This online English language lecture series focuses on the History and Practice of Multimedia with an emphasis on music. We have invited members of the HfMT multimedia department as well as international scholars and practitioners to present on their respective fields of specialization (Constantin Basica, Kerstin Evert, Teoma Naccarato, Cat Hope, Johannes Kreidler, Randall Packer, and others). Topics include the definition, history, and appearances of multimedia. The lecture series will take place during the summer term, every Wednesday at 18:30h starting on April 7.

The third lecture is:

Post-Digitality and Virtuality (as Compositional Practices)

April 21, 2021, 6:30pm 

A Lecture by Alexander Schubert (HfMT)

HFMT Event link: https://zoom.us/j/93844741848?pwd=QlJoQ3VucTVtQURjVklvL0FDQk1jdz09

In the context of postdigitality, artistic practices can be understood as tools for making digital influences visible. This approach is based on the assumption that today the use of digital tools and forms of representation is no longer the exception but the rule, and that our interactions, ways of seeing, and images of the body are now significantly shaped by this circumstance. In particular, these approaches explore the question of whether, in this newly established condition, our view of the analog, non-digitally mediated environment has also changed. Post-digitality can be understood as a shift in perception. This readjustment of a viewpoint that is digitally influenced or reflective of the digital will be presented as a compositional strategy. This practice can be considered as a technique that actively thematizes the interpenetration of the analog by the digital and their interplay, thus making it possible to experience. The reconciliation of virtual and physical worlds and their artistic decoupling will be presented as a compositional approach and method of artistic research that attempts not only to convey these implications theoretically, but also to make them comprehensible to the senses.

Alexander Schubert (1979) studied bioinformatics, multimedia composition. He’s a professor at the Musikhochschule Hamburg. Schubert’s interest explores the border between the acoustic and electronic world. In music composition, immersive installation and staged pieces he examines the interplay between the digital and the analogue. He creates pieces that realize test settings or interaction spaces that question modes of perception and representation. Continuing topics in this field are authenticity and virtuality. The influence and framing of digital media on aesthetic views and communication is researched in a post-digital perspective. Recent research topics in his works were virtual reality, artificial intelligence and online-mediated artworks. Schubert is a founding member of ensembles such as ‚Decoder’.