Hello!

Beuys is surely not a Sartre follower but of course there are many parallels. Most of all: the keyword “creation”.

But Beuys did not mean “creation” with regard to the very own existence. The sentence “Jeder Mensch ein Kuenstler”/”Everyone is an artist” is likely one of the most often misunderstood sentences in (art) history. It does not mean that everyone is as artist (literal). Also it does not mean that everyone has the ability to become an artist that creates scultpures, paintings, music … Furthermore it does not mean that the kind of creativity that is reflected in the word “artist” is something everybody obtains just by being a human being.

The context in which Beuys said “Everyone is an artist” is that in every society many questions and problems arise. Sometimes they are big and might have general impact (Shall we got to war? Shall we increase taxes?), sometimes they are small and a matter of private life (Shall I marry this woman? Shall I take the train or a plane?). And no matter if we are scientists, politicians, workers, children, musicians, painters … WHAT WOULD SUIT/LOOK/FEEL BEST? — We always ask for the BEST POSSIBLE FORM we could apply to the current situation.

And to look for the best possible form is the most central question in art. From a more general point of view it is a question of aesthetics: good - true - beautiful. (E.g. see Schleiermacher)

With regard to that everyone is an artist, because everyone tries to find the most applicable form - in private as well as in public life. In the best case, everybody tries to come up to the expectations reflected in the criteria “good, true, beautiful”. And by making decisions - or drawing distinctions, as Niklas Luhmann put it* - everyone generates impacts on the social environment.

This social environment has “a form” to. It is the Social Sculpture everyone works on just bei being there. The old statement of Watzlawick/Beavin/Jackson: “You cannot not act” means, that already just by being there you get reconized by the environment. So everyone is responsible for a (smaller or larger) part of the sculpture and therefore should be responsible to arrange himself in relation to the others in a way, that lets the interactions in society lead to a “best possible form”.

At this point, you might also think of “the best of all possible worlds” (Leibniz), allthough Beuys made no allusions to it.

Kind regards,

Thorsten Scheerer

Now that we’re almost half way through July, it seemed like a good time to review what was on high rotation in June.

Benjamin Fehr - podcast [mnml ssgs].

I wont include samples, since it’s very easy to click over there and just download it. It’s deep and lovely.

Tracklisting:

pep gaya - darker - klitekture 05
butane - vaguely defined - green water ep - rregular19
jichael mackson - 1000 bugz - stock5 07
paris the black fu & jack cousteau - fog dust vs detroit
heib - flatliner - senior solution management 03
ellen allien - go - marcel dettmann remix - bpitch
ds - jens zimmermann remix - snork enterprises 05
mr. static - west coast booty - karloff 25
dealta/aquatic - skipper - meander 02
o. deutschmann - siem reap - vidab 04
portable - don’t give up - cassy remix - sud electronic 10

Move D & Benjamin Brunn - Songs From the Beehive [Smallville] 

When I finally got my hands on this, I’d already listened to the teaser, seen the hype and was prepared to be ambivalent about it. I wasn’t prepared to fall in love with this rich, immersive music. There are beats, but it’s the texture that carries you. 

Here’s a taste of the welcoming delights of the first cut ‘Come In’.

Buy: Songs From the Beehive

Alva Noto - Unitxt [raster-noton]

Sharp and rhythmic work from Carston Nicolai. Satisfying in both its toughness and its delicate premise in which ‘modern life’ is translated into audio signals, both with processing - data from prosaic office programs like Excel and Word having been converted into audio information – and with numbers-to-spoken word from poet Anne-James Chaton who reads out the information from Nicolai’s wallet. 

Buy: Unitxt

American sound artist Mark Bain’s performance at last week’s Tuned City symposium in Berlin gave me faith in the restorative properties of very loud, sub-bass sound. Bain works with acoustics, architecture and infrasonics. He amplifies buildings and other large constructions with seismographic and other specially designed equipment. Before beginning, Bain explained that the sound may become uncomfortable for some people, and that it was his intention to drive us all out of the basement space. It was indeed a bit uncomfortable inside between the big d&b stacks, I felt the sound in my throat more than anything, giving me a choking sensation and making me want to cough. But just outside was not only bearable, but very pleasant. I could feel the sound on my skin, on the hairs, and under my skin — the way a hot bath penetrates the top layers.

The performance was held in the construction site of a building that will incorporate some of his sound works into its very structure. The walls, internal and external, will have jacks in them that residents and passers-by can plug into with headphones and listen. Fantastic.

When talking about Bain’s experiments, people often bring up Tesla and his (mythological?) earthquake machine:

Excerpt from the New York World, July 11, 1935  

Nikola Tesla revealed that an earthquake which drew police and ambulances to the region of his laboratory at 48 E. Houston St., New York, in 1898, was the result of a little machine he was experimenting with at the time which “you could put in your overcoat pocket.” 

“I was experimenting with vibrations. I had one of my machines going and I wanted to see if I could get it in tune with the vibration of the building. I put it up notch after notch. There was a peculiar cracking sound. 

“Suddenly all the heavy machinery in the place was flying around. I grabbed a hammer and broke the machine. The building would have been about our ears in another few minutes. Outside in the street there was pandemonium. 

“The police and ambulances arrived. I told my assistants to say nothing. We told the police it must have been an earthquake. That’s all they ever knew about it.” 

Amazon: Nikola Tesla’s Earthquake Machine: With Tesla’s Original Patents Plus New Blueprints to Build Your Own Working Model (Paperback)

I saw Thomas Köner perform live for the first time only a few days ago, despite having been a fan for many years. His dark drone-scapes are incredibly rich in tone and texture; the recordings are intoxicating and the music even more so live. That’s what I’d hoped anyway but, sadly, it wasn’t so.

The performance space was a big let down and came close to ruining the whole experience. Maybe I should have expected as much — the concert was part of a short film festival program. A kind of bookend to the films. He played in the bar/cafeteria/patio area of Haus der Kultur der Welt in Berlin, a building which has many beautiful spaces that would have been perfect for this kind of performance –- if only one of them had been used! Instead, we had to put up with crappy lighting that was being constantly adjusted by a guy on a ladder, an audience that drifted around like flotsam through the space between the bar and the outdoor smoking area, and people talking gaily over the top of the performance at alcohol fuelled volumes. It was a pity. 

The concert itself was …nice. Köner incorporated various field recordings of Japanese train station, which I’ve begun to find unbearably kitchy when presented with such solemnity, as well as kids and other stuff. It was nothing like the immersive, space-expanding experiences I’ve had listening to his best recorded works at home.

THE BEST OF KÖNER

Köner is a Chain Reaction alumnus. He worked with Andy Mellwig under name Porter Ricks for a number of years with several releases not only on Chain Reaction, but also Force Inc. and Mille Plateaux. Porter Ricks made staticy, noisy music backed by hissing house beats. Interesting at times, but not essential. 

Köner’s best work was already around before Porter Ricks, and was released on a fairly obscure Dutch label called Barooni in the very early ’90s. The original two albums, Teimo (1992) and Permafrost (1993) were limited and are long out of print. But they were released as a double album, Teimo/Permafrost, by Mille Plateaux in 1997. Both albums are chilling, spaciously minimal soundscapes.

Later releases on Mille Plateaux that are also worth checking are 2002’s Daikan, a live recording of a performance at the 2000 European Media Arts Festival in Osnabrück, and 2003’s Zyklop, the first disc of which is a performance from Radio France in 2002 called “Une Topographie Sonore: Col De Vence” that includes lots of field recordings.

TEIMO/PERMAFROST [Mille Plateaux MP035 1997]

Buy: Teimo/Permafrost

DAIKAN [Mille Plateaux MP107 2002]

Buy: Daikan

ZYKLOP [Mille Plateaux MP118 2003]

Buy: Zyklop

And, just for laughs, here’s a taste of Porter Ricks …