Intermediality I

»Seeing with the ears« – Can seeing also be heard, can hearing be seen?

Broadcasting is the medium of topicality long before the Internet. The radio was the only mediator of the »latest news«, the first medium to provide live broadcasts, the so–called »speedy reportage«. But in addition to knowledge and news, radio was a medium of the arts from the very beginning. How were the fine arts represented on the radio and how was art communicated?

The experts discuss the topic of intermediality in the sense of the intertwining of public and artistic media. The starting point of the debate will be the literary satire »North Sea Crabs« by Bertolt Brecht, in which art is seen in a different light. Under the new term »polyfrontal avant–garde«, which was formulated by Klemens Gruber, the significance of the early public media, radio and film, will be discussed. Against the background of the experiences of the First World War, the distraught families took refuge in a new »structured – tiled, metal, glass and concrete – 'environment'«. The new media of the early 20^th century also offered opportunities to bring together public and private spheres as well as art and life, before the enforced conformity by the Nazis »seized power«.