Conference Talk: Transforming practices of experimental and improvised music during the pandemic

The lecture presents first results of a study examining the effects of the pandemic on the Berlin Echtzeitmusik scene. The focus is on dynamics of transformation caused by the crisis and thus on the question of how and under which conditions the global pandemic affects the social structure and practice of the scene. On the basis of qualitative interviews with musicians and concert organizers, as well as participant observation of performance practices, the changing social and aesthetic spatial arrangements will be reconstructed. On the one hand, fundamental developmental tendencies on the macro-level of the social space of the scene, on the other hand, transformations on the micro-level of artistic spatial practices become recognizable.

The research project was started in the context of a seminar led by Matthias Haenisch at the Institute of Musicology at the Humboldt University of Berlin in the winter semester 2020/21. In the follow-up to the seminar, the presenters – lecturer and students – have continued this research together and will present their results for the first time at the symposium LABOR DISKURS : TRANSLATING SPACES.

Photo: Uta Neumann