubisch legen von CD von Anfang
O-Ton 17
„(…) Es gibt dort einen Turm, der eigentlich nicht für Ausstellungszwecke benutzt werden darf, der aber sehr groß ist. So ein leerer Turm, der auch für nistende Vögel ganz wunderbar sein könnte. (…) Meine Idee war, die Fähigkeit der Stare, die ja menschliche Klänge sehr gut imitieren können, so dass man manchmal gar nicht mehr weiß, sind es nun echte oder falsche Vögel, als Anlass dafür zu nehmen, eine akustische Arbeit zu machen. Es gibt vierzehn Solarzellen, die außen an den Fenstern des Turmes angebracht worden sind, und die generieren Elektrizität, die wiederum an kleine elektronische Verteiler geleitet wird, die Klänge erzeugen
(…hier kurz frei stehen lassen 1, 13 ff.…)
Da ja nun dieses Licht unabhängig ist von einer präzisen Steuerung und sich nach Wind, Licht, Wetter und morgens und abends halt richtet, verändern sich diese Klänge stetig. Es gab also verschiedene Gruppen. Es gab handyartige schrille Töne (…), dann gab es auch mehr so musikalische vogelartige Klänge, auch mehr so ein bisschen raue rhythmische Klänge. (…) Und wenn man im Raum warm wurde man bei diesem weiten Blick, den man nach außen hatte, sich eigentlich auch darüber klar, wie eng (…) auch der Zyklus der Natur, das Singen der Vögel mit dem Licht verbunden ist. (…) also morgens, ich bin einmal da gewesen, da kam erst mal gar nichts, erst ein Klang, dann noch einer, und dann schwillt es so an wie ein Chor. Es ist ein bisschen auch die Idee dabei, die Technik und die Natur ein bisschen miteinander zu versöhnen.“
Atmo Kubisch von CD
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Falsche Natur, künstliche Vögel, aleatorisch gesteuert: vom Licht. Falsche Vögel hören und sich bewusst werden, dass richtige Vögel den Gesetzen der Natur abhängig sind.
MUSIK SCHAEFFER von CD Tkurz frei stehen lassen, unter Text blenden, dann langsam ausblenden, um sie am Ende noch einmal einsetzen zu können
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Musique concrète. Eine konkrete Musik, wie Pierre Schaeffer, Pionier elektronischer Klangerzeugung, seine Experimente benannte. Lautsprechermusik, die kannte keine traditionellen Instrumente mehr, nur noch klingendes Material jeglicher Art: akustische Fundstücke, Geräusche, Lärm, Stimmen, einzelne Instrumentalklänge, collagenartig miteinander verwoben. Eines jener Pionierwerke aus den frühen fünfziger Jahren basierte ausgerechnet auf einer Vogelstimme. Der des l’oiseau RAI, jenes Vogels, den der italienische Rundfunk als Sendezeichen hatte. Da tönte aus dem Apparat allerdings keine Nachtigall in Reinkultur, sondern das Signal bestand aus einzelnen Rufen der Nachtigall. Schaeffer nahm diese Klänge, und er zerschnitt das Tonband. Musikalisches Material im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes. Zerlegt in kleinste Fragmente, technisch bearbeitet: Veränderung der Tonhöhen, der Geschwindigkeit. Schaeffers Nachtigall singt rückwärts, in Zeitlupe im Zeitraffer. Die verfremdeten Vogelpfiffe wiederum setzte er neu zusammen. Eine vollkommen neue Qualität von Vogelmusik, technisch durch und durch, doch das Material des Ganzen naturgetreu wie selten zuvor.
Musik L’oiseau RAI hier auf Schluss einblenden, (nahtloser Übergang in neues Thema: Amseln und Kanarien! Konzert mit Vogel, Serinette, Pioniere der Klangerzeugung und Kanarienvögel)
Musik von CD Mitschnitt Recording Angels Track 1 beginnt bei ca. 0,15 frei stehen lassen unter Text blenden
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Es knirscht, knarrt. Klänge wie unter einer rauschenden Patina. Eine Nadel zieht ihre Kreise aus einer Schellackplatte. Es tönt wie aus einer fernen Zeit aus dem geschwungenen Trichter eines Grammophons. Die Hochzeit der Winde. Amsel und Nachtigall singen ihre Lieder im Dreivierteltakt. Eine merkwürdige Mischung aus Vogelstimmen und leichter Unterhaltung, Schallplatten, wie sie beliebt waren in den Kindertagen der noch jungen Tonträgerindustrie zu Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts. Als erstes hatte die neue Tonträger-Industrie das Pfeifen und Zwitschern von Vogelstimmen eingefangen in der freien Natur. Und die gefiederten Sänger wurden so in die gute Stube geholt.
Musik noch einmal hoch ziehen, frei stehen lassen
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Die erste Vogelstimme nahm Ludwig Koch 1889 auf, einen indischen Schamavogel, dessen Gesang mit Hilfe eines Edinsonschen Phonographen auf eine Wachswalze geritzt wurde.
Musik von CD Recording Angels Track 2 frei stehen lassen, unter Text blenden
For a moment everything seems to be normal: the rooms of the 'model house' fulfil particular functions. But then the irritation begins: aren't there faint noises coming from the pipe of the shower. When listening carefully one can hear a melody, taken from Raymond Roussel's novel Locus Solus (1914) *2 .
In the nearby study there is a lamp on the desk. When switching it on, the lighting conditions stay the same. Instead of it one can hear the scratching of a nib. - The lampshade is a loudspeaker! In the TV room the news are on, a comfortable armchair is inviting to stay. But instead of the distant-distinguished reporting of Dagmar Berghoff (well-known German newsreader) & Co., this: along with the usual and expected pictures from foreign countries there are no commenting texts, but drum rhythms and flute sounds can be heard. Different recordings of ethnic music are attributed to the reports of the region they are belonging to. The visitor has to decide on his own if he thinks this folkloric underlying funny or exposing. Apart from that we are confronted with the question of the working-together of picture and sound: how do they overlap? Which medium of conveying dominates the other one? Is there a possibility to reach a balance in the middle? Only if the usual alliance of optical and acoustical perception is broken, the reflection on these habitual mechanisms begins.
Tilman Küntzel is especially occupied with the working-together and linking-up of the different human sensory perceptions: sounds and noises 'in the wrong place, but also the visible consequences of sound waves that are - because of the low frequency - not audible for us, cause us 'not to believe our eyes and ears'.
In his work Earth Sound a globe (an inflatable plastic ball) floats in the air, moved as if by magic in certain intervals - who would not be reminded of Charlie Chaplin's Great Dictator ! After a short time it lands on a column again. The whole thing is caused by the five times slowed down speed of a tape with a fragment of dixieland jazz. Played in multiple amplification, the vibrations of the membrane of a loudspeaker set the ball in motion. So the observer in the end can see sounds he cannot perceive with his ears because of physiological reasons. "The eye seakes, the eare finds" was the motto of one of Küntzel's works ( the Interactive Torch - recording sounds instead of giving light). In many of his works he almost provokes an exchange of the roles of the human sense organs. Sometimes elements of physical contact are also integrated - for instance when, with the help of a simple mechanism, a spoon permanently stirs a soup (that is slowly becoming unappetizing)-(The Good and the Malicious... ). Some aspects of Küntzel's 'model flat' make us think of indelible memories of childhood - ("I don't eat my soup!"). Values and ideas that are passed on to children and young persons through conventions as well. Who would not remember with some disconcertment his first confrontation with the word "Kulturbeutel" (about: 'culture bag' - German expression for 'washbag') - even if only the small plastic bag for comb anf toothbrush is meant. In the bathroom Küntzel has put some different cultural posessions into his Sounding Washbags (rotating around their axis). From two endless tapes a fragment of Swiss folk music sounds. Because of the different length of the two tapes, constantly new mixings and overlapping of diverse sounds appear. In a certain way a sound collage without ending manifests itself while playing. The red walkmen in bilious green bags (complementary contrats) are only dummies, the sounds come from other loudspeakers. But the perceiving person is easily lead up the garden path - obviously willing to forge links between cause and effect in the easiest way. Scarcely credible is also the causal chain that often is falsely made with Küntzel's camera-monitor interaction. For the project "Weltbekannt e.V. Hamburg" obvious sheet metal imitations of a video camera and a TV monitor had been placed in public showcases. A photoelectric barrier, independently connected, switched on a small red light at the 'camera' when people were passing; so the persons affected had the conclusive impression to be 'on the air' - even if the wires were rusty. In the Kunsthalle this installation is put up in 'the garden' - as a modern fossil of media history. After the visitor has seen through this confusion the 'real' flashing of the motion indicator installation of the Kunsthalle will seem to him as doubtful in its function - in the face of all these surrogates.
In the yard or garden of Küntzel's 'model house' the objects and installationsunfold more freely and less 'for a specific purpose'. Two light-sound sculptures use the geometric basic forms of circle and ellipse. At first glance they seem to be 'abstract' and free of concrete function, even if one can find familiar everyday objects, such as three ping-pong balls in Pulsars and an egg-cutter that is integrated in the central opening of the second object. From the back threads of lametta flutter against the cutting wires and produce a metallic sound; amplified through spatial resonance and loudspeakers 'material sound' is 'transmitted': the tightened metal wires of the kitchen utensil have become strings of a strange musical instrument. One of the sound openings of the cosmic-blue object is formed as an early-Byzantine note symbol (compare the signet printed on the CD3). The sounds as such arouse associations of mechanical chimes or tubular bells touched by the stream of air. Every 'body' is loaded with energy, has its vibration and can be set swinging. The German avant-garde film-maker Oskar Fischinger in a conversation with John Cage once said: "Every object has a soul; and this soul can be released by setting the object swinging."*4
The plainness of his means shows Küntzel's unspent view on the omnipresent, often standardized small utensils that are never looked at consciously by many people, because of their functionality. For example, what is the "Euro-loop"? It is a standardized gap in plastic or cardboard to hang up packed goods on hangers at shelves in supermarkets. Tilman Küntzel extends these trivial-functional forms into the sculptural. He hammers a Haribo-bag (jellybaby-bag) from massive ship's steel, for example, and again 'produces' modern fossils. Cheap striped plastic bags pile on top of each other as a light sculpture - with a flickering chain of light-emitting diodes drawn through the inside. One can see these bags with the streams of travellers from East Europe - on railway stations one has to walk round the 'stocks' that are packed in them. Küntzel transforms them into a fragile, transparent spot that clearly shows the flimsiness of the western consumer society everyone strives for.
The sound objects are often set going with just as simple as effective small parts from handcraft shops. Switches, grinding contacts, motors for model machines, walkmen, microphones. The ways of functioning of his wondrously modified objects, often combined in an unusual way, - Küntzel does not disguise them. In quickly-made construction plans every path of wires and the whole technical 'insides' is explained. The mystery is not the production but the effect of the works that are determined for an interaction with the perceiving visitor.
Tilman Küntzel got important impulses from Prof Claus Böhmler (born 1939), who was also occupied with links between the perceiving organs. He describes these occurences under the title Projects:
From the touchable...into the non-audible
From the invisible...into the audible
From the audible...into the visible
From the too fast...into the too big
From the bended...into the transparent
From the touchable...into what can be smelled and the audible
From the not-to-be-smelled...into the cross-eyed big*5
In Böhmler's sketches and suggestions - for example, for a "Universe Hear-Speak-Set" in the drawing Hearing and Speaking - at the Same Time(1985)*6 - there is often an ironic-subversive note; (...?)
The collage and the overlapping of partly defamiliarized taped sound or music - sometimes using computer programs - is another correspondance in the interests of teacher and student.*7
The creative potential of the media world and the world of technology and machinery is as productive for Tilman Küntzel as the natural, the human evidences and the evidences of creatures that he 'finds'. In fact they can be 'networked' - to stay in computer language: highly artificial synthetic sounds enter into symbiosis, rhythmic and melodious dialogues or 'multilogues' with the mating calls of capercaillies and the sounds of rhinos running, and so on.
All this wouldn't be possible without the 'godfather' John Cage who uses the connection of artificial and natural sounds in his compositions for a long time.*8 For Cage this is followed by an equality of (international) sounds and(casual) noises. In the context of this article it cannot be referred to the very interesting history of 'sound art' in the 20th century; it had been especially sensitized for an instrumentation with everyday-sounds by the sound generators ("Intonarumori") of the futurist Luigi Russolo since 1913.* 9
Maybe John Cage and Sigmar Polke are the most important points of reference for Tilman Küntzel. From the American composer it is the aleatorical way of composition - it is made with the help of operations happening by chance that derive from certain possibilities of, for example, the I Ging. From Sigmar Polke it is the rich, creative imagination that creatively unfolds by using lost property and quotations and so gets itspower to shape.
At the moment Küntzel is realizing his newest work "There's a Song Slumbering in All the Things...". A small collection of poems (Sources of Cheerfulness)*10, found on the street, as a motto has the poetic lines by Joseph von Eichendorff:
There's a song slumbering in all the things,
that now dream on and on,
and the world commences to sing,
if only you find the magic word.
Tilman Küntzel again puts this image of the romantic poet - of the magic word that can 'unlock' the life in things - into an interactivee context, including playful accidental moments. A melody chip and a sound switch from a handcraft shop - ready-made pseudo-imagination that allows the handyman to have eight different melodies for his door bell in store, sounding by principle of chance - are added to a repro of the poem's lines on the tabletop. Tilman Küntzel indiscriminately 'assimilates' these building blocks to his work. The electronic elements allow the visitor an acoustic search for the 'magic word' - may it be by clapping, speaking, singing, and so on, so that the technology inside reacts. So Küntzel's work is brought to life by the acting of the perceiving person - by intervening he actually completes it.
Tilman Küntzel's objects need 'public space' - the curios attentive person as well as tack
7 Ursula Block/Michael Glasmeier, Broken Music. Artist's Recordwork, Berlin 1989, p. 106. Please notice the article by Tilman Küntzel in this booklet. back
8 Wulf Herzogenrath, John Cage: Insel der Konzentration (Island of Concentration), in Künstler, Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, issue 15/1991 back
9 Exhibition catalogue Luigi Russolo: Die Geräuschkunst (Sound Art) 1913-1931, Bochum 1985/85 back
10 Quellen des Frohsinns (Sources of Cheerfulness). Gedanken und Gedichte (Thoughts and Poems) von (from) Wilhelm Busch bis (to) K.H. Waggerl, St. Gallen, 23rd edition, 1958. back
11 Rainer Metzger, Die liquidierten Dinge. Über das Tautologische an einigen Arbeiten der achtziger Jahre (The Liquidated Things. On the Tautological in Some of the Works of the 80's), in Artis, 43rd volume 1991, No. 3, p. 16-20 and 17s. back
