Marcus Schmickler: Politics of Frequency - Colloqium and Concert

5:15pm: Schmickler’s talk will give an introduction to the piece "Poiltiken der Frequenz" (Politics of Frequency). Following an hypothesis "Music and Economics share a fundamental object: numbers."  Schmickler’s project "Poiltiken der Frequenz" circles around the acoustic rendering of number concepts. Inspired by Alain Badiou’s Le Nombre et les Nombres, the piece attempts to question the apparent immediacy of numbers that allow calculation to govern today’s economy, social sciences and everyday life.

8:00pm: For his  performance, Schmickler shows compositions based on various methods utilizing sonification: Bonn Patternization is based on astrophysical data and motivated by the question: What does it sound like when galaxy clusters of 30 objects reciprocally influence each other by means of gravitation? Using data gathered by researchers at Germany’s Argelander Institute of Astronomy, Schmickler will collide first two, then three simulated galaxies.  Another composition Politiken der Frequenz is based on sonifications of contemporary mathematics. 

http://piethopraxis.org

Marcus Schmickler is a key figure in German contemporary experimental music. While rooted in electronic music, Schmickler has a background in contemporary composition, having studied under the prominent Stockhausen collaborator Johannes Fritsch in Cologne. Since then has worked in the most diverse fields of composed and improvised music. He has won numerous prizes and honours and is closely associated with the Cologne label a-Musik, as well as with editions Mego and Mille Plateaux. As a composer along with his many works of electronic music, he works with the ensemble recherche,  musikFabrik, Paragon Ensemble, Ensemble zeitkratzer and many more. As a musician he works with musicians such as John Tilbury, Thomas Lehn, Julee Cruise and MIMEO. His discography so far consists of over 50 titles, and he has been performing on the world's stages and at international festivals for years. He gives lectures and seminars and also works as an author in the field of theatre, radio plays and film. Schmickler is part of the faculty at Bard College in Music/Sound MFA program. Lately he is been interested in epistemological and phenomenological aspects within the arts. He is currently a guest-professor for composition at CalArts in Southern California.