SOUND(ING) SYSTEMS / The Cold War Continuum EPISODE_3: Prof. Helmut Müller-Enbergs, Dr. Bodo Mrozek

‘Lauschangriff: Feedback on surveillance practices during the Cold War in Berlin’
Prof. Helmut Müller-Enbergs and Dr Bodo Mrozek in conversation w. Martin Kowalski (Chair)


SOUND(ING) SYSTEMS
is an interactive program developed under the artistic direction and curation of Nik Nowak within the context of his exhibition Schizo Sonics at Berlin’s KINDL – Center for Contemporary Art (13.9.2020 – 15.5.2021).

The bonus concept consists of the one-day symposium "The Cold War Continuum" and three live performances during 20.03.2021 – 24.04.21.

The Symposium "The Cold War Continuum" was designed and moderated by Jessica Edwards (UK/GER)

Participants:
Dr. Steve Goodman (UK)
Known as Kode9, founder of Hyperdub label and author of Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear (MIT Press, 2010).

Nik Nowak (GER)
Artist and creator of the mobile sound system sculptures Panzer (2011) and The Mantis (2019). SOUND(ING) SYSTEMS has been conceived and curated under the artistic direction of Nik Nowak.

Martin Kowalski (GER), author and philosopher, in conversation with Dr. Bodo Mrozek (GER) Research Associate of the Berliner Kolleg Kalter Krieg | Berlin Center for Cold War Studies and Prof. Helmut Müller-Enbergs (GER) who is Professor at the center for cold war studies at the institute for history at Syddansk university in Denmark, political scientist and expert on secret services and german history.

Sebastien Carayol (FR)
Journalist and Curator of the exhibition Jamaica Jamaica! (Philharmonie de Paris, National Gallery of Jamaica)

Prof. Louis Chude-Sokei (USA)
Director of Boston University’s African-American Studies Program, author of The Sound of Culture: Diaspora and Black Technopoetics (Wesleyan University Press, 2016), and Editor-in-Chief of The Black Scholar.

Sarah Farina (GER) and Dr. Kerstin Meißner (GER)
Founders of Transmission – audio and visual project for the political and historic relevance of international sound, club and rave culture.

SOUND(ING) SYSTEMS examines the history of the Cold War via the so-called ‘Lautsprecherkrieg’ (loudspeaker war) and the ‘Studio am Stacheldraht’ (Studio at the Barbed Wire) in Berlin. The program focuses on the surprising political entanglements of Jamaican and Korean sound systems in the global struggle between the great powers fighting for ideological influence; the controversial use of acoustic weapons in Cuba as well as the politicization of subcultural movements. A critical analysis of the ideological demands made on sound systems separate to the Cold War, examining the global transformations of sound system cultures.

What factors might account for both how, and why, sound system culture, (in its varied, widereaching global forms), and the medium of sound itself, have become gravitational spheres to which the military, covert government agencies, cultural producers, and theorists alike have been increasingly drawn since the onset of the (first) Cold War? At which point did sound politics become an increasingly important weapon in the cultural-political armory for factions of the fine arts, philosophy, scientific research, sound research, feminist and queer discourse and practice, as well as for clubs and subculture?

SOUND(ING) SYSTEMS is a free program that interrogates the political and sonic resonances of physical and virtual boundaries. During the Cold War there were fortified borders, especially along the Iron Curtain.

Since the 1990s, there has been increasing investment in border installations to ‘protect’ against immigrants from the global south. Thousands of people escaping all forms of war, persecution and seeking asylum, die in their attempts to flee these unlivable conditions every year. Organizations like Sea-Watch are continuously fighting the deadly consequences and indifference of the increasing isolationism of Europe.

If you have liked our symposium and program of musical events please help us in our support of Sea-Watch and donate via bank transfer to:
IBAN: DE77 1002 0500 0002 0222 88
BIC: BFSWDE33BER
Bank: Bank für Sozialwirtschaft Berlin
Name of account holder: Sea-Watch e.V.
Reference: SOUNDING SYSTEMS

We thanks you for your invaluable support!