Fritz Schlüter

Contact:

Fritz Schlüter, Telefon +49(0)3 31 / 81 32 81-68,

Dissertation project: ‘Ambience’ as an Object of Design Practice and Knowledge in the Arts. Towards a History and an Aesthetics of ‘Ambient Sound’

Terms like ‘ambience’, ‘room tone’ or ‘atmosphere’ are essential parts of a professional jargon in radio and film, suggesting that sonic ambiences are readily available and easy to manage—virtually at the push of a button. In today’s media practice, the application of ambient sounds has become a matter of course. However historically, ‘ambience’ was considered to be a technical problem (background noise) as well as a ‘new’ phenomenon, an unacquainted aesthetic ‘object’. Up until now, ‘ambiences’ or ‘atmospheres’ are marked by a certain fuzziness – both in a phenomenological and in a conceptual sense. In the course of the PhD project, this will be addressed with particular regards to their handling in practice: In order to obtain, process, and diffuse sonic ‘ambiences’, a whole set of technical, creative, artistic skills is needed—involving a knowledge which can largely be characterised as implicit, incorporated. However, for the practitioners themselves, explication or verbalisation isn’t mandatory at all, (experiential) knowledge can be effectively acquired and passed on in and through practice. Therefore, the project aims to describe some of the routines, strategies and (bodily) techniques involved in sound and media production and education. This professional practice will then be compared to a series of historical and contemporary artistic approaches in order to differentiate how they work with ambient sound, with what kinds of knowledge and intentions. Central to the project is the question, what ambience, as a particular sonic form, ‘does, how it operates, what changes it effectuates’ (Christoph Cox).

Research focus

Sound studies, media studies, participatory art, ethnography, sensory anthropology

Fritz Schlüter studied European Ethnology (M.A.) and Library and Information Science (M.A.) at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. From 2014-2017, he was research assistant at European Media Studies, University of Potsdam and University of Applied Sciences Potsdam (cooperative course of study), teaching projects between theory, aesthetics and practice in sound. Subsequently, he worked for Prof. Dr. Heiko Christians, Institute for Arts and Media, University of Potsdam, and for Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Martin Heinze, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane (MHB). From 2019-2021 he was a member of the DFG Research Training Group “Knowledge in the Arts” at Berlin University of the Arts with a PhD project on the history and the aesthetics of ambient sound. Currently he is research assistant at Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF/ University of Potsdam and academic coordinator of the ZeM.

Publications

“Listening”, in: B. Gronau, K. Peters (Hg.): An den Rändern des Wissens. Über künstlerische Epistemologien, Bielefeld 2023 [i. Ersch.].

“Challenging politics of listening in the clinic. Ethnographic experiences with a participatory music project in a psychiatric context”. Journal of Music, Health, and Wellbeing (8) 2022.

Podcast “Listening/Zuhören”. wissenderkuenste.de (10), 2021.

„Audio Paper ‚Background Noise. Eine auditive Ethnographie des Stadtteils Wedding, Berlin‘“, in: K. Bauer, A. Graf (Hg.): Raumbilder – Raumklänge. Zur Aushandlung von Räumen in audiovisuellen Medien. Münster 2019, S. 85–97.

„Soundwalks. Ein methodologischer Kommentar“, in Kuckuck(2) 2017, S. 18–20.

„A soundscape remodelled. Nauener Platz in Berlin-Wedding“, in: P. Cusack (Hg.): Berlin Sonic Places. A Brief Guide. Hofheim am Taunus 2017, S. 82–84.

„‚Sound Culture‘, ‚Acoustemology‘ oder ‚Klanganthropologie‘? Sound Studies und sinnliche Ethnographie“, in: L. M. Arantes, E. Rieger (Hg.): Ethnographien der Sinne. Wahrnehmung und Methode in empirisch-kulturwissenschaftlichen Forschungen. Bielefeld 2014, S. 57–74.

„Akustische Territorien, akustisches Regime. Feldforschung in den Klanglandschaften der Großstadt“, in: S. Gaidolfi et al. (Hg.): Metropolen. Politik – Kultur – Imagination. Würzburg 2013, S. 61–98.

„Berlin 2012 – Zehn Field Recordings“, in: G. Paul, R. Schock (Hg.): Der Sound des Jahrhunderts. Ein akustisches Portrait des 20. und beginnenden 21. Jahrhunderts. Bonn, Berlin 2013.

„Mapping the drone. Sonic agents in urban soundscapes“, in: P. Gibas, K. Pauknerová, M. Stella (Hg.): Non-humans in Social Science. Animals, Spaces, Things. Cerveny Kostelec, S. 117–136.

„Sensing the Street. Eine sinnliche Ethnographie der Großstadt“, mit Maria Elisabeth Hiebsch und Judith Willkomm in: S. Geschke (Hg.): Straße als kultureller Aktionsraum. Interdisziplinäre Betrachtungen des Straßenraumes an der Schnittstelle zwischen Theorie und Praxis. Wiesbaden 2009, S. 31–57.

Talks

Einführung in die Methode der sonischen Ethnografie. Summer School ethnografischer Film: „Zwischen Kommen und Gehen. Urbane Räume der Begegnung“, Institut für Kulturanthropologie/ Europäische Ethnologie, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 2023.

Beredte Stille. Zum Gebrauch der „Atmo“ in der Praxis der Tongestaltung [Podcast]. Annual conference of the AG Auditive Medienkulturen & Sound Studies in the Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft (GfM), Lüneburg, 2021.

Silences. Contribution to the podcast series of the Oxford-Berlin Creative Collaborations, Oxford University und Berlin University of the Arts, with K. McLoughlin, A. Jeßulat et al., 2021.

Beyond Therapy. Ethnographic Experiences with a Collaborative Music Project in a Psychiatric Context. Music, Sound and Wellbeing Symposium, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, 2019.

Comment on Ignacio Farías (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin): “European Noise: Reflections on the Politics of Comparison in Science and Technology Studies”. Research colloquium, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin, 2018.

Sonic Ethnographies. Cultural Anthropology of Sound. Cluster of Excellence “Image Knowledge Gestaltung”, BEAM and KlangDenken | Sonic Thinking research groups, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 2016.

Soundscapes. Akustische Lebensqualität. Lecture series, winter semester 2014/15, University of Augsburg/ Bayerisches Landesamt für Umwelt (LfU), Augsburg, 2015.

Walking in the City. Hidden Sounds and Mobile Places. Lecture performance for KOSMOS Summer University “Modern Walking. Innovative Urban Mobility”, Cluster of Excellence “Image Knowledge Gestaltung”, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2013.