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Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf

Klang und Realität master program

The Klang und Realität master’s program is housed at the Institute for Music and Media, which brings together performative, compositional, and algorithmic forms of contemporary art. In keeping with this expansive vision, the program combines aesthetic, technical, and theoretical approaches.

Over the course of their studies, students will develop positions independently, in relation to different forms of mediality and different artistic, economic, academic, and scientific contexts. They will graduate prepared to shape, advance, and even anticipate developments in the 21st century.

Musical practice is not bound to musical instruments; it encompasses many approaches to art and research. Accordingly, the master’s program is open to students from all disciplinary backgrounds. It is particularly suited to those interested in the diversity of subject areas, media forms, and modes of thought; the conservatory context facilitates the exchange of interests and expertise from different domains. Student projects are at the center of this process, continually re-conceptualized over two years of study on the basis of critical and multi-perspectival feedback. Students design and execute these projects in collaboration with their peers, working in one of two areas of focus, Epistemic Media or Transmedia Forms, each of which opens up innovative avenues of inquiry. Further information on the curricular structure can be found in the Klang und Realität module overview.
 

Concentration: Epistemic Media

The Epistemic Media concentration emphasizes independent research and the development of new methods in the humanities, sciences, and arts.

Projects may focus on:

- experimental artistic approaches or novel methodologies;
- interactions with other disciplines and work at the interface between art and science;
- art as epistemic endeavor. 

Although text is still the classic epistemic medium, composition, film, installation, and performance are all vital means of insight and discovery. Projects may be situated in any of these media or generate entirely new practices, formats, or collectives. In the past, students and instructors have, for example, conducted acoustic field research, investigated sound and image in documentary film, and used mathematical methods for artistic thinking; they have expanded the scientific and artistic commons, explored algorithmic music, developed a semiotics of hearing, and refined artistic research.


Concentration: Transmedia Forms 

Conceived as an extension of contemporary compositional environments, the Transmedia Forms concentration aims to actively translate and integrate musical, artistic, and media processes. Projects and working areas are highly diverse, offering many possibilities for connection, networking, and collaboration. Areas of application and teaching include:

- performative elements of audio and visual composition (e.g. video, VR/AR, gaming, installation, public art, turntableism);
- composition, improvisation, and experimentation in various (electronic/electroacoustic) performance practices;
- narration, storytelling, and dramaturgy (e.g. text, fanzine, radio, podcast, sound design, performance).   

Transmediality here means the opportunity to enter into a conversation about society, space, and time through interaction and immersion. It means sounding out the established limitations and questioning the concatenations of forms of knowledge in music and art. And it means transgressing norms to open up new avenues of process-based exchange. 


Course of Study

To encourage interdisciplinary exchange, the largely elective coursework for the two concentrations overlaps considerably. Courses provide the theoretical, aesthetic, and technical foundations indispensable for cultivating an advanced artistic and research practice.

Semester contribution, including public transport is currently 315 € per Semester. The seminars are three days a week.
 

German Proficiency

International applicants must possess adequate German language skills. At the beginning of the first semester, the B2 certificate (in the Goethe Institute classification system) or a comparable qualification is required. 


Faculty

Madeleine Bernstorff (Documentary Form), Waltraud Blischke (Sonic Research), Dr. Johanna Dombois (Literary Form between Art and Science / Instrumentality), Dr. Anja Dreschke (Media Anthropology), Prof. Andreas Grimm (Composition for Media), Sarah Szczesny (Visual Methods), Prof. Dr. Nicolas Langlitz (Epistemology and Existence), Prof. Dr. Swantje Lichtenstein (Liminal Agencies), Marc Matter (Sonic Research/Prototyping), Prof. Hans Peter Reutter (Interpretation and Score Notation of Sound), Prof. Enrique Sánchez Lansch (Observation in Documentary Film), Prof. Julian Rohrhuber (Epistemic Media), Christian Schäfer (Practices of Time), Marcus Schmickler (Time and Media), Prof. Oliver Schneller, Composition, Phillip Schulze (Sound Art/Time and Media), Prof. Dr. Heike Sperling (Transmedia Forms), Dr. Tzuchien Tho (Form and Formalism)


Application information

Deadline for application Oct 31, 2021 (term beginning in April 2022). Application must be submitted via the online application portal Muvac. Application requirements

General questions about the program should be directed to subject tutors and the Registrar’s Office. For questions about curricular content, please contact the Klang und Realität program coordinator, Prof. Dr. Heike Sperling

contact: julian.rohrhuber@rsh-duesseldorf.de

 
 

 

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