Rhuthmos

Mittag in Pens — Klanglandschaft und soziale Rhythmik

Albert Mayr — 2017-07-21T06:00:00Z

Sommaire

Modified version of a text originally published in www.klanglandschaft.org

Einleitung

Klangereignisse haben als wesentlich zeitgebundene Phänomene, die Fähigkeit, das zeitliche Gewebe um uns zu artikulieren, deutlicher wahrnehmbar und erlebbar zu machen (vgl. Amphoux 1995). Bei menschlichen Interaktionen nimmt die zeitlich/rhythmische Verteilung und Formung klanglicher Äußerungen eine zentrale Stellung ein (Chapple 1982, Warner 1988).

Klangliches hat also wesentlich Anteil an der Konstituierung und in der Praxis einer Umweltbetrachtung, die man, zum Unterschied zu einer mehr statisch ausgerichteten, die dynamische nennen könnte und die primär auf Abläufe, Veränderungen, Prozesse ausgerichtet ist.

Im Folgenden möchte ich ein Beispiel für eine solche Betrachtung, die einen sozioakustischen Ablauf zum Inhalt hat, vorstellen und kurz diskutieren. Im geschilderten Ablauf spielt Klangliches auf zweifache Weise eine wesentliche Rolle: einerseits als auslösendes Moment des Verhaltens der beobachteten Akteure, andererseits als Medium, in dem sich das Verhalten manifestiert.

Betläuten

Vor einigen Jahren realisierte ich für den RAI-Sender Bozen einen experimentellen Dokumentarﬁlm über die Zeiten und Rhythmen in einem Südtiroler Gebirgstal, in dem sich verschiedene Formen der Erwerbstätigkeit (Landwirtschaft, Handel, Handwerk, Fremdenverkehr, Industriearbeit in der Stadt) und die damit verbundenen Zeitorganisationsformen überlagern (Mayr 1985). Ich nenne ihn Dokumentarﬁlm, da er ja nun eben kein Spielﬁlm ist; andererseits wollte sich der Film von Dokumentarﬁlmen üblichen Zuschnitts, sei es vom Sujet, sei es von der formalen Gestaltung her, abheben. Es konnte nun nicht das Ziel des Films sein, alle Zeiten und Rhythmen des betreﬀenden Tales ins Bild zu bringen. Eher ging es mir darum, die Abläufe und Ereignisse im Tal, ihre räumliche und zeitliche Verteilung, als mögliche Partituren zu erfassen und in einer wenigstens für mich adäquaten Weise festzuhalten. (Zum Thema Raum-Zeit-Partituren vgl. Mayr 1988 und 1994).

In der – auch von der formalen Anlage her – zentralen Sequenz des Films, die wir «Mittag in Pens» nennen können und mit der sich die folgenden Überlegungen beschäftigen, spielt sich folgendes ab:

Wir beﬁnden uns im Gasthaus von Pens, einer kleinen Fraktion der Gemeinde Sarntal in 1450 m Meereshöhe. Zusammen mit der Kirche, dem Widum, der Schule und einigen anderen Gebäuden bildet das Gasthaus den Ortskern der Fraktion, die sonst aus vereinzelten Höfen besteht.

Es ist kurz vor Mittag, an einem Sonntag im September. Das Gasthaus ist voll besetzt – ausschließlich von Männern: Sie sitzen in kleinen Gruppen an den Tischen, trinken, unterhalten sich und spielen Karten. Das Klangvolumen ist im Durchschnitt mittellaut bis laut, bleibt aber durchsichtig. Die Uhr der Kirche nebenan schlägt 12h. Bald nachher läutet die Glocke zum «Engel des Herrn», einem in katholischen Gebieten dreimal am Tag, um 06h, 12h und 18h, verrichteten Gebet. Nach den ersten Glockenschlägen dieses «Betläutens» wird die Unterhaltung leiser, die Gläser bleiben auf dem Tisch, das Kartenspiel stockt, um dann ganz abzubrechen. Das Klangvolumen nimmt weiter ab, Stille tritt ein, die ungefähr eine Minute lang anhält und während der nur die Glockenschläge zu hören sind. Kurz bevor sie enden, nehmen die Gäste schrittweise die vorhin unterbrochenen Tätigkeiten wieder auf; das Klangvolumen kehrt zur üblichen Lautstärke zurück.

Die Sequenz könnte natürlich von einer Reihe von Gesichtspunkten aus untersucht und diskutiert werden; doch möchte ich hier in erster Linie der Frage nachgehen, welche Art von symbolischer Darstellung es erlaubt, die Beziehungen zwischen den Elementen des sozioakustischen Geschehens so wiederzugeben, dass sich ein verallgemeinbarer struktureller Zusammenhang (wie ich es nennen möchte) ergibt.

Wir können verschiedene Notationsformen in Betracht ziehen:

mit Hilfe der traditionellen Notation, evtl. in einer etwas modiﬁzierten Form, lassen sich Daten wie Tonhöhen, Dauernwerte, z.T. Klangfarben, relativ getreulich wiedergeben; doch wird das Resultat wenig anschaulich bleiben und auch über die vorhin erwähnten Beziehungen zwischen den Elementen wenig aussagen;
die Darstellung in Form einer graphischen Notation ist da gleich anschaulicher und natürlich leichter zugänglich; doch auch sie gibt kaum Anhaltspunkte zur Untersuchung der Beziehungen zwischen den Elementen;
um diese herauszustellen, können wir zu einer weiteren Darstellungsart greifen; diese zeigt die Beziehungen in Form eines Schaltbildes, wie es etwa in der Elektroakustik verwendet wird (Abb. 1).

Abb. 1: Schaltbild als Notation für sozioakustische Ereignisse

Als Komponist und Zeit-Designer, der sich auch mit den Klängen und Rhythmen in der Umwelt beschäftigt, arbeite ich seit mehreren Jahren an einem Modell für die Darstellung dieser Klänge und Rhythmen, das besonders die Zusammenhänge und Interaktionen zwischen ihnen vor Augen führt. Die charakteristischen Elemente dieses Darstellungsmodells sind aus der analogen Elektroakustik entlehnt. Das Modell betrachtet die klanglichen und zeitlich-rhythmischen Phänomene, die beide dem Niederfrequenz-bereich angehören, als Schwingungen (hörbarer oder unhörbarer Natur), die in einem Modulations-Zusammenhang stehen. Die Frage, ob die dargestellten Modulationen denn nun tatsächlich physikalisch stattﬁnden oder nicht, oder ob die Ereignisse sich eben nur so verhalten, als wären sie solchen Modulationen ausgesetzt, halte ich für zweitrangig gegenüber den Möglichkeiten, die das Modell bietet und auf die ich im abschließenden Teil etwas näher eingehen werde.

Das Schaltbild für das Geschehen im Penser Gasthof ist das einer Amplituden-Modulation, also einer Modulation, bei der die Maxima und Minima der untersuchten Schwingung ab-, bzw. zunehmen. Wir verfolgen hier nur den Makro-Verlauf des Geschehens, also die beim Erklingen des Betläutens schrittweise einsetzende Stille und die ebenso schrittweise Rückkehr zur vorherigen Unterhaltungslautstärke.

Betrachten wir also die verschiedenen Elemente des Schaltbilds und die Beziehungen zwischen ihnen:

Das Klangelement, an dessen Amplituden-Verlauf wir in erster Linie interessiert sind, besteht aus den Lauten der verschiedenen Stimmengruppen der Wirtshaus-besucher (SS1-SSn); diese Audio-Signale ﬂießen aus den Kehlen der Gäste in die Gaststube, einen geschlossenen Raum, der als Mixer und Verstärker (MIX/V) der Laute fungiert. Auf dieses akustische Geschehen (dessen Eigenleben wir hier nicht berücksichtigen), wirkt ein Steuersignal ein, das die Amplitudenmodulation hervorbringt. Dieses Steuersignal ist eine Hüllkurve, die ungefähr die Form eines auf dem Kopf stehenden Trapezes hat; sie schwächt also den modulierten Klang (die Laute in der Gaststube) schrittweise bis zur völligen Stille ab und lässt sie dann wieder anschwellen. Das Ursprungselement der Hüllkurve, also der Hüllkurvengenerator (HG), ist das lokale religiöse Brauchtum, das für solche Situationen ein akustisches Verhalten dieser Art vorschreibt. Dieser Hüllkurvengenerator agiert nicht zu allen beliebigen Zeiten, sondern nur, wenn er von einem entsprechenden Auslöser (AUS) aktiviert wird. Dieser Auslöser ist die Glocke des Betläutens.

Für das Zustandekommen einer Partitur wie der beschriebenen sind mehrere Voraussetzungen nötig; solche, die in das Gebiet der Sozialwissenschaften fallen und mit denen ich mich nicht befassen werde, und solche, die das räumliche, klangliche und zeitliche Ambiente betreﬀen, in dem die Partitur ausgeführt wird. Wenden wir uns diesen kurz zu.

Das klangliche Geschehen in der Wirtsstube bleibt transparent genug, um das Läuten der Glocke durchzulassen. Diese hat in einem Ort wie Pens nach wie vor das Monopol, der einzige sich klanglich äußernde Zeitgeber zu sein, sie muss also nicht mit Fabrik-Sirenen konkurrieren und die Busse des öﬀentlichen Verkehrs haben es fast vollständig aufgegeben, ihr Kommen durch Hupen anzuzeigen. Die Glocke ist zudem das einzige klangliche Signal, das fast in der ganzen Fraktion hörbar ist. In der Gaststube fehlt auch das sonst so häuﬁge Hintergrundgedudel kommerzieller Konservenmusik; dieses agiert oft genug als Zerstörer von individuell oder gemeinschaftlich ausgeführten Amplituden-Modulationen; nicht so sehr durch den Schallpegel, der meistens gar nicht aufdringlich ist, als vielmehr durch das für diese Musik typische Fehlen von markanten Amplituden-Modulationen, das auch bei den willentlichen oder unwillentlichen Hörern ein amplituden-konstantes akustisches Verhalten auslöst.

Die Frage stellt sich, ob ein nicht-klangliches Zeitgeber-Signal – etwa eine plötzlich erscheinende Leuchtschrift – ebenso wirksam klangliches Verhalten in der Gruppe auslösen könnte.

Beim Zustandekommen der Partitur spielt schließlich der Stellenwert von gleichzeitig ausgeführten Tätigkeiten eine Rolle. In überschaubaren Gesellschaften – wie es die von Pens zur Zeit der Film-Aufnahmen war – werden Gleichzeitigkeiten als strukturierende Elemente des Lebens eingehalten und, über den jeweiligen funktionalen Aspekt hinaus, geschätzt. Das Verhalten beim Betläuten gehört zu diesen Gleichzeitigkeiten.

Eine Arbeitshypothese

Ausgehend von der beschriebenen Partitur und dem Darstellungsmodell möchte ich eine Arbeitshypothese skizzieren, die im Rahmen der oben erwähnten dynamischen Umweltbetrachtung ihre Anwendung ﬁnden könnte.

Festzustellen ist, dass in den letzten Jahren die Menge an Informationen und Dokumentationen zur klanglichen Umwelt einerseits, und zum zeitlichen und raumzeitlichen Verhalten anderseits stark zugenommen hat. Doch meist bleiben diese Sammlungen von Daten und Materialien «formlos»; denn während es für die Beschreibung und Klassiﬁzierung der Elemente im Rahmen der räumlich-statischen Umweltbetrachtung eine Vielzahl von formalen Modellen und Mustern gibt, auf die sich die gefundenen Elemente beziehen lassen, ist dies für die dynamische Umwelt- betrachtung (noch) nicht der Fall.

Wenn wir nun davon ausgehen, dass Klangliches das Medium ist, in dem sich niederfrequente Abläufe und Prozesse am augenfälligsten, oder besser, «ohrenfälligsten» manifestieren, liegt es nahe, zuerst einmal die formalen Muster in den klanglichen Phänomenen aufzuspüren und zu deﬁnieren; der folgende Schritt wäre dann der, nach diesen Mustern auch in anderen niederfrequenten Bereichen zu suchen. Dies ergäbe eine plastische Beschreibungsmethode für zeitliche und raumzeitliche (klingende wie nicht-klingende) Abläufe und Prozesse.

Kehren wir zu dem in «Betläuten» beschriebenen Ablauf zurück. Sein prägnantestes formales Element ist die trapezoidale Hüllkurve, die dort den Amplitudenverlauf steuert. Nehmen wir dieses formale Element und sehen wir, ob es sich als Steuerkurve auch bei anderen Abläufen des untersuchten Gebiets ﬁnden lässt.

Wer mit dem katholischen Brauchtum in ländlichen Gegenden vertraut ist, weiß, dass z.B. bei der gleichen Art von Personen, aber in einer anderen Situation, der Hüllkurven-generator «religiöses Brauchtum», vom Auslöser «Betläuten» aktiviert, die gleiche Hüllkurve in umgekehrter Form hervorbringen kann. Manuelle Feldarbeit – soweit sie noch existiert – wird im allgemeinen schweigend durchgeführt. In diesem Fall verläuft das akustische Geschehen beim Erklingen der Glocke des Betläutens folgendermaßen: von der Stille zum Laut (dem Gebet) und zurück zur Stille.

In der gleichen Form, aber mit verlängerter Abstiegsﬂanke und variierender Periode, tritt die trapezoidale Kurve als Steuerelement im normalen Sprachduktus bei Bauern im Sarntal und anderswo auf. Der gesteuerte Parameter ist in diesem Fall das Laut-Stille-Verhältnis: In ihren Äußerungen wechseln die ersten Worte und/oder Interjektionen meist mit einigen Stille-Perioden ab und gehen dann in einigermaßen kontinuierliches Sprechen über; gegen Ende der Äußerung nehmen dann die Stille-Perioden wieder zu.

Trapezoidale Modulationen können auch in folgenden Parametern auftreten: Frequenz (das ergibt Veränderungen der Tonhöhe im Audiobereich, Veränderungen der Häuﬁgkeit im Subaudiobereich), Spektrum (ergibt Veränderungen der Klangfarbe) und Phase (ergibt Verdichtungen und Verdünnungen in den Abständen zwischen dem Auftreten gleicher oder ähnlicher Ereignisse). Bei gezielter Untersuchung lassen sich in den meisten Bereichen menschlichen Tuns Beispiele für solche Modulationen ﬁnden.

Die hier skizzierte Arbeitshypothese zielt also darauf ab, das Finden und Vergleichen von formalen Mustern bei Abläufen und Prozessen als signiﬁkante Methode in die Untersuchung unserer klanglich-zeitlichen Umwelt einzuführen.

Quellen

Amphoux Pascal 1995. „Passaggio in maggiore. Sincronizzatori e datori di tempo sonori.“ A. Mayr et al. (eds), L'ascolto del tempo – Musiche inudibili e ambiente ritmico, 71-82. (mp) x 2, Firenze.

Chapple E.D. 1982. „Movement and sound: The musical language of body rhythms in interaction.“ M. Davis (ed), Interaction rhythms: Periodicity in communicative behavior. Human Sciences Press, New York.

Warner R. 1988. „Rhythms in Social Interaction.“ J.E. McGrath (ed), The Social Psychology of Time–New Perspectives, 63-88. Sage Publications, Newbury Park.

Mayr Albert 1985. Von Zeiten und Leuten: am Beispiel Sarntal. Dokumentarﬁlm. Produktion: RAI-Bozen / Proﬁ Film.

Mayr Albert 1988. „Partiture spazio-temporali come parametro di identità socio-culturale.“ P. Reale (ed), Tempo e Identità, 201-217. Franco Angeli, Milano.

Mayr Albert 1994. Klingende Raum-Zeit-Partituren in Siedlungsgebieten.

U. Brandes et al. (eds), Welt auf tönernen Füßen, 101-111. Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland / Steidl, Bonn.

The Round-Table. A social time sculpture

Albert Mayr — 2016-09-03T11:05:11Z

Sommaire

We gratefully thank Albert Mayr and KronoScope. Journal for the Study of Time for the permission to republish this text originally published in KronoScope, 9.1-2, 2009, p. 111-119.

The process out if which the self arises is a social process

which implies interaction of individuals in the group...

It implies also certain co-operative activities in which the

different members of the group are involved.

It implies, further, that out of this process then may

in turn develop a more elaborate organization than

that out of which the self has arisen ....

G. H. Mead (1943, p. 164)

Abstract: Interactions happen in time. Most of us will agree, therefore, that interactions benefit from an appropriate temporal structure. And for many activities there exists a more or less stringent set of rules regarding that structure. This article, on the other hand, describes how such a structure for an everyday activity, i.e. a group conversation, may arise not from the application of pre-established rules, but from a collective creative effort. The elements of this co-operative process are individual preferences regarding the principal temporal parameters, the tools are the basic procedures used in musical composition for structuring time.

Keywords: temporal interaction and co-operation, time design, temporal parameters, speech/silence.

Introduction

Time, as a specific field of interest, has made it rather late into the social sciences, where, after some years of relative prominence, it seems to have lost again some of it attractiveness. Likewise, time is not, to my knowledge, very present in the social sculpture discourse.

The Round-Table aims at letting a social time sculpture [1] unfold starting from an everyday situation: a group of persons making use of verbal, but also non-verbal, utterances and of silences in order to communicate or to avoid communication, to fight, co-operate, or simply to fill time in a more or less pleasant way. For various occasions and undertakings based on that kind of (non)-activity – such as academic and political meetings and religious services – there exist procedures and rituals – some very ancient, some new – for organizing the temporal structure of the utterances and silences. But with the exception of religious rituals – now less widely used than in the past – the primary function of the procedures is that of increasing the functionality of these encounters, while little attention is paid to bring forth aesthetic quality.

Here is where Time Design comes in. In ways similar to the different fields of visual design, Time Design proposes to combine – and make interact – formal and functional criteria in structuring the times of human activities. In this respect Time Design differs substantially from time management with its efficiency-oriented approach. Some may think that structuring a group conversation is not among the most urgent problems connected to the use of time in everyday life; but the workshop is deliberately based on a familiar situation in order to elaborate models that then may be transferred to other areas: family life, working environment, etc.

In particular The Round-table gives the participants the opportunity

of recognizing and expressing their preferences in the temporal structuring of a group activity;
of passing from the latent or overt acting out of temporal conflicts to a co-operative use of time;
of employing their creative potential in the interactive process.

The Round-table also emphasizes the aesthetic qualities of group time through the use of procedures based on the parameters employed in structuring time in musical composition: duration, succession, frequency, sound-to-silence ratio, superposition.

The content of the workshop consists in the participants' descriptions of their daily experiences with time, the conflictual as well as the gratifying ones. The descriptions themselves are not commented upon or discussed; they are instead considered only as the material for more and more elaborate “vocal gestures.” It is on these, and specifically on their temporal qualities, that the workshop focuses. “The vocal gesture... has an importance which no other gesture has. We cannot see ourselves when our face assumes a certain expression. If we hear ourselves speak we are more apt to pay attention” (Mead 1934, p. 65). In addition, more than other stimuli, collectively listened to sound creates a common time. Thus the importance of direct acoustic communication for interaction and co-operation.

How does The Round-Table function?

The workshop is structured as follows [2]:

We begin with a version in which we adopt the standard procedures for such occasions: each participant is allotted the same amount of time for his/her statement, say one minute. The order of succession of the statements follows either the sitting order of the participants or the alphabetical order of their names. These conventional procedures are completely neutral with regard to individual preferences. No indications are given as to the sound-to-silence ratio in the statements: each participant can fill or leave empty as much of the allocated time as he/she wishes without being interrupted by the others.

A simple graphic score illustrates this round (e.g. with six participants)

and we perform it with the workshop leader or one of the participants giving the cues for the beginning and ending of each statement.

After performing this version (and after all the following ones) we have a brief and informal exchange of impressions and ideas on some questions such as:

How did each participant like the position he/she found himself/herself in during this first round?
Did he/she feel the duration allocated was appropriate, or too long, too short for what he/she wanted to say?
How was the overall sound-to-silence ratio, how were the individual ones?
Did any of the participants feel like combining his/her statement with the one of another participant?

In the second version we work on the parameter of succession: each participant chooses the temporal position for his/her statement. The other parameters remain the same as before. We draw the score and perform it.

Questions for the exchange of impressions:

Why were the positions selected?
How satisfied was each participant with the position he/she had chosen?
Has the conversation improved from a formal viewpoint?

In the third version we add the parameter of duration: if the initial standard duration was 1 minute and there are six participants, a repertoire of durations, e.g. 30', 40', 50', 60', 70', and 80' are given to the participants to choose from together with their position in the succession. (The sound-to-silence ratio is still ad libitum). This may result in a structure such as the following:

Questions:

How much at ease was each participant with the duration he/she had chosen? How did the choice of a short or long duration affect his /her statement?
Was there some sense of hierarchy conveyed by the different durations?

Here we can start introducing procedures that give the temporal structure of the conversation a more distinct form. Before the individual choices are made the durations can, for instance, be arranged in ascending order – which, in musical terms, would result in a ritardando – or in descending order – which would give an accelerando; in an accelerando-ritardando ( 80' - 60' - 40' - 30' - 50' - 70') or in a ritardando-accelerando (30' - 50' - 70' - 80' - 60' - 40').

Questions:

Was the formal character of the conversation appreciated?
How did it affect the statements?

A variation in the use of the parameter duration is possible through combining it with the parameter frequency. As a basis we use the previous standard duration of 1 minute, but participants have now the option between:

making 1 statement of 60' as before;
making 2 shorter statements of 30';
making 3 even shorter statements of 20'.

The short statements are distributed along the total duration of the version, according to the respective choices of the participants. This therefore affects also the parameter succession and we may obtain a structure such as this one:

Questions:

Were the participants satisfied with the choice(s) they had made?

Up until now we had not addressed the parameter sound-to-silence ratio; it was left open to the participants to handle it the way they preferred. In fact, every participant could fill or leave empty as much of the allocated time span as he/she wanted. Now instead we structure this parameter. The procedure for choosing the position in the series remains the same and for the moment we revert to the previous standard duration.

There are, of course, many ways of articulating a statement in terms of speech versus silence. In order to maintain a systematic approach, four symmetric “models” of distributing sound and silence are proposed to the participants.

The duration of the statement is divided in two equal parts, with the first part devoted to speech and the second to silence – or reversely.

Model a)

Model b). The reverse of Model a).

The duration is divided in four parts, with the first and the fourth part devoted to silence, the second and third part to speech – or reversely.

Model c)

Model d). The reverse of Model c).

Participants will be asked to choose, next to their position in the series, the sound-to-silence model they want to adopt for their statement.

Questions:

Was the “silence on command” experienced as pleasant or unpleasant? Did memories come up about situations in which one could not choose to be silent for a while?
What effect did the structured introduction of this new parameter have on the formal result of the version?

(It is obvious that a version performed with the models illustrated above will have an overall sound-to-silence ratio of 1:1 which is the easiest to handle and appreciate for beginners. On a higher level of expertise one can opt for different overall sound-to-silence ratios, such as 2:1 or 1:2, and adapt the models accordingly).

So far all the statements have been monologues. Nobody was allowed to interfere with the speech – or silence – of another participant. Now we introduce the parameter superposition. It means that two or more participants share the same time span. (The term superposition is not to be taken literally, as the sharing of the same time span may also result in a polite dialogue; but the two or more participants in the same time span may also interrupt each other and/or talk simultaneously.)

We begin with dialogues (i.e. two persons per time span). The total duration is divided in half the amount of time spans as there are participants, for instance with six participants we have 3 time spans (in the case of an odd number of participants the resulting value is rounded up to the next integer, and one participant will be involved twice).

For the sake of simplicity we revert, for the moment, to a free sound-to-silence ratio. The durations of the time spans are equal. The choice of the position in the series now implies also the choice of a partner; this can be handled freely: Either two participants decide to be together in a given time span, or the choices of position are made individually and the “couples” are formed en route.

A possible structure of the version can look like this:

Questions:

How did the participants experience the “filling” of a time span together with another person? Did co-operation or antagonism prevail?
What was the effect on the overall outcome?

The dialogues then may be followed by trialogues, tetralogues…

At this point we have completed the work on the individual parameters. The following steps consist in variations and combinations of the previous versions.

Some examples:

1. Parameters: succession and sound-to-silence ratio (standard durations); I choose for you, you choose for me

The procedures are the same as before but here each participant chooses the position in the series and the sound-to-silence ratio model for another participant.

2. Parameters: succession, superposition, duration

Here we create a crescendo in density combined with an accelerando:

3. Parameters: succession, frequency, modulation of the sound-to-silence ratio, standard durations

Here two participants get to speak once, two participants twice, and two participants three times. However the sound-to-silence ratio is inversely proportional to frequency, passing from 3:1 (for the participants who speak once) i.e. 45' speech / 15' silence , to 2:1 (for the participants who speak twice) i.e. 40' speech / 20' silence, to 1:1 (for the participants who speak three times) i.e. 30' speech / 30' silence.

The silent part may be put either at the beginning or at the ending of the respective statement.

Once the participants have become familiar with the various techniques and have learned to appreciate the interdependence of form and content, they should be encouraged to create versions of their own.

As a final step we create a large-scale collective composition in which all the techniques are employed. Depending on the degree to which participants have shown that they are mastering the techniques a certain freedom in their use is allowed.

Discussion

The Round-Table has been practiced and performed in a variety of contexts and situations: academic gatherings (among them the ISST-conference 2001), art galleries, workshops with union officials, in centers for persons with light mental and/or psychological handicaps, as a radio program for Austria's “Kunstradio”, and has proved to be a versatile instrument for letting temporal interactions happen.

Depending on the context different aspects were in the foreground. Most academics and artists enjoyed the challenge of having to combine (temporal) form and content, but some felt ill at ease with having to cast their profound reflections in a “straight jacket”; for the union persons it came as sort of a surprise that one can make informative statements in a brief time; for the persons in the centers it appeared to be an important experience that their times were respected and that a collectively agreed upon silence could create a link between them.

Some points that came up regarding the individual parameters:

The reflection on the parameter of succession, i.e. the question whether to make a statement before or after the other ones, at the beginning or at the end of the round or in the middle, brings the participants in touch with the more general issue of the temporal locus of activities.

In many it triggers thoughts about their behavior in everyday life and, sometimes, childhood memories (“I always wanted to be the first one.” “I feel more comfortable in the middle.”)

Duration: associations with one's temporal behavior in daily life come up readily (“I want to get things over with quickly.” “I need to take my time.”) The exercise leads the participants also to consider whether such forms of behavior correspond to their real preferences.

Combining different durations: In present day civilization time is predominantly “formless” as we focus exclusively on its quantitative side. Already such a simple strategy for structuring time makes the participants aware that by working on the formal aspect of the activity also the functional one is improved.

Frequency: the participants agree to have their activity chopped up in pieces. This sometimes triggers memories of situations in which this happened (multitasking) and of how they coped with it.

Sound-to-silence ratio: today it is becoming more and more difficult – also because of the influence of the media with their sound-to-silence ratio of 1 to nothing – to have one's silence respected in a group. Social hierarchies appear clearly in this respect: In our democratic societies everybody is allowed to speak, but only the silence of the powerful is considered important. For many participants it is therefore a new experience that their silence is as important a contribution to the conversation as the words they may say.

Superposition: sharing the responsibility of consciously structuring a time span – even a very short one – with another person can result in an increased awareness of one's strategies of interaction in general.

Conclusion

Attempts at improving the organization of time in our society often fail because the persons involved are unable of articulating the reasons why a particular kind of organization is experienced as unsatisfactory, although the experience itself may be strong and pervasive. At the same time, persons often have great difficulties in expressing clearly their own temporal needs and preferences. As I have tried to show, the task of devising the temporal structure for a group conversation offers several opportunities in this direction.

In the words of Heinz Zimmermann conversations may serve as “propaedeutics to a social art to come, an art which, as an art of time, shapes human relations” (Zimmermann 1991, p. 92, tr. and italics mine).

References

Mead, G. H., Mind, Self and Society. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1934.

Zimmermann, H., Sprechen, Zuhören, Verstehen in Erkenntnis- und Entscheidungsprozessen. Stuttgart: Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 1991.

[1] The term “social sculpture” was created by the artist Joseph Beuys, the term “time sculpture” by the geographer and soundscape researcher Justin Winkler.

[2] For a more detailed description of the procedures used in The Round-Table see Mayr, A. Die Gesprächsrunde. Firenze: mp(x2), 1992.

Peripheral Rhythmicities

Albert Mayr — 2016-09-01T08:31:00Z

Sommaire

Abstract : In this paper I want to propose, from the vantage point of an experimental artist/composer, perceptual strategies focusing on the often ephemeral and unobtrusive spatio-temporal rhythmicities that nevertheless contribute to the quality of life in a settlement. The main points of reference are R. Murray Schafer's concepts of “ hi-fi and lo-fi soundscapes”, which here become “hi-fi and lo-fi environments”, i.e. are extended to include also non-sonic phenomena, and Torsten Hägerstrand's “Bounded region” as the object of observation. It is suggested that the possibility of perceiving spatio-temporal micro-rhythmicities in a neighborhood and of relating to them not only increases the aesthetic quality of the area, but may help inhabitants in ‘tuning in' to each other. The paper concludes with a brief report on workshops dealing with collective explorations of event density and diversity and micro-rhythms in the small and ‘forgotten' city-quarter of Stufels (Brixen), in South-Tyrol, inhabited not only by German- and Italian-speaking locals, but also by immigrants from Eastern Europe and Africa.

Lefebvre at the window

In the first page of chapter 3. of his Rhythmanalysis, “Seen from the Window” Henri Lefebvre writes that “… to grasp a rhythm it is necessary to have been grasped by it; one must let oneself go, give oneself over” [1]. We may interpret this passage as meaning that you have to be available and ready, in your mind, emotions and body, for entrainment . Probably Lefebvre was not acquainted with the term, but he certainly knew the experience [2].

In the social sciences, where it was introduced by Josef McGrath and Janice Kelly [3] and related areas, for instance for therapeutic applications [4], entrainment appears to be studied primarily in controlled and/or easily monitored contexts.

Here, on the contrary, we are concerned with the more subtle, usually subconscious and ephemeral forms of entrainment taking place not in more or less standard work situations of organizations – which have been the focus in most studies – or in the restricted patient / therapist relation, but in the spatially and socially peripheral situations where persons are not under the pressure of having to accomplish something and therefore may be readier “to let go”, sometimes even without realizing it.

Furthermore here we exclude those situations in which entrainment is the collectively agreed upon raison d' être of a recreational social event, such as a dance.

It is suggested that the forms of entrainment hinted at above are a so far rather overlooked, yet important factor for social cohesion and thus would deserve more attention. Being, as was already mentioned, of a volatile nature, they and the conditions in which the may take place need perhaps to be examined from new disciplinary vantage points.

Density and Diversity

Im Sehen erfassen wir

das Skelett der Dinge,

im Hören ihren Puls

Erwin Straus [5]

The Canadian composer, R. Murray Schafer, founder of Soundscape Studies, introduced the terms “hi-fi soundscape” and “lo-fi soundscape” [6]. According to Schafer, hi-fi soundscapes are those in which there is a relatively low background noise, and therefore the individual sound events do not mask each other, we are able to follow sound events perceptually from onset to decay, we can easily locate the source of sound events, and we have an extended auditory range. In a lo-fi soundscape, on the contrary, we have an elevated level of background noise, sound events compete with each other (with the loudest ones obviously winning over the weaker ones), and we are able to hear only the sounds close to us and rarely their complete envelope.

Schafer himself and the, by now, numerous groups around the world devoted to the study of the characteristics of the sounds around us, have so far stressed mainly the superior aesthetic quality of hi-fi soundscapes and their beneficial effects on individual well-being and thus indicated them as a goal in urban planning and related fields for these reasons. Less emphasis has been put on considerations on how different kinds of soundscapes affect at least some aspects of the quality of social life in portions of settlements. Another researcher studying the sonic environment, in this case focusing on non-human species, Bernie Krause, has emphasized that diversity of events is also a relevant parameter of healthy sensory environments which enables the different species to find an appropriate niche for their various acoustic messages, niches that are more and more being filled by man-made noises [7].

We may extend the hi-fi /lo-fi concepts also to non-acoustic, but time-based phenomena, in other words to the events in the perception range of an observer/listener and their rhythmic and/or a-rhythmic structure. It is obvious that, even if you let go, you will have great difficulties in grasping a rhythm (to paraphrase Lefebvre's words), if you are exposed to the onslaught of a mass of different, conflicting and only partially distinguishable events. In order to let go, to tune in, to get entrained you need not only to be able to recognize the kind of event you are seeing, hearing, feeling; you need to be able to follow its temporal structure, possibly for its whole duration.

In our visually-dominated civilization we have to a large extent forgotten the ability of “letting go”, of being ‘with' the events. “Visual perception, and the models related to it, were at the centre of the cultural development in the West” as Barbanti writes [8]. The eye is satisfied with the information about what there is there, and usually is not patient enough to let go and tune in. When we listen, on the contrary, we inevitably take part in the temporal structure of events which the ear is also much better equipped to grasp than the eye. Straus very drastically characterizes the difference between the two sensory modalities when he asserts that through seeing we grasp the skeleton of things, through hearing their pulse.

In my workshops dealing with the sensory exploration of environments I therefore encourage the participants to learn to ‘listen – also - with the eyes'.

The bounded region

As a geographer, accustomed to viewing the world in terms of landscapes, I am inclined to focus on how phenomena behave – irrespective of where their normal disciplinary home is taken to be – because they are closely coexisting in space and time. If one is choosing this latter perspective, the first step of a study is not to select a particular phenomenon and investigate it wherever it occurs; nor is it to set up an experiment and try to isolate some relations in a highly controlled situation. The first step is to define a bounded region and then accept what is found in it (including what is entering and leaving while observation is going on) as the given universe. [9].

The 'bounded region' model offers a new and, as I will try to show, promising approach for evaluating the quality of life in sections of settlements. Usually that quality is assessed on the basis of the things that are there, various facilities (such as schools, pharmacies, etc.), efficient local transport, and so on. Hägerstrand, on the contrary, makes us look at, and listen to, the phenomena that 'are coexisting closely in space and time.' For the purpose of this paper we may identify 'bounded region' with the momentary perception range of an observer.

The extension of the spatial ‘window', or perception range, depends on the size and disposition of the static spatial elements there.

Regarding the temporal ‘window' things are a bit more complicated. We may consider the temporal characteristics of this window from the angle of the ‘when?, the ‘how often?', and the ‘for how long?' The appropriate choice of the temporal loci (the ‘when?' of our observation) may let us perceive, for instance, local circadian periodicities that are characteristic for the area and if these periodicities are not cancelled out by phenomena that follow other Zeitgeber, such as the onslaught of tourists who have, obviously, their very own schedules.

If we take an analytical look at this 'coexisting' we find that it may take many forms and have quite different durations. While buildings, say a coffee shop and a bank, usually coexist in space (and time) for decades, if not more, the sounds of the steps of a person passing by slowly, and the intermittent appearances of a woman at a window will coexist in space and time only for a few minutes and probably never again in the same way. A sensitive observer, ready to “let go”, then may detect (or subjectively construct) temporal/rhythmic, but also visual/sonic/spatial interactions/ correspondences/contrasts between the observed phenomena. As was discussed before, obviously you need a hi-fi environment to be able to observe and appreciate these coexistences.

I believe that for residents and visitors to be able to 'let go' and tune in, consciously or not, in these peripheral rhythmicities, not only allows them to participate more directly, but without an intentional effort, to the life of the area but it may also lower conflict potentials. This may sound like an audacious, if not straightforward utopian thesis, but perhaps the following short report about Stufels will make it appear somewhat less utopian.

Stufels

This is not a formal case study, but a description of a short series of workshops that triggered some ideas about the theme of the conference.

Over the years I have led numerous workshops and seminars on the graphic representation of the spatio-temporal distribution of events. In some of them we adopted a more ‘objective', quantitative approach, as in the study of different locations in a peripheral city quarter of Florence. The study was an assignment to architecture students and mainly intended to get them acquainted with the representation technique borrowed, with modifications, from the one developed by the time geographers of Lund. Thanks to the study we discovered, for instance, that a quite unattractive little square in the area was actually remarkably much used by the residents and was an important crossing point in their spatio-temporal patterns [10].

In other workshops the focus is on the subjective perception of the events in the observed “bounded region” [11]. This was the approach adopted for Stufels.

Stufels is a small historical quarter in the town of Brixen/Bressanone in South Tyrol, it is quiet and attractive. For some reasons it has been left out of the ‘development' of the rest of the town, although you have only to cross a small bridge to reach it from the busy town centre filled with souvenir shops and the like where tourism booms all year round. It is rather cheap to live in Stufels, and so some immigrant families came to stay here. A group of local residents felt that the quarter did not deserve the oblivion, and succeeded in convincing the town's administration to do something about it and in this context I was invited to hold my workshops on spatio-temporal observations.

The workshops had the following format: after a short introduction about the theoretical aspects (more or less what you have read above) and the instructions regarding the practical side, i.e. the succession of tasks, the participants wander briefly around until they find a place which they consider appropriate for their observations. At an agreed upon signal the observation period begins, usually of 3-4 minutes. Afterwards we gather again in the meeting place, participants are asked to draw a graphic ‘score' of their observations. Obviously these graphs are not the main outcome of the workshops, but the task of having to organize mentally their perceptions in a form that would allow them to represent them graphically imposed a kind of discipline on the participants that would not have been there had they only been asked to give verbal accounts. The main result were the comments and reflections about the quality of the neighborhood as it presented itself through the observation of the visual and acoustic events in their perception range and their spatio-temporal distribution.

In Stufels, as in other similar occasions, it was surprising to see that the participants, in a given observation period, would choose, in spite of the scarcity of events, different ‘items' to be represented in the score. In the discussions there was an agreement that the quietness and low event density could result in a particular attractiveness for visitors who are sensitive to such qualities.

But the point that is mainly of interest in the context of this paper is that being able to listen to and watch the steps of a passer-by or to follow, through the windows of a nearby house, the cadence in the conversation of a mother with her child in a language unknown to you, brought about a feeling of belonging, be it only for some minutes, a kind of contact which would be difficult to create otherwise. Of course, to become entrained requires a certain time and a certain proximity in frequency, duration, speed and envelopes between the (potentially) entraining events and the (potentially) entrainable observers. You cannot “let go” in fractions of a second. Therefore it is easier to get entrained by the steps of a passer-by than by a car rushing past you at high speed. Likewise you are readier to get entrained by the ‘human' articulation of a mother's conversation with her child with its pauses and varying envelopes than by the monotone, almost envelope-less and uninterrupted verbal utterances of a speaker in the media.

In some respects this work on neighborhoods is close to the researches and reflections on urban rhythms by Filipa Matos Wunderlich who has worked extensively on what she calls “place-temporality” [12]. But while Wunderlich is focusing on clearly identifiable, to some extent measurable and recurring elements that characterize a place, in my work I am more interested in the elements that may happen, or not, but create what could be called an atmosphere (in a way close to how Gernot Böhme uses the term [13]), or a context fraught with certain potentialities, but not others.

Conclusions

I myself come from a bi-lingual area with a long record of political and cultural conflicts between the two groups, conflicts that have always been seasoned with a rich repertoire of outspoken or implicit prejudices, to a large extent originating in inappropriate ways of perceiving ‘the others'. And I know very well that it can be hard to “let go” and grasp those sometimes alien rhythmicities.

Another obstacle consists in the predominance of lo-fi environments in present-day towns and cities, where often enough one has a hard time even to tune into one's own rhythms. Events are perceived only in fragments, their rhythmicities are not allowed to emerge, so toward what can you possibly let yourself go?

There is an increasing concern about noise pollution and efforts are being made in creating what is called “quiet areas” [14]. Now, quietness is certainly a social bonum of undeniable value, but I want to argue that it is equally urgent to find/establish and protect bounded regions with a hi-fi environment where, as I have tried to show, it is possible to become entrained to otherwise less acceptable rhythmicities.

[1] Henri Lefebvre, Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life. London: Continuum 2004.

[2] Entrainment has different meanings. Here it is used as pertaining to the semantic line going from physics (the pendulums studied by Huygens, which, although having slightly different frequencies became synchronized when hung from a common beam) to chronobiology (it occurs when rhythmic physiological or behavioral events match their period and phase to that of an environmental oscillation), to the social sciences.

[3] Joseph E. Mc Grath & Janice R. Kelly Time and Human Interaction. Toward a Social Psychology of Time. New York: The Guildford Press 1986. Joseph E. McGrath (ed) The Social Psychology of Time. New Perspectives. Newbury Park: Sage Publications 1988.

[4] Thaut MH, Kennyon GP, Schauer ML, McIntosh GC “The connection between rhythmicity and brain function.” IEEE Eng Med Biol Mag. 1999 Mar-Apr;18(2):101-8.

[5] Erwin Straus Vom Sinn der Sinne. Ein Beitrag zur Grundlegung der Psychologie. Berlin: Springer 1956(2) , p. 398. (Through vision we grasp the skeleton of things, through listening their pulse).

[6] R. Murray Schafer Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester ,Vt.: Destiny Books 1993/1994. See also http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/world-soundscape-project/ After some debate now we distinguish between “acoustic environment” which consists of the acoustic data that may be measured by technical devices also in the absence of a listener and thus convey purely quantitative results, and “soundscape” which is the sonic landscape which a listener constructs at a given moment with the sonic phenomena around him/her, according to his/her social and cultural background, personal preferences and idiosyncrasies and perceptual strategies. Therefore, while a given acoustic environment will remain substantially the same even when measured by different machines, soundscapes may vary greatly between different persons according to the fore-mentioned factors. See Albert Mayr .“Deux écologies pour les basses fréquences,” Sonorités nr. 7, 2012, 33-46.

[7] Bernie Krause The Great Animal Orchestra. Finding the Origin of Music in the World's Wild Places. New York: Little, Brown & Co. 2012.

[8] Roberto Barbanti, Crisi e persistenza del modello retinico occidentale. Elementi per la definizione di un nuovo paradigma acustico. In A. Mayr (ed) Musica e suoni dell'ambiente. Bologna: CLUEB 2001, 41-69. (tr. mine)

[9] Torsten Hägerstrand, Time Geography: Focus on the Corporeality of Man, Society, and Environment. In The Science and Praxis of Complexity. Tokyo: The United Nations University. 1985, 193-216.

[10] See Albert Mayr .'Analisi spazio-temporale della zona del Terzolle' (with Marcello Archetti e Giorgio Pizziolo) in M. Archetti et al (a cura di) Il centro storico di Perugia - percezione e mobilità. Protagon, Perugia 1991, 117-154.

[11] See Albert Mayr & Antonella Radicchi “Intermezzo: Time Walk” in D. Henckel et al (eds) Space-Time Design of the Public City. Springer, Dordrecht 2013, 87-96.

[12] Filipa Matos Wunderlich “ Symphonies of Urban Places: Urban Rhythms as Traces of Time in Space. A Study of ‘Urban Rhythms' “http://www.eki.ee/km/place/pdf/kp6_07_wunderlich.pdf; “The Aesthetics of Place-temporality in Everyday Urban Space: The Case of Fitzroy Square” In Tim Edensor (ed) Geographies of Rhythm- Nature, Place, Mobility and Bodies. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. 2010, 45-58.

[13] Gernot Böhme Atmosphäre: Essays zur neuen Ästhetik. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1995.

[14] See, for instance, EEA (European Environment Agency) Good practice guide on quiet areas. Technical Report 4/2014.