REFLECTION SUMMIT OF TRANS-ART 2024

Artistic-Scientific Symposium 2024 on the topic of "Time" on October 10th and 11th, 2024

The third SUMMIT of trans-Art, held on October 10th and 11th 2024, at Astrid Rieder's studio in Wals near Salzburg, was dedicated to the exploration of a fundamental phenomenon—not only for trans-Art but universally: time. Eleven speakers from the fields of music, visual arts, philosophy, film, and law were invited to discuss the concept of time from their respective perspectives and beyond.

The symposium opened on October 10th with an art historical and biographical journey through time by art historian and curator Andrea Lehner-Hagwood, which took its starting point in a black and white image by photographer Beaumont Newhall taken at Lake Eden, Black Mountain College–for Andrea Lehner-Hagwood a ‘visualisation of the fusion of place, time and space’. The opening speech was followed by an opening and anniversary performance: flutist Elisabeth Möst and Astrid Rieder performed together the 100th performance of the monthly performance series do trans-Art. A transdisciplinary, reciprocal dialogue of rhythm, sound, texture, and colour developed between the flute and the drawing, the end of which was found together after almost 40 minutes without a clock.

The following day, October 11th, the participants gathered early for the lectures. The 10 lectures dealt with this year's theme, time, in different ways and yet, or perhaps because of this, seemed to refer to each other as response, counter-question or continuation of what had been heard before. Between the three panels of three to four lectures each, moderated by Jana Diewald, Johannes Ziegler and Michaela Schwarzbauer, thematic threads were thus stretched, taken up again and questioned.

The first panel was opened by the artist Beate Ronacher, who performed a 'Liegeperformance' while lying on a table. In the 'classic' lecture that immediately followed, Ronacher explored the nature of the present and questioned the creation of art in terms of underlying motivations – the 'why' behind the 'what'. This was followed by Alrun Pacher's lecture, which focused on the art of contemplation, the 'vita contemplativa'. Pacher gave not only a theoretical introduction to the processes of transformation between music and the visual arts, but also very practical insights into the subject, Sound and Colour, which she teaches. The third lecturer, Michaela Schwarzbauer, then delved into Homer's Odyssey and Wolfgang Roscher's sound scene improvisation 'Wem lausch ich und wen hör ich'. In this context, Schwarzbauer questioned some of the eleven multimedia scenes, which in Roscher's sense follow one another like "pearls on a string", about their inherent power to transcend time. Anamarija Batista's contribution then asked about free time as opposed to leisure time and provided insights into the exhibition 'Free time' / die 'freie Zeit' at Kunstraum Innsbruck, which she curated.

In the second panel, philosopher Michael Bastian Weiß engaged dialectically with aesthetics and its particular relationship to ethics, raising difficult questions about the freedom of art and the distinction between what we may do and what we perhaps should not do. Lawyer Wolfgang Renzl then gave an interactive lecture on the history of copyright works, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and the legal challenges it poses. Vocalist Annette Giesriegl dedicated her contribution to the role of time in improvised music, sharing recordings of her singing practice to allow the audience to experience varying speeds of time.

After a lively lunch break, the program resumed with Walther Ziegler's vivid presentation on the core ideas of the classical Greek period. Following him, Roland Hablesreiter joined via video from Vienna, humorously recounting a self-experiment on procrastination with artificial intelligence. The panel concluded with Cordula Fröhlich's lecture on art as participation in the fourth dimension, which explored not only the concept of time but also the artistic work of Astrid Rieder. Unfortunately, Ingrid Weese-Weydemann's lecture, intended to close the day, had to be canceled due to illness.

This year, rather than occurring at the end of the day as in the previous two symposiums, the discussion took place throughout the day following each presentation. This approach allowed for immediate reactions to the lectures, enabling participants to ask questions, share comments, and, most importantly, to think further together.

At the end of the symposium, the participants came to a startling conclusion: "It was a happening."

REVIEW SUMMIT OF TRANS-ART 2022

Scientific Symposium 2022 at the studio of Astrid Rieder

The SUMMIT of trans-Art 2022, on October 13-14, was a successful colloquium on the occasion of the 76th performance of the monthly series do trans-Art at Bundesstraße 37 in Wals-Siezenheim. As usual, a stimulating dialogue took place between the art genres of new music, abstract drawing, performance art and documentary video. Eight international speakers were invited, who distinguished themselves with their lectures and experiences. By opening the doors of her studio, Astrid Rieder once again facilitated a scientific discourse, which, in conjunction with the 76th performance of the do trans-Art performance series, offered new experiences to all participants.
The aim of this year's conference was a preoccupation with the threats of our time. Wars, pandemics, lack of resources and climate change are just some of the factors that must teach us responsibility. Art should also show morality in this context, said organizer Astrid Rieder, who took over the opening speech on the evening of October 13 due to Jürgen Tabor's illness at short notice.

The subsequent opening performance, do trans-Art_76, with Paul Eiser on saxophone, was interactive and above all spontaneous, because immanently neither rehearsals nor arrangements took place in advance. Completely after the slogan, which must be acted fast to changes in the world events often.

The lectures held on October 14 dealt with various aspects of art to the delight of the visitors.
The musician Celina Hubmann opened with breathing, voice and improvisation techniques according to Ilse Middendorf, which refreshed the consciousness that morning and thus directed the focus to the conference.

Manuel Schabus took up this mental process in his speech and connected it with stages of cognitive conditioning.
Anna Koch then devoted herself to possible forms of improvisation in new music.
In contrast to this, Michael Mautner presented an introduction to the composed supersymmetrical music of Hofstetter Kurt in the following lecture, which left the audience amazed at the differences.

The next speaker: Roman Pfeffer talked about media resources and their conceptual, linguistic and process methods.
Elisabeth Möst spoke about a note color scheme, which she made tangible with the help of case studies from the classroom. She said that providing notes with certain colors brings liveliness to the often tedious activity of practicing scales and etudes and is even used by trained music teachers.

After a well-deserved lunch break - which was upgraded by Ökohof Feldinger in Wals - the event continued with a stimulating discussion on the lecture by Marie-Therese Rudolph, who spoke about trimediality. The fact that the similar sound of different pieces on the same platform (here: Spotify), results from the necessary data minimization on the network, proved to be interesting. The strong competitive and complementary capabilities between radio, TV and the Internet were also pointed out.

The series of lectures will be concluded by Margit Zuckriegl, who will speak about concrete photography and thus close the circle to trans-Art. Concrete photography deals with the processuality of its genre - just as Astrid Rieder can only see the process of her do trans-Art performances as a work of art.

The last official item on the program was the panel discussion, which attempted to summarize all the connecting elements to trans art once again and to review the symposium. One challenge here, as is so often the case, is to break out of the familiar material and engage with other theories and practices. Due to the coherent and always unifying concept of the SUMMIT of trans-Art 2022, this process can be considered a success. Some artists were able to network and the scientific discourse, as an enormously important part of the further development, thus formed an extremely beautiful conclusion. We are looking forward to the preparations and the holding of the SUMMIT of trans-Art 2024.

review SUmmit of Trans- Art 2020

Scientific symposium 2020 at the studio of Astrid Rieder

A scientific symposium that puts the value for reception by connecting different creative genres up for discussion. International speakers with professional knowledge and experience in the key elements of trans-Art, such as abstract drawing, new music, documentary video, radio and space, were invited. This event took place on August 13th and 14th, 2020 in Astrid Rieder's studio in Wals-Siezenheim. Astrid Rieder has been continuously working on linking the art genres of contemporary music and abstract visual art for over 20 years. She opened her studio for lectures, scientific discussions and offered the participants the opportunity to experience trans-Art themselves as an active drawing performer in the course of a Publikumsperformance.

In her opening speech, Astrid Rieder compared the preparations for this symposium on trans-Art with a first ascent of one of the highest mountains of our planet. That's why she chose the title SUMMIT of trans-Art. 

The event aims at strengthening the genuinely artistic claim of the trans-Art performance format Composition graphique musicale created by her through scientific examination. The particularity of this Composition graphique musicale, defined by Astrid Rieder, lies in the consistently new acoustic and graphic design of the performance through spontaneous, interactive, dialogue-like communication at eye level. Both the drawer and the musician meet each other without prior consultation or a prefabricated concept or score and develop their artistic work through spontaneous interaction.

In her illuminating testimonial lecture, Sabine Coelsch-Foisner asked whether art has always been trans-Art in a certain form. With numerous examples from art history, she was able to prove that there is a potentiating synergy effect in combining different art genres.

Subsequently the composer Karlheinz Essl and Astrid Rieder engaged in such a spontaneous, interactive, communication between artist and musician out of which emerged the 50th performance of Astrid Rieder’s do trans-Art series. As input for the electronic processing of his voice in the artistic dialogue, he chose the working noise of the drawing process, recorded with a contact microphone positioned directly next to the Papierene Leinwand. In just under 40 minutes, a thematically dense drawing was created on the 150x100 cm papierene Leinwand and multilayered, electronically modified sounds. The combination of these abstract devices creates an unlimited space for reflection for the recipient.

The next morning, on Friday, August 14th, Wolfgang Richter, Irene Suchy, Christian Tschinkl, Jürgen Tabor, Christian Ofenbauer, Max Rieder, Patricia Lopes Bastos, Peter Kutin and Petra Hinterberger dealt with the elements of trans-Art and their synergy.

In the panel discussion, which was led by Christian Ofenbauer, the following consensus developed as to what the added value of a trans-Art consists of:

the adoption of various techniques from art, which expands the behavioral repertoire of the individual artists, discards existing hierarchies and creates new and flexible structures. Christian Ofenbauer named John Cage and Merce Cunningham as an example, "who developed an elegant strategy out of a difficult situation, e.g. Montage."

Another consideration is that the artistic experiences find their way into privacy as it lures the recipients out of their comfort zone.

The discussion proceeded to the realization that trans-Art can take place almost anywhere. In addition to the physical space in which they appear, the protagonists and recipients create an individual, practically unlimited, intellectual setting through concentrated attention.

For the ending ceremony of the symposium, all participants were invited to interact with a musician on a paper canvas measuring 150x150 cm for a period of five minutes each as an artist.

Within an hour, the artist-role alternated twelve times. The process was flowing. After this new, inspiring experience, everyone gave the canvas to the next artist with a happy smile. The feedback was great.

At the end of the day, those who still had time stayed at the NIGHT CAFE. Since the scientific discussion is an extremely important part of any further development, it is to be hoped that the scientific curiosity of this SUMMIT of trans-Art will motivate others to continue the research and exercise of trans Art.