atelier galata istanbul
artist residency by kunststiftung nrwartistic outcomes
beyond the print publication

İST - poesie polifonetiche

by harald muenz

audio & video work ^{linked to my Istanbul residency}

from july to september 2023 i was lucky enough to be a guest at the atelier galata of kunststiftung northrhine-westphalia in istanbul.this page collects some artistic results of this experience.audio
i experienced istanbul as especially violent from a sonic perspective. i did not want to actively contribute to it, but rather to make the city's proposals more comprehensible through formal constraints. with the audio recorder running, i travelled the entire length of all metro lines. in addition, i searched for quiet moments at the terminus stations, which i also recorded.videos
the short videos follow similar formal principles: the camera pans from the toes of my shoes 180° upwards towards the sky. the question is whether the real or a virtual city becomes visible here. this digital trans-position is reminiscent of social media. the mobile phone becomes both an instrument & a medium for critical reflection on its repercussions on art & culture.

radio piece for hr2-kultur (npr)

yollar - diller ⁽²⁰²⁴⁾

listen on soundcloud

radiophonic composition from sounds & poeTexts
duration: 52'13''
composition, speaker & realisation: harald muenz
author's production, commissioned by hr2-kultur
editor: stefan fricke
broadcast premiere: 7 december 2024, hr2-kultur, 'The Artist's Corner'i dedicated the three months of my artist residency in istanbul to the acoustic exploration of urban space. the city's subways, with their variety of lines & soundscapes, became the most important source for this sonic research. i travelled the entire length of all the metro lines with the recording device, not only recording loud, penetrating sounds, but also looking for moments of silence at the remote end stations to create an acoustic counterweight.back in cologne, i began to process this material using various compositional methods. i had experienced istanbul acoustically as particularly violent - an experience that i did not want to amplify with my own sonic aggressiveness, but to approach in a formally structured way.the structural basis of the composition is a central axis at 26'06‘’, which is defined by the temporal centre of the longest metro line (m4 from kadiköy to sabiha gökçen airport on the asian side). all 11 metro lines were centred around this axis. the overall course of the piece is organised in time by the start & end points of the metro shots. the other acoustic elements were grouped into comprehensible ‘situations’ along this large-scale formal idea.the original field recordings anchor the transformed sounds in their authenticity. another element of the sound design was the ipad as a musical instrument, which i used to musically 'trace' the underground lines at home. while listening to the original recordings, i improvised musical sound sequences. as source material i used characteristic sounds from my field recordings. from these variations & the sounds collected in istanbul, i picked the cherries that seemed suitable for my radiophonic composition. among the original sounds were many gestural, pitched & even completely tonal elements, which i referred to in my improvisatory progressions in order to create a certain harmonic coherence.in addition to the urban & suburban soundscapes, i deliberately included "idylls" - acoustic moments of tranquillity that slip in between the metropolitan bustle. these quiet sequences come from recordings made at terminus stations well outside the city centre. they form an acoustic counterweight to the shrill soundscape of the city. conversely, i've almost completely refrained from adding any supposed or actual orientalising.in the spirit of the 'chaotic melting pot', my poetexts are directly multilingual: in italian, english, german, french & spanish. i have arranged all the utterances alphabetically by initial letter & then realised them with different ways of speaking & vocal transformations. fragments of conversations & announcements in turkish dialogue with the musical sounds, my texts & the original recordings. i didn't just want to present the metropolis as a clichéd 'multicultural melting pot', but also to draw attention to its darker side - such as the real overtourism that exists & how it contributes to the overflowing metropolitan landscape.yollar - diller is a 52-minute vibrating soundscape in which speech, music & city sounds are given equal status. the composition emphasises the specific potential of hearing, which is the only sense that remains constantly active & processes acoustic stimuli, even during sleep. the physical dimension of hearing, in which sound waves penetrate the body, enables an intimate connection with the environment that goes beyond the purely visible. sound perception not only stimulates the imagination, but also opens up virtual spaces in which imagination & reflection merge. in addition to the visual perception that dominates our culture, conscious listening invites us to experience the world in a different & differentiated way.as a composer, language & visual artist, i work to unite different acoustic & visual forms of perception & to make the often underestimated role of hearing more perceptible. immersive listening creates resonances that have an immediate effect & simultaneously allow for intellectual reflection. this combination of sonic & mental depth creates ambiguous worlds of imagination that go beyond the mere absorption of information & promote a holistic experience.the radiophonic sphere has inspired me since my earliest childhood & taught me to appreciate the independent imaginative & narrative power of the acoustic. pure listening', detached from visual stimuli, opens up an independent level of perception that has a deep impact on the human world of experience. the oral-auditory tradition of storytelling & listening - older than any writing - is also reflected in this composition, pointing to the fundamental role of hearing as a medium of social & democratic communication.through my many years of work in the field of sound & my visual approaches, i strive for a perception in which sound does not play a decorative role, but unfolds its transformative effect as an autonomous medium. yollar - diller makes urban space perceptible, reflects transcultural interdependencies & opens up new forms of experience & understanding through the acoustic dimension.

print publication as video

İST - poesie polifonetiche
^{residency booklet}

watch video

during my artist residency at atelier galata in istanbul i documented the complexity of this urban continent & its inhabitants. in the print publication IST - poesie polifonetiche i combine collected impressions into text, graphic, sound & video formats to present transdisciplinary perspectives beyond clichéd landmarks.living in istanbul is an experience in tutti i sensi. the senses are almost constantly exposed to sounds, images & different languages. this has its charm & its price, is inspiring & challenging at the same time. yet this flood of stimuli must be actively mastered. colours & sounds, smells & textures create illusionary figures that enable inner remappings.as a person with two nationalities & a queer identity, i often felt challenged on my wanderings through istanbul. what i heard & saw triggered questions about non-binary male identity, which can be interpreted as an instrument of power on the one hand, & self-deprecating on the other. the isolation of the ageing white man in the urban landscape became clear. queerness is less about finding answers than about constantly finding new questions.

for a printed copy of the work please
contact the kunststiftung nrw's press office

acousmatic

tüplerin içinde ^{- im röhricht}

listen

speech is another means of communication. in istanbul, this means: plurilingualism. starting from station announcements, a virtual linguistic landscape opens up. to this end, i had every single underground recording increasingly overgrown with the speech-like sounds of a ki. this mapping generates sonic fake traffic, which has little to do with communication, but all the more with the ideology that only those who communicate constantly on all channels are relevant. after the built-up mountain of language has subsided, the metro has taken us unheard into the natural cave system of the istanbul cistern. here the sounds of language seem real again.my art often revolves around the conditions & boundaries of communication. the starting point for tüplerin içinde was 3 months of sound exploration in istanbul's urban space. traffic lines are means of communication. with the recording device running, i travelled along all the metro tubes. back home in cologne, i set these urban-geographical audio protocols to vibrate compositionally. gathered in a ratio of 7:1, the sounds of all 11 metro lines unfold successively towards the middle of the piece.

visual music