New projects for the app MyCity, MySounds

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ZKM received more than 70 entries for the open call, »MyCity, MySounds«, which ran until May 20, 2018. Project proposals by Amble Skuse, Thomas Butler, Nicolas Melmann, and Hojo/Kraft were selected for implementation starting in September 2018.

Scottish composer and musician Amble Skuse will artistically reflect on the experience of a big city from the perspective of a disabled person. Amble Skuse wants to illustrate the adaptation of her own body to an unfamiliar urban environment and expected states of pain, exhaustion and frustration by means of body sensors (e.g. EEG & ECG), as well as site-specific audio, video and photographic recordings. In addition to a walk for the app »MyCity, MySounds«, she will create an online blog. As part of her current dissertation project, Amble Skuse is concentrating on working with disabled musicians, combining acoustic instruments and live electronics through the use of creative interfaces (e.g. biosensors).

Under the working title »Karlsruhe Survey«, composer Thomas Butler will produce a sound walk on the topic of sustainability, in which he will compare the energy consumption of Karlsruhe households and the potential of renewable energies at several locations throughout the urban spaces of the city. The aim of the work is to stimulate a thought experiment of future-oriented urban development processes within a post-fossil fuel energy economy. Butler will compose a series of site-specific electroacoustic miniature pieces. The sound locations will be emblematic of the generation of electricity and its consumption.

The musician and sound artist Nicolas Melmann wants to reflect on the Jewish diaspora and develop an installation based on characteristic sounds whose central theme is the migration movements of the Jewish people in the European states. The project's plan is based on a study carried out by the IWO FOUNDATION on migration movements and the multiple expulsions and persecutions of the Jewish people. One of Melmann's goals is to use the app »MyCity, MySounds« to explore the city of Karlsruhe in search of Jewish life, and to capture the essence of these places, their cultural history and the patterns of behavior of Jewish citizens in public space.

The sound artists Rahel Kraft and Tomoko Hojo will create a radio play-like audio walk, which is intended to be a poetic examination of dawn. It will be composed from field recordings and improvised sound interventions, as well as voice and sound recordings.

The Artist-in-Residence program »MyCity, MySounds« is part of the »INTERFACES« project and is co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.