From the beginning of May to the end of June, works by IMWI students of the Institute for Music Informatics and Musicology (IMWI) at the Karlsruhe University of Music will be presented via »The Morning Line«.

The Institute for Music Informatics and Musicology (IMWI) at the Karlsruhe University of Music explores the relationship between music, computers and humans. The examination of current technologies takes place in the course of artistic practice, theoretical reflection and through research and development.

Among other things, students devote themselves to the development of sensor-based musical instruments, the composition and performance practice of electronic and computer music, live coding, and composition for film and games. The ComputerStudio provides IMWI with extensive spatial and technical equipment for this purpose.

»The Morning Line« consists of 41 loudspeakers and 12 subwoofers which are guided by a central control unit. It was designed by artist Matthew Ritchie, the architects Aranda\Lasch and the Advanced Geometry Unit (AGU) by Arup specifically for rendering space-filling electroacoustic compositions. The installation is a colossal sound body accessible for visitors. The unique sound system was designed by Tony Myatt and the Music Research Centre of York University.

Elina Lukijanova
»Mutism Opera« (2015 – 2021), 21'27''

»Mutism« describes psychogenic silence. Under the protection of anonymity, participating writers entrusted me with their voices as musical raw material. Operas, on the other hand, still use sexualised violence as a dramaturgical device, conventionalising it into a narrative, while, free of metaphors, people without advocates are deprived of sexual self-determination in real terms. In contrast to this, I consider the term »-opera« here as my attempt to depict the persistent, the not-overcome.

Johannes Biedermann, Andres Kaufmes 
»[ˈpɔllən]« (2021), 12' 

In its 12 minutes »[ˈpɔllən]« shows the annually cycle of pollen flight. Eight different plants are represented through sound textures, whose intensity changes throughout the piece. Each minute stands for one month of the year.

Common Hasel (Corylus avellana), Goat Willow (Salix Caprea), Silver Birch (Betula pendula), Baltic Pine (Pinus sylvestris), Rye (Secale cereale), Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), Common Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisifolia)

Jia Liu
»Ring Study II/b« (2021), 13'25'' 

The autonomous pitch-following feedback system of »Ring Study II/b« has been adapted to the 41 discrete audio channels of »The Morning Line«. On each channel one can hear a sine-oscillator which follows the frequency of another channel. Using a knot- and graph-theory inspired approach, the control of the signal-flow topology leads to the formation of various feedback structures and unique system behaviors due to the inaccuracy of the pitch-following algorithm.

Jacqueline Julianna Butzinger
»Permutations on Distorted Steel« (2021), 8'16'' 

»Permutations on Distorted Steel« is a multichannel composition, realized with SuperCollider, examining the overtone structure of a metallic sound through the lens of Fast-Fourier-Transform (FFT). The artist utilizes the dynamic Fourier-Transform to obtain a ‚structural blueprint’ of a harmonic spectrum of a pitched metallic sound and uses the resulting frequency reservoir as the basis of the piece. 

Tim Offenhäußer
»Floating Transitions« (2021), 11'11'' 

In the piece »Floating Transitions«, sinusoidal sounds with different compositions of harmonics are moved through space. This causes the sounds to blend and create interesting beatings. Over a longer period of time, various parameters change, making slow, almost imperceptible changes audible in the rooms of the Sound Pavilion. Each room has its own theme. High and low notes, long and short notes, distorted and clean harmonics are slowly transformed into the opposite. 

Jakob Schreiber
»Ode to Repair / Parts of a Whole« (2021), 9'35'' 

'Repair' implies the notion and goal of functioning as opposed to dysfunction. »Ode to Repair / Parts of a Whole« deals with the question of whether ‚intact‘ and ‚broken‘ are mutually exclusive, or whether it is not rather a continuum between two poles. What are the connections between the individual parts and what happens when elements fall away? How many fragments may be missing so that the piece or the machine does not stop working?