
Between November 23 and 26, 2017, this year’s Giga-Hertz Award Festival will be taking place at the ZKM | Karlsruhe. The Award for Electronic Music has been awarded by ZKM | Karlsruhe and the SWR Experimentalstudio since 2007. We cordially invite you to the Festival’s rich and varied program, and especially to the ceremony of the awards on Saturday evening, November 25, 2017.
Renowned representatives from the international music and art scene together with the artists and composers who have been honored this year are once again expected at the festive award ceremony, among them this year's Giga-Hertz main-award winner Laurie Anderson.
On two evenings of concerts on November 23 and 24, the results of this year's and previous production award winners will be presented. The festival concludes with a lecture by the Giga-Hertz-Award recipient Laurie Anderson with a discussion to follow, on November 26.
The Giga-Hertz Award is dedicated to the world-famous physicist Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894). He taught at the Technical University of Karlsruhe (now known as the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) at the end of the 19th century and discovered electromagnetic waves there. The objective of the award is to promote electronic music and to provide an impetus through new tonal and compositional possibilities.

Main Award Winner 2017 | Laurie Anderson (USA)
This year, the Giga-Hertz Prize for Electronic Music will be awarded to US media and performance artist Laurie Anderson. Laurie Anderson is best known for her politically motivated song »O Supeman«. However, the now 70-year-old has developed an incredibly diverse approach to art. Beyond music, Anderson works transdisciplinarily in every respect and sees herself as an artist with a universal sphere of influence. Already in 1977 she participated in documenta 6 and 1987 in documenta 8, presented her works in exhibitions such as »The Record of Time« in various international museums and worked with various artists such as John Cage, Peter Gabriel, William S. Burroughs and Michel Waisvisz. As a musician, artist and poet, she has continuously taken up positions on political issues, most recently in a telematic performance with the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. She explores the possible uses of technological means in order to use them in her performances as surreal, chaotic and highly sensitive communication tools. Laurie Anderson has been awarded the Giga-Hertz Electronic Music Prize 2017 for her life's work for her poetic-metaphoric use and exploration of new technologies in music.
– Author: Ludger Brümmer

Program
Giga-Hertz Award 2017
- Jury
Ludger Brümmer (Composer, Head of ZKM | Hertz-Lab)
Björn Gottstein (SWR2 editor for New Music and artistic director of the Donaueschinger Musiktage)
Detlef Heusinger (Artistic Director of the SWR Experimental Studio)
Elena Ungeheuer (Professor of Contemporary Music at the Institute for Music Research at the University of Würzburg)
Peter Weibel (Artistic Director of ZKM | Karlsruhe)- Organization / Institution
- ZKM | Center for Art and Media
Accompanying program
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- Sun, November 26, 20174 pm
- Giga-Hertz Award: Lecture by Main-Award Winner Laurie Anderson
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Lecture
Kubus
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- Sat, November 25, 20178 pm
- Giga-Hertz Award 2017: Award Ceremony
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Award Ceremony
Medientheater
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- Fri, November 24, 20178 pm
- Giga-Hertz Award: Concert by the SWR Experimentalstudio
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Concert
Medientheater
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- Thu, November 23, 20178 pm
- Giga-Hertz Award: Concert by the Award Winners
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Concert
Kubus
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- Thu, November 23, 2017
- VR-Installation Chalkroom by Laurie Anderson and Hsin-Chien Huang
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PanoramaLabor
Projektteam
- Dorte Becker // Organization
- Christian Berkes // Assistant sound technology
- Ludger Brümmer // Artistic direction
- Götz Dipper // Technical support »Chalkroom«
- Hans Gass // Lighting and event technology
- Yannick Hofmann // Project Management
- Marco Kempf
- Anton Kossjanenko // Recording production
- David Luchow // Assistant sound technology
- Benjamin Miller // Sound engineer
- Manuel Weber // Lighting and event technology