Within the course of his Edgard Varèse guest-professorship (DAAD) at TU Berlin composer and sound artist Gerriet K. Sharma worked with students from UdK and TU and experimented over 5 months at Hybrid Lab.
Key aspects of his work are sound sculptures in complex loudspeaker environments and space as a cultural key concept of the now. Therefore classical questions of possible aesthetics in the men-machine-interaction and artistic strategies in hybrid medialized environments where central. Within the cause of the DAAD guest-professorship these themes were subject to research, teaching and artistic practice. In consequence Sharma titled the professorship "Spatial Practices I. - X."
The Hybrid Lab became a hub for a number of diverse events and experimental setups: Lectures about "Sculptural Sound Phenomena in Computermusic" where regularly held as well as one-to-one tuitions with students from UdK and TU on practical compositional questions in 3D audio.
As a special artefact - the Icosahedral loudspeaker (IKO) that Sharma brought from Graz to the TU has to be emphasized. The instrument was developed within a project of excellence (PEEK) funded by the Austrian Research Funds (FWF). The research group OSIL (Orchestrating Space by Icosahedral Loudspeaker) at Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics Graz (IEM) consists of four engineers and one composer exploring both artistically and scientifically advanced techniques of space-sound reproduction for future applications in science, industry and the arts.
These efforts led to i.a. over 20 international concerts, a paradigmatic pool of new works, workshops, a series of publications and last but not least the serial production of the loudspeaker, which was introduced as a product last year. Hybrid Lab was IKO’s home for the past 5 months.
The lab was also the central space for experiments and exchange co-hosting the international workshop "Composing Space with Sculptural Sound objects" that Prof. Stefan Weinzierl, Dr. Frank Schultz and Prof. Gerriet K. Sharma conceived in 2017 and conducted for the first time from 12.-14.01.2018 at TU Berlin.
Thus the international workshop participants and the students were in the luxurious situation to use and compare very different spatial sound projection techniques with IKO and the TU studios in walking distance.
Also part of Sharma's space explorations in the Hybrid Lab were listening experiments with students that involved recording different perceptions of medialized spatial-sound phenomena, the results of which will be evaluated for further publications in the coming months.
Within the past months spontaneous meetings where hold as well as small concerts and lectures with the IKO e.g. the class by Prof. Stepahn Günzel from (BTK Berlin) or interested groups specialized in fields of architecture, movie-sound, spatial theory and linguistics. In the process the discussions, aesthetic concept and strategies where always dealing with the fundamental question how space with the instruments at hand and still to come can be created (differently).
On Monday the Hybrid Lab was the place of “Spatial Practices” for the last time. Students were presenting and performing their theoretical and practical works developed within the past weeks and months at a final class evening.
- Gerriet K. Sharma
Gerriet K. Sharma makes his farewells on 23.02. with a recital with the IKO at SIM (Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung) at the Philharmonic.
The event starts at 6:00 p.m. with an introduction of the impact and the changes in music by the advent and use of loudspeakers by Dr. Benedikt Brilmayer and an overview of the state of the art of complex loudspeaker arrays and their artistic use by Dr. Frank Schultz.
The final concert starts at 7:00 p.m.