participants and objectives – 8 takes on filming music

The film camera is an important tool in ethnographic research. It simultaneously observes and creates. Directed at music, its lens becomes an instrument. The camera’s gaze documents the way the observer is listening.
Zoom or pan, close-up or long shot: The eight films by Daniel Kötter re-composes recordings from the video archive of the music ethnology collection, staged in eight observer situations created by raumlaborberlin.
In so doing, the installation reveals the significance of cinematic framing for the construction of cultural knowledge about music making – and the tension between the (apparently) neutral documentation of a camera lens and the (obviously) individual construction of aesthetic experience by a listener-subject. How does music reconstruct itself in the listener without the usual strong conventions of performance and listening practice? How have ethnologists in the past and present made music visible with their recording devices? Likewise, in this visualization, how is the transformation of the ethnological perspective on music making in different cultures made visible? And, finally: how do we – as visitors of an exhibition – behold the observation of music on film.
Eight “takes” question the perspective of each particular observer and his/her part in the construction of the object being investigated, according to the relationship between the subjective participation on the part of the camera (participants) and the allegedly objective goal setting (objectives). The observer makes music. The music maker returns the observation.
„The filmer must know how to see the event in order to show, with film, how the event can be seen.“ (Feld/Williams, “Towards a Researchable Film Language”, 1975)

March 14 — May 26,  2013
Humboldt Lab Dahlem
Museen Dahlem, Lansstraße 8, 14195 Berlin
www.humboldt-lab.de
Vernissage March 13th 2013, 7 pm

Daniel Kötter – Artistic Direction, Videos
Julian Klein – Artistic Direction, Dramaturgy
Juliane Beck – Recherche, Dramaturgy
raumlaborberlin, Axel Timm mit Manfred Eccli, Samuel Perea, Lucyle Wagner – Spatial concept and Exhibition Design