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Small path in forest towards the Heidegger Hütte in Todtnauberg, Germany

Philosophy is of concern
Not many people have some clue why Martin Heidegger is so important, perhaps many of them think he just burned his last pieces of trust-ability when he joined the Nazi party 1933 and stayed there to 1945 (perhaps with the hope he could influence the destructive system from within to the better). However, regarding to his content of his philosophy and the political connections the conclusions fall in an arbitrary way to find ones position in an already hard society. Better to play with the game instead to be against, but still something seems to be obviously paradoxical here.

“One can forgive many Germans, but there are some Germans it is difficult to forgive. It is difficult to forgive Heidegger.” Emmanuel Levinas

Since the national socialists campaigned hard about the protection and access for nature (ref), one vague guess would be Heidegger also had his interests in just these specific questions such as the nature and animal protection plans (the presence of nature is strong in Todtnauberg). His affairs with Hanna Arendt (Jewish) and protecting the jewish employees at his school as a counter attitude makes it even more evident that society forced people to have unethical views (if not they got into trouble).

Well this pattern is of course visible in many similar state situations in history. Bad state hence bad people. For instance who would dismiss Plato’s works today for being unjustified and unreadable, when he had such bizarr and amoral political views regarding slaves etc. It was the society at that time that made him activate in that manner. Accusing Heidegger’s political standpoint also means accusing a majority of the German population at the same time, which of course one can do, but this is not especially interesting of philosophical concerns.

So philosophers distill attention to philosophical content (not mainstream political standpoints at the times) and clearly this guy has contributed a lot. When the linguistic analytics like Wittgenstein were trying to solve it all, Heidegger opened it up and just made the wheels turning (and made us all confused again). Since the release of the major work of “Sein und Seit” the philosophical world has questioned if metaphysics is really possible anymore.

Being a philosopher making a pilgrimage
With admiration and a backpack of novice questions a day-pilgrimage to his hütte in south Germany could be a good way to get away from the hot cities. Besides my dear girlfriend Dr. Anna brought up the idea in the first place.

To understand the trip itself it came evident that I also needed to understand the profession of a philosopher as well, a hard work in the humanities in close contact with science, poetry, theology, literature, human culture, history etc, with a considerable amount of thinking, reflecting and argumentation.

Being a philosopher also means to insert you into a process of dis-attachment and the need for spatiality-in-the-thoughts for developing your own nomenclature of building components. (as in contrast for the historical oriented philosophers, that can never stop referring and reading other philosophers). This spatiality do speak in large letters in Todtnauberg, it even feels clumpsy and superstitious to check the clock on the mobile phone.

Anna has an in-depth understanding of the whole world of Heidegger since she spent many years in the prestigious St. Petersburg State University discussing with her colleges and professors. Her thesis also concerned some of the main topics on Heidegger relating to historicity as well as other pretty much hard-boiled subjects. This was at the times when the teachers had not yet become insane (hence quite close to some sort of infinite state).

Ph.D. Kharkina at Heidegger’s Hütte

Becoming a doctor in philosophy at those days also meant promoting artistic liberties rarely seen in universities today and a freedom developing your own methods, textures and systems. The teachers didn’t go home after work but stayed late evenings discussing and developing the art and methods of philosophy with their students. This was an interesting time since many of the the continental philosophers appeared for the first time in their russian translations. Heidegger, Sartre, Foucault etc.

Heidegger rundweg
Todtnauberg is a small beautiful village in south Germany not very far from Freiburg (were Heidegger had his professor chair). The village is reached by first a commuter train departing from Freiburg HBF to Kirchzarten Bahnhof. Then if you have calculated your arrival right for the bus schedule, take the 7215 bus* to Todtnauberg. Since this bus does not go especially often, be sure to plan the day well, since the steep walking in Todtnauberg takes longer time (and more energy) than one can expect.

*Get the tickets (RVF Punkekarte) in the automat, it charges 6-8 punktekarte-markings for one way trip to Todtnauberg, 20 punkte is enough for two people back and forward, which is 13.20 EUR) Old schedule here (but still working) 7215_beide_normal

The bus trip was a delight itself going up the steep hill sides of the Black Forest areas. Used to the nature in Sweden the trees here and the forming of the land is almost brutal, demanding and sublime. You feel really tiny against those pine trees conquering the land and raising sharp up in the sky along the steep sides. At the time of Heidegger days these areas would really feel remote, without asphalted roads and security improvements.

One knows for sure that tourism is important for Todtnauberg at arrival. In this small village you can find a welcoming tourist info-roof with touch screen and maps all over the place. Even though most tourists come in the winter for skiing, we were glad to see that the tourist center further into the village had personnel helping us out to find the Heidegger Rundweg.

Heidegger Hütte in the beautiful surroundings

Todtnau is death-now, poetry the saviour
When you are there, it is really something special about it*

The sign at the hütte clearly speaks: “Why this is not a museum., no entrace, private property etc..” And perhaps in this death of continuation lies an ultimate answer that is definitive but also frightening. Why would one be so against showing the place were one of the most important philosophical works in the 20th century has been written? All road signs are modest, small and easy to miss. It was though not easy to miss the right path in the end, but It felt like it could be.

We we finally got there. A groups of cows were very close walking around and that typically cow alp-bell sound really got you relaxed. Sky is high and you’re one step close to the clouds.

The Jewish poet Paul Celan was promoted by Heidegger for a long time (20 yrs) and Heidegger insisted him to come to Todnauberg. However Paul Clean was very much inspired by Heidegger’s thinking and used this type of philosophy in his own development of poetry. Paul Celan came to his hütte finally and even wrote some poems there. However shorty after his visit at Todnauberg, Paul Celan committed suicide which frightened Heidegger to a large extent. Perhaps Celan had felt the lack of love in the world as a fundamental category, something Heidegger never wanted to add into his work and possibly also made him focus on forces which would lead to destruction.

Everything is less

than it is,

everything is more

Paul Celan

*Its the perhaps same mood and excitement you get as for the occultist going to Rennes le Chateau in France. At that place you are welcomed by text on the church entrance in latin: Terribilis est Locus Iste / This place is terrible”. What is terrible? The truth? Your own existence?

Subject and Object got lost in the hills
Walking up and down the pretty steep hill makes one really aware of the presence of walking, as soon as you think of how you do it you are lost. Its not far fetched that a philosopher on this location wants to get rid of everything that makes up some trouble, including the irritating descartian subject/object dilemma.

It’s understandable that Heidegger didn’t want to sit in Berlin, Freiburg seemed to be a far better deal and closer to his Ur-Plato cave. I just wonder how Elfriede Petri could cope being in this small hütte for these long periods.

EMS introduces their new web domain:

http://www.elektronmusikstudion.se

(was: http://www.ems.rikskonserter.se/)

This means that EMS is ElektronMusikStudion (or the Electronic Music Studio) instead of Elektroakustisk Musik i Sverige (or Electroacoustic Music in Sweden)

Since the organisation Concerts Sweden is closing (this year) EMS is now selecting a new head organization for its administration. The suggested one is Statens Musiksamlingar.

This is an interesting retro-move back to the old name which perhaps will stay for a while if not EAM-music will be produced by other non-electron-methods in the close future (such as optical to vibrational-mechanical etc).

Perhaps the change of name also directs an interesting focus on the method how the music is going to be produced rather than production within already established genres. In this case we can look forward into many new possibilities and innovations for music and sound art at this place.

It would be cool if EMS also could manage now some further and deeper technological cooperation with for instance institutions like the Interactive Institute, which has pretty similar goals as far as interactivity goes. Personally I think the development and insight into the aspect of software and connected tools is crucial despite the dangers of commercial competitiveness. Couldn’t there be some extra budget in the future to hire a programmer working with projects at EMS? In the 70s EMS actually had this, and was in the leading edge of development and research into musical applications using new software and the ideas of composers. At least, what we don’t want, is the danger of EMS archiving itself into a historical document, especially now when the old name is reused. Many of the threads started in the 70’s was never completed or fully investigated, ideas concerning compositional theory, video/sound interaction etc seems to be kinda important too..

Possibly the new waited EMS engineer Daniel Araya can put lots of fresh youthful energy into the 4 employee organization. Mr. Araya has also positioned himself as producer of the Norberg Festival 2010 as well as the Camp 303 at the same festival. Even-though EMS has never really acclaimed  (due to split positions in the culture bureaucracy sphere I guess) the relative potential and support of the underground beat based scene as a forum for artistic concepts we might suspect a punch into this direction.

Attached below, are the text from the press letter from 3rd March 1985 when EMS changed its name in the first place , and moved to their new location at Södemälarstrand (contact phone numbers, and some addresses are removed to escape mistakes by google search ).

In this letter the EMS manager Lars-Gunnar Bodin comment the construction of the new studio complex as building a violin.

Perhaps the EMS today would replace the violin metaphor with a similar one concerning their move to their new organisational place: Its like building an analog synth…

1/3
EMS FLYTTAR
EFTER 20 ÅR!
Efter 20 år i gamla Radiotjänsts lokaler på Kungsgatan 8
i Stockholm flyttar nu den elektroakustiska musikens cen-
trum i Sverige, EMS, till ett av de mest avancerade studio-
byggena någonsin, beläget i det nyrustade Mtinchenbryggeriet
vid Riddarfjärden.
Samtidigt byter Elektronmusikstudion namn, men behåller
de inarbetade initialerna, EMS, men med annan betydelse:
Stiftelsen för Elektroakustisk Musik i Sverige.
Den statligt stödda stiftelsen, som riktar sin verksam-
het till alla professionellt arbetande tonsättare i landet,
får därmed lokaler som väl motsvarar det ökande intresset
för elektroakustisk musik, och möjlighet att ta emot allt
fler gästtonsättare från hela världen. Idag arbetar cirka
30 tonsättare regelbundet med elektroakustisk musik i
Sverige.
-Sverige har här en unik möjlighet att bli ett ledande
centrum för den nya musiken, säger tonsättaren Lars-Gunnar
Bodin, chef för EMS på det sjätte året.
-Vi får ett studiokomplex som egentligen bara har ett
motstycke i Europa, IRCAM i Paris, som leds av Pierre
Boulez.
Münchenbryggeriet rustas nu i sin andra etapp, och för-
vandlas till ett kulturcentrum på Söder med EMS, Svensk
Filmindustri, konstnärligt inriktade gymnasieskolor,
ateljéer, konsertsal och troligen också ny hemvist för
föreningen Fylkingen, sammanslutningen för ny intermedia-

EMS forts…                                         2/3
konst med nära anknytning till den elektroakustiska musiken.
Med fem studios, speciellt utformade av akustiker, och
en rad andra mindre lokaler med ihspelningsmöjligheter, kan
så mycket som tolv tonsättare arbetade parallellt vid EMS.
Sverige får nu sin första 4-kanaIsstudio, speciellt ut-
formad för att komponera musik för fyra kanaler, samt en
ren amatörstudio, som knyts till EMS omfattande amatörkurs-
er. Dessutom flyttas 24-kanalstudion från Kungsgatan till
Münchenbryggeriet, men med helt nya möjligheter genom det
avancerade akustiska bygget
-Våra studios byggs ungefär som man bygger en fiollåda:
rummen ska ge perfekta akustiska förhållanden, och därmed
inspelningsmöjligheter. Inte en spik har slagits in, allt
är sammanfogat med skruvar, och dämpat för att undvika vib-
rationer. Studioväggarna är gjutna i två från varandra fri-
stående väggblock, med dämpningsmattor emellan, och i rummen
tillämpas den s k “dead-live-principen”, med ett “dött” om-
råde i fonden och ett “levande” i studions främre halva.
Det här är det absolut senaste i studioväg, och våra akus-
tiker har tillägnat sig ny kunskap genom studieresor bl a
till USA, säger Lars-Gunnar Bodin.
600 000 kr kostar EMS flytt till Münchenbryggeriet där
den kraftfulla datoranläggningen med en PDP-15/VXM-dator,
och en VAX-11 med kringutrustning är den tunga biten tek-
niskt.
Datorkraften samlas nu i speciella datorrum, och i fram-
tiden hoppas EMS även koppla in datorer direkt i livekon-
serter i huset; en möjlighet som aldrig tidigare funnits
i Sverige.

3/3

EMS forts..

Driften av EMS kostar staten cirka 2 miljoner kr om året.
I Sverige finns elektronmusikstudios bl a på Musikhögskolan
i Stockholm, och i Göteborg byggs nu en studio upp på Musik-
högskolan i ett samarbetsprojekt med Chalmers. Dessutom finns
flera privata studios vilket gör Sverige till ett ledande
land inom denna musikform.
Officiell invigning av EMS nya lokaler sker med en kon-
sert den 26 september i samband med Elektronmusikfestivalen
i Stockholm.
Curt Lundberg

105 15
EMS, Stockholm

Bif,  Bild
Bildtext:  Lars-Gunnar Bodin, tonsättare och chef för
EMS, i den blivande 24-kanalstudion som är
under byggnad. -Det är som att bygga en
fiol, säger Bodin..

ems-flyttar-brev001.pdf (press release one page)

Old document from an investigation on how composers move in the EMS studio complex.. funny isn’t it?

I hop you didnt the miss the lecture by
Sanne Krogh Groth about her PH.D work about EMS  at 16.00, 24 May 2010 at EMS
(I sent her many of the digitalizations we did in 2009 for the Royal Library)

and be sure to check the massive party afterwards:

Puredyne is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution aimed at creative people. It provides a number of creative applications, alongside a solid set of graphic, audio and video tools in a fast, minimal package. It includes software for everything an artist might need - from sound art to innovative film-making. Puredyne is optimised for use in real-time audio and video processing and it distinguishes itself by offering a low latency kernel and high responsiveness needed by artists working in this field.

http://puredyne.goto10.org/

but you can also use the canonical supported rt-kernel release ubuntu studio

http://ubuntustudio.org/

I’ve been using Debian for nearly ten years now, and I believe it is a good foundation to start from.  Unfortunately, the pure:dyne folks have a lot of work to do in order to customize their version to the same extent as dyne:bolic.  For example, where dyne:bolic has organized its apps and utilities into a very hierarchical menu system which makes it easy to find the function you want, even if you don’t know the name of the application, pure:dyne dumps everything into a single menu folder.  Unless you already know all of the multimedia apps you want to use, you have to spend a long time exploring to begin to be productive.  This is a minor complaint, of course, and otherwise pure:dyne looks like it would suit my purposes just fine.

When I tried to run Cinelerra on “leek and potato,” the latest pure:dyne release, I couldn’t get past loading my project.  This was due to the USB hard drive problem I’ve been having with certain kernel versions.  Pure:dyne, through no fault of its own, inherited the same issue.

At this point, not yet understanding the source of the problem, I gave up and moved on to Ubuntu Studio.  Since my drive worked with Ubuntu Hardy on another machine, I reasoned that UbuStu might work better.  Meanwhile, PD looks like a good distro which I would happily use again.  I expect it will be even better in future versions. by Kevin Kennedy //ref

and you can also use other rt verisons:

http://dynebolic.org/

http://www.64studio.com

http://www.apodio.org/

http://www.artistx.org/site2/

Syntjuntan på FYLKINGEN

Sy en synt med Syntjuntan!
Delta i workshop 2 mars kl 19-22

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Deltagaravgift 350:- (gäller också som inträde till konserten 3 mars)
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Konsert med Syntjuntan
Juntaledarna Ann Rosén, Lise-Lotte Norelius och Ida Lundén spelar brutalsnygg musik på allehanda hemmasydda/byggda instrument.
3 mars kl 19.30
Entré 80:- Stud 60:-

Extra insatt workshop 4 mars, kl 18.00 (workshopen blir av när minst 10 deltagare är anmälda)
Syntjuntan
Ann Rosén, projektledare
www.syntjuntan.se