Rhythmanalysis
A symposium held on November 22–23, 2012 at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart.
In prehistoric cultures, rhythmical activities were used to memorize tool operations; in the 16th century, rhythmical patterns emerged as disciplinary techniques in the Orangist military; in the 19th century, the observation of rhythmical soundscapes in medical listening practice became an important method for gaining knowledge about physiological processes. Rhythm is, more over, not only a human phenomenon, but plays a crucial role in insect communication. These very few examples illustrate the ubiquity of rhythmical structures from time immemorial. With the emergence of the information age and digitally coded technologies, we have been surrounded by rhythmically structured communication networks and rhythmical regularities have become faster and increasingly difficult to visualize.
Despite its omnipresence, the significance of rhythm seems to be underestimated. Thus, the symposium Rhythmanalysis will focus on various types of rhythmical regularities as a concept for understanding different time-structures in diverse fields such as life and economic sciences, cultural and media studies, music, and aesthetics. In this respect, it is following Gaston Bachelard’s influential The Dialectics of Duration (1936) and Henri Lefebvre’s posthumous Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life (1992). In lectures, discussions, and performances, the symposium’s participants will analyze the notion of rhythm in terms of sequentiality, time processuality, and measure of movement, as well as, outline effects of rhythm on humans and animals, nature and culture, space and time.
The symposium is initated by Shintaro Miyazaki in collaboration with the art, science & business program of the Akademie Schloss Solitude. It is funded by Andrea von Braun Stiftung and the cogito foundation.
- Participants
Blandine Bril, L’École des Hautes Ètudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Dietmar Maringer, University of Basel
Mara Mills, New York University
Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri, composer and sound artist, Berlin
Wolfgang Schäffner, Humboldt University of Berlin
Jan Thoben, musicologist, author, and curator, Berlin
Meta Virant-Doberlet, National Institute of Biology, Ljubljana
Axel Volmar, University of Siegen
