hands on sound
[DE]
"Parabols"
Installation, 2015.
Satellite dishes sit everywhere, on the balconies and rooftops of people who invite the whole world into their homes. They supply entertainment, and both new and old information. These dishes clutter many cityscapes, including the area around Kottbusser Tor in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Many immigrants have called this area home since the 1970s. The buildings they inhabit seem to have appeared all at once, all within one architectural style, and are covered by the space-like antennas shooting out of almost every balcony. What do these city dwellers feel and hear? Do they take notice of the bustling Kottbusser Tor square below, the here and now? Or are they busy listening to and imagining other cities, other countries?
The satellite dish does not just receive, it can also send-out information. With "Parabols", the Berlin-based duo hands on sound use a series of antennas to gather and broadcast art, sound clips, and field recordings found within the Norient Network’s vast archive, into the exhibition space.
Founded in 2009 in Berlin by architect Max Kullmann and sound designer Jan Paul Herzer, hands on sound develops projects for curators, scenographers, and architects, while also creating their own artistic works. Sound is their tool and architecture their medium to program acoustic spaces, and also to leave voids in their design. Aside from more classical sound installations such as "Parabols", hands on sound have developed a distinctively orchestrated acoustic scenography for Norient's Seismographic Sounds exhibition. They have also planned a rather low-budget but durable multimedia-clash as the technical backbone for the same occasion.
