series invisible | Christoph Korn & Lasse-Marc Riek
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Gruen 215 | Limited Edition Box Set with 10 CDs and book > [order]
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Audio work by Christoph Korn and Lasse-Marc Riek, 2004 – continuous
With the use of an audio recorder, the sounds of selected places or specific sonic phenomena are recorded. At a later date, these initial recordings are deleted again. This process is captured in the form of „writing“. Thus a series of notations is being created.
Example:
Wind (gentle)
Record: 8.8.2021, 3:24 PM, Mönbachtal Eifel, (D).
Delete: 8.8.2021, 3:31 PM
Duration: 3’17“
In January 2023, all the notations created since 2004 were recorded in the studio of the Südwestrundfunk (SWR) by a female and a male voice. The CD edition presented here is a selection of them. The read out notations always alternate between a female and a male voice. The duration of the originally recorded sound material is kept as silence.
Voices: Caroline Junghanns and Ole Lagerpusch
Dramaturgy and editing: Manfred Hess
Sound engineers: Tanja Hiesch and Christian Eickhoff
Production: Südwestrundfunk 2023
Design: U9 visuelle Allianz, Offenbach am Main
Made possible by a grant from the Stiftung Kunstfonds (Neustart Kultur), Startnext and the Department of Culture of the City of Hanau.
Thanks to Nora Grozdek for the encouragement and support, to the team of U9 for the wonderful artwork. Thanks to Claas Morgenroth, Manfred Hess (SWR) and Roland Etzin. Thanks to Christian Klisch, all Startnext supporters and the city of Hanau.
Sound Art Series by Gruenrekorder
Germany / 2023 / Gruen 215 / LC 09488
Box Set (Book + 10 CDs), 10 Tracks (667:53), run: 20 copies
Georg Imdahl
In photography, Roland Barthes writes, “it cannot be denied that the thing existed”. In Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald has his protagonist report that something dissolves exactly where he “makes the effort to remember“ – “the darkness does not lift but becomes yet heavier as I think how little we can hold in mind, how everything is constantly lapsing into oblivion with every extinguished life, how the world is, as it were, draining itself, in that the history of countless places and objects which themselves have no power of memory is never heard, never described or passed on”.
The logs of recording and deletion of “series invisible” testify with very little data – location, recording, deletion, duration – that something happened. They are sounds that were recorded and deleted, not images. And yet does the invisible in the series title come full circle toward photography? Concretely, the notes remind us of locations, persons, events, not least of the self-emptying of the world, of life annihilated, oblivion, which, partially and paradigmatically, is snatched from itself, of the process of recording and deleting, of memory itself.
Achim Wollscheid
With surprise we have to notice that the more we have things the less we actually do have them. ‘To have them’ meaning to know about them, what and how they are – in relation to other things and to us and what they mean in both respects. What is that knowledge we assemble? Is there anything real beside that knowledge? What does knowledge actually mean? To have it? In terms of information, stored on data-carriers, be it carved in stone, printed in books or lasered on hard disc? Or to experience it as the inescapable flow of sounds, clips, features and messages that make up the movie of everyday? Seems that the more uncertain our reasons for being become the more of that stored or flowing data is needed to accompany us – kind of an expanding cushion to keep us from getting hold of ourselves.
Can there be a return to things? And to us? I don’t think so, because on what corner should we turn? As artists we do, inevitably, develop, enlarge and refine the use of symbols – therefore we help to blow up that cushion – both as masters and servants of the respective methods applied. What could a responsible measure to implant a self-reflection of such methods consist of? Maybe it can consist of erasure.
Links and further projects:
All erasure notations created since 2004 have already been made available on the website www.series-invisible.de. In 2007 and 2013 respectively, one book with a selection of erasure notations was released by the audio publishers Selektion, Revolver and Gruenrekorder
series invisible – collection 1 (2007)
series invisible – collection 2 (2013)
A further approach to this project was the performative realisation of the material. A three-day Performance took place as part of the Wandelweiser Festival „Klangraum 2016“ at Kunstraum Düsseldorf.
In 2008, „series invisible“ was nominated for the French sound art award „Phonurgia Nova Award“ and received a special mention.
In the eponymous radio production on SWR2 (first broadcast on March 25, 2023), all notations from the period 2004-2022 are read.
It is available as a download until March 24, 2024.
Rigobert Dittmann | Bad Alchemy Magazin (122)
“series invisible” (Gruen 215) ist eine 2004 begonnene Kollaboration von CHRISTOPH KORN (Imperial Hoot, Arbeit, Blank) und LASSE-MARC RIEK (der 2003 Gruenrekorder mitbegründet hatte). Dabei sammelten sie zig Field Recordings, die sie aber in einer weiteren Drehung wieder löschten, um das nur als Notate zu protokollieren – Beispiel: 2 Ort Bahnhof Aufnahme 18.10.2006, 13:05 Uhr, Bad Kleinen Gelöscht am 21.10.2006, 20:04 Uhr Dauer der Aufnahme 4’40“. Als vollständiges Box-Set füllt das 10 CDs und ein Buch. Hier versammelt auf einer CD plus Booklet ist eine Auswahl von 22 solcher Notate, abwechselnd gelesen von einer Männer- und einer Frauenstimme: 1 Wiese bei Jossgrund/ Oberndorf, 3 Waldstück, 4 Gesang einer Goldammer, 5 Schlafphase Elli-Mia Riek, 6 Wohnung von Walter Benjamin, 7 Flugzeugüberflug Nr. 9, 8 Flugzeugüberflug Nr. 10, 9 Flugzeugüberflug Nr. 14, 10 Klosterzimmer, 11 Privatwohnung, 12 Tel Aviv Museum of Art, in der Nähe des Kunstwerks „Solitude“ von Marc Chagall, 13 Privatwohnung, 14 Mohammed-al-Amin-Moschee, 15 Wiese bei Jossgrund/Oberndorf. Aus einer Buschreihe heraus aufgenommen, 16 Holzbiene (in der Kirschblüte nach Nektar suchend), 17 Rosenkäfer (auf dem Rhododendron ruhend), 18 Der Ettersberg (in der Nähe des ehemaligen KZs Buchenwald), 19 Schnee (ganz still), 20 benedicere – als Lobpreis des Lichts, der Vögel, der Buchen und Birken und Eichen, des Efeus, des Klangs, des Holzes, des Laubs und der Steine, des Winds, des Atems, des Lebens, der Kranken, des Gelbs und des Grüns, der Idioten, der Blumen, des Tods, des Teers, des Vaters, der Mutter. 21 Privatwohnung (Fußnote: Krieg – am 28.2.22 ist das der russische Überfall der Ukraine), 22 Tesla Fabrik. Die Auswahl ist schon vielsagend, mit Benjamin und Chagall, Juden und Moslems, KZ und RAF, Idylle und Krieg. Die Stille an sich aber auch: Über das Vergehen und Vergessen, das postmoderne Sammeln, Archivieren, Musealisieren. 22 mal das ‚4:33‘-Angebot, doch nicht um Erwartung in Wahrnehmung zu verwandeln, sondern als Freiraum für die Vorstellungskraft, die Erinnerung, für Momente der Besinnung. [BA 122 rbd]
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