Meeting Place for Sounds

Between 16th-20th January 2023, a group of international sound artists came together to conduct sonic research at the CLB, Moritzplatz. For four days, it was a laboratory for studying traffic noise, small vibrations, passing conversations, hidden corners, the flows of humans and other animals.

Our starting point was the concept of practices. The word has many interesting meanings:
- To practice a profession
- To put something into action or practice
- To do something repeatedly or habitually
- To perform, work, or exercise

A good example is the practice of a musical instrument. Music practice, unlike music performance, takes place in the bedroom or living room rather than the concert hall. It is not hear by a single audience of concentrated concert-goers, but instead by multiple audiences such as:
- roommates, neighbors;
- music teachers
- the practicer themselves

Each audience listens in its own way. For example, the music teacher may be analytic, the practicer themselves might be reflective, and the neighbors hear the practice as background sound. Depending on who is listening and where they listen from, the music practice will be perceived with different aesthetic qualities, producing feelings anywhere from love to hate to bordem.

From this, it becomes clear how the idea of a practice confuses many traditional concepts of audience and methods of presentation. This confusion is what makes it exciting to work with, and made it a good starting point for our sonic research project.

During the 4 working days, we led collective workshops, eat together, had intense discussions about sound and our projects, and welcomed visitors (Udo Knoll and Peter Cusack came to give feedback on the sketches of our projects). By the end of the process, 8 incredible projects had emerged. To see them, please visit our website.

If you have questions or thoughts about the project then please feel free to get in contact with me via CLB Berlin.

Max Baraitser Smith