Maike Graf, Richard Zapf, (Lottie Sebes)
Performance
world premiere - commissioned by guterstoff

Friday, 25th August 2023 | 7pm
Saturday, 26th August 2023 | 5pm & 7pm
Gemeinde

"morpheus (processing empathy)" is a performance for an actor and speech clone. A human and a machine are negotiating their mutual understanding. In this process, they strive to align their cognitive imagery while comparing their meanings for concrete, abstract, and emotional subjects. Only the identical visualization appears to signify their successful empathy and understanding. While the human's images are heavily influenced by personal memories, the machine generates images with a universal approach.

The two characters are engaged in a dynamic, empathic process because they depend on each other. In this manner, they attempt to copy, mirror, and steal their cognitive images. What will they discover as they allow these images to morph? Are they able to grasp the opium of understanding that Morpheus, the god of dreams and sleep, embodies?

Aro Han, Lisa Reutelsterz
Installation
world premiere - commissioned by guterstoff

Friday, 25th August 7pm | 10pm
Saturday, 26th August 5pm | 11pm
GOLD + BETON

Pain and pleasure, intrinsic to the human experience and to the being-in-the-world, are profoundly subjective phenomena that shape our perception of the world. Rooted in our complex neural architecture, both are unique to each individual and can only be communicated to a limited extent. Yet, we witness the tendency to represent these sensations in a schematic and abstracted style, often likening them to mechanical structures. "Synaptic Intermix" delves into the aesthetic of these images and the metaphorical representations within a three-channel installation in a triptych formation. A seamlessly interconnected montage of animated biological videos and immersive soundscapes juxtaposes the organic and the artificial.

Anna van Eck, (Salim Javaid)
Participatory Performance

Friday, 25th August | 8pm
BLOCK 7

Experiencing closeness at a distance is what this project by Anna van Eck is all about. At its core, it explores nonverbal communication in the framework of a special setting – the social event of a shared dinner. With artistically shaped and enhanced cutlery, physical distance is enforced, while at the same time, the participants receive tools to creatively bridge that gap. Anna van Eck invites the participants through her work to perceive closeness at a distance emotionally. In interaction, social gestures and habits at the table can be explored in order to overcome physical distance. The intuitively usable objects provide an opportunity for people to meet in unconventional ways. In Festmahl, the relation of closeness despite the distance is being rendered interactive as the participants discover the functions and dysfunctions of the prototypes playfully.

Thea Soti
Concert
world premiere - commissioned by guterstoff

Friday, 25th August 2023 | 9pm
Gemeinde

Live Set for Voice and Live-Electronics

Open for Everybody

Friday, 25th August 2023 | 10pm
Ebertplatz

Alexis Ludwig
Workshop

Saturday 26th August | 2pm - 5pm
Alte Feuerwache

In the workshop "guter stoff brummt!" (good material hums!) by sound artist Alexis Ludwig, people solder and tinker. At a large table, small, simple audio oscillators are built that "hum" at different pitches. From extremely high frequencies to rhythmically booming sounds drifting into slowness are produced. For this, the simplest electrical components such as resistors, capacitors, potentiometers and transistors are soldered together on small circuit boards.

The resulting oscillators serve as a self-experience of being able to create sound generators or sound machines without much prior knowledge. Depending on the number of participants, a short drone piece can be improvised. Musicality or hi-fi quality should not be in the foreground, work is done without perfection - but with ambition. Background noises, hissing and noise are welcome. No special previous knowledge is required. There is certainly nothing wrong with having fun experimenting. Especially in these digital times, where nothing works without Instagram or the like, it is a special concern of the artist to offer the workshop and also the result in analogue form, even if digital media are used in the creation process. This is not to be understood as a devaluation of the digital. It is simply his way of working.


This workshop is a collaboration with ON Cologne

Áron Birtalan, Friedemann Dupelius
Workshop
world premiere, commissioned by guterstoff

Saturday 26th August | 1pm - 5pm
GOLD + BETON

In this playful workshop, we explore sounds as living creatures. Musical or atonal, controlled or chaotic - we believe sounds always have a body that is more than its source and reverb, and an intelligence that always knows something its creators and listeners do not. This puts sounds at an interesting position: their lives are dependent on relationships and events, and at the same time, they are also sentient entities that affect the very same relationships they are born from.

Throughout the day we will engage in simple exercises in attention, imagination and sounding to create a set of sonic creatures (creatures that exist ‘only’ as sounds) that can be heard, touched and spoken to. We will discover how it is to develop intimate relationships with sounds and reflect on the questions that come up along the way. Can a sound be owned?

Can a sound own us? Can a sound tell us things we don’t know? Can we tell secrets to a sound? Can we keep sounds in our home? In our pocket? In the sky? Between our fingers?

This workshop is suitable for everyone interested in exploring sounds, touch, language, relationships and world-building and in a playful and accessible environment, together with a group. Our exercises are made so participants can adjust them to their needs. You will not be asked to perform, but be prepared to challenge sensation and perception!

Victor Gelling, Rupert Enticknap
Performance
world premiere, commissioned by guterstoff

Saturday 26th August | 6pm
GOLD + BETON

What happens when two musicians meet in an improvisatory space and remove the music? How much are independent artists' lives reliant on improvisation outside of musicking? Through music making as research, conversation and play Victor and Rupert propose a performative dialogue to ask questions and discover answers on topics such as collaboration, funding, art making and perhaps other things yet unknown….. things may get loud!

iSaAc Espinoza Hidrobo and Salim Javaid
Performance
world premiere, commissioned by guterstoff

Saturday 26th August | 6pm
GOLD + BETON & Gemeinde

In this experimental communion, time stands still, iSaAc & Salim dance through the infinity of mutual discovery; finding solace at Leila’s—a bar, a passage, galleries of encounter in the embrace of night’s spiral movements; leaving an indelible mark on hearts alight.

Sarah San, Keikee, Friday Dunard
Rave

Saturday 26th August | 11pm
GOLD + BETON & Gemeinde