SleepMap (Posts about events)

Darmstadt 2016

David Runge — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 20:00:00 GMT

Summer courses

In its 48th edition, the International Summer Courses for New Music were taking place in Darmstadt this year with a wide program.
Initiated just after World War II by Wolfgang Steinecke (then head of Department of Arts and Culture, in a city that was pretty much completely destroyed during the war), the Darmstadt School has risen to glory not only because of its famous seminarists such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, but mainly because of its diversity, international flavor and rehabilitation of art that was tainted by the Third Reich.
I am happy to have been a part of this year's spectacle, although I didn't really see much aside from the rehearsals and premiere of the piece I came to help establish: Tolerance Stacks by Annesley Black.

Linux Audio Conference 2016

David Runge — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 21:00:00 GMT

The conference

The Linux Audio Conference is actually a quite old concept by now. Started as a small Linux Audio user group meeting at LinuxTag back in 2002, the conference more and more developed into a multi-national event, thanks to people such as Frank Neumann (who by the way initially had a "hacker meeting" in mind) and places like the ZKM.
As more universities hosted it, its academic side strengthened, leading to proper proceedings, paper and poster presentations.
Generally speaking it has also always been a place to present software, do workshops to show people how to use software and try it out - suited for developers, users and interested alike!
Another nice aspect that evolved over the years is the concept of the "Linux Sound Night", giving the stage to the artists to present their pieces or perform live.
There's obviously a lot more to the history of the Linux Audio Conference (which is no wonder after such a long time!), than I could elaborate on.
By now the LAC has taken place in many different countries: Germany, Australia, Italy, The Netherlands, Ireland, USA and Austria.

Modular Synth Selbstbau Workshop

David Runge — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 20:00:00 GMT

In the beginning there was one

Last year, when I started building Eurorack, what eventually took it's peak of craziness in building my own suitcase, I got to know the great folks at Befaco, a Spanish group of friends that started designing and eventually selling their own modules.
Back then, the NK still existed as a venue and it was host to many concerts alongside the DIY workshops of Befaco (taken care of by Florian Hanisch).
When it closed down, I had already spent some time at c-base and found it to be a great place for synthesizer workshops (I mean, what better place for synths is there, but a space station? Well, maybe cats and synthesizers at a space station!).

Donaueschingen 2015

David Runge — Sun, 01 Nov 2015 14:00:00 GMT

The festival

Due to a fortunate contact through the Electronic Studio of TU Berlin I went to Donaueschinger Musiktage 2015 being the robot kindergarten worker for Orm Finnendahl's piece AST at most likely the "New Music" festival worldwide.
The festival is curated and organized by the SWR (a regional public broadcasting station serving the southwest of Germany). Traditionally it is held in Donaueschingen, a small town in Baden-Württemberg.
As it is a highly publicly subsidized event and genre of music that is presented there, the whole festival is quite an interesting and diverse place to be in.
An additionally very interesting aspect is, that all pieces presented are premieres!
That being said, I didn't have that much time to watch other pieces, but I made it to those two: The dress rehearsal of Michael Beil's "Bluff" (incredible timing!) and Olga Neuwirth's "Le Encantadas o le avventure nel mare delle meraviglie" (literally big production).
The latter made me miss my train on the way back (which was okay, because I ended up with parts of Ensemble Mosaik).

Mikromusik 2015

David Runge — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 14:00:00 GMT

The Berliner Künstlerprogramm (DAAD) sponsors a yearly "Neue Musik" and experimental music festival in Berlin, called Mikromusik. It's usually spread over several locations in Berlin.

This year those included Villa Elisabeth, St. Elisabeth Kirche, Sophienkirche [1] and Kapelle der Versöhnung, with many different installations and concerts.

CCCamp 2015 Aftermath

David Runge — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 14:00:00 GMT

The Camp

This year's Chaos Communication Camp has been pretty damn awesome (and I'm very late to tell that... I know)!

Chaos Communication Camp 2015

David Runge — Sat, 08 Aug 2015 14:00:00 GMT

Only a few more days and the Chaos Communication Camp 2015 opens its gates.
The c-base crew is diligently working on bringing equipment as an extension to the space station below Berlin to Zehdenick.
C-base turns 20 during Camp! Expect awesome celebrations!

I'm looking forward to a week with ~4500 hackers/ nerds/ musicians/ friends and old acquaintances.
There will be plenty of talks, workshops, hacking and hopefully time for some music making, swimming and all those other free time luxuries.
I'll bring my modular suitcase for some jams in the audio village and possibly even finish up on my Paper VCO (by Wolfgang Spahn and Antti Pussinen) or turn my Arduino Esplora into a low-fi waveshaper.
Who knows... I'm going camping.