music austria – music information centre austria

I compose music to gain an alternative perspective on a world in which technology targeted at key control, domination and availablity is becoming ever more decisive. I understand music as a means of raising awareness of our perception and as a reminder of our sensory involvement in the world and the associated moment of contingency. In a time when concepts such as authorship and work have become questionable, I'm looking for new forms of composition, distribution, interpretation, presentation and reception of music. For me, the creative possibilities of modern music technology play an essential role. I see in my interactive music installations as new forms of presentation of music an important prerequisite for a fruitful dialogue with the utopia of open form. The exploration of a musical model ( through the audience in an installation) steps in place of the interpretation of a musical text (by musicians in a concert) Formal openness is therefore experienced directly, and the rights of authorship and unity of the work are discarded. The work on my music installations includes the design of a visual component, which serves as a medium for the exploration of music. Experiments with the vocabulary of architectural interior design touch another aspect of my work: the articulation of music and space with the help of immersive visualization systems. Only the focus on the emancipatory function of technology which aims at overcoming the given, can be considered appropriate in the arts, and at the same time display a counterpart to the mentioned technological habitus in the beginning.

Gerhard Eckel 1996