ZK/U Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Siemensstraße 27, 10551 Berlin-Moabit http://www.zku-berlin.org
opening times surrounding area: daily 6:00 – 21:00
„VOLUMINA“ (2013) Audio Work by Thomas Wochnik
for mobile soloists, Westhafen, cloud
The history of the shut down Westhafen freight yard and its neighbourhood can be understood as a history of its volumina: that is, freight volumes, which over time faded into volumes of data. In fact, the volumes of freight which passed through the Westhafen yard have diffused in physical networks of distribution, – with their only remaining record, despite from the dilapidated site, being documents in archives, that is: equivalent data volumina.
This composition takes the idea of volumina as its starting point. In VOLUMINA, for organ (1962), Ligeti has made a point on the relation of volumes of air within organ pipes and the space their sound would project into. In a way, given the site’s qualities, I am translating that concept onto the new media situation. The relations to be examined here are: that between digital non-acoustic non-space (which translates into the actual head-space between the headphones), the virtual space generated via means of sound engineering (especially plate reverbs), and the actual space of the site, the ZKU, located in one of the buildings of the former Westhafen freight yard.
Thomas Wochnik
Thomas Wochnik is a Berlin-based artist. After uncompleted studies in musicology in 2002, his focal point has oscillated between site-specific installation, medium-specific composition, and means of place-making. He holds an M.A. in Sound Studies, University of Arts Berlin and is co-founder of the artist group berg26.