Wissenschaft im Ohr

Über die Veranstaltung

Im Rahmen von Wissenschaft im Ohr (17. Juni 2021, 30. September 2021, 28. Oktober 2021) an der mdw - Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien hatten 5 Teams Gelegenheit, mit Unterstützung der Workshop-Leiterin Julia Grillmayr eine eigene Podcast-Folge zu produzieren und zu veröffentlichen. Der mehrteilige Workshop bot bereits zum zweiten Mal Gelegenheit, Skills zur verständlichen und erfolgreichen Vermittlung von komplexen oder fachspezifischen Inhalten zu erlernen.

Folge 3 aus dem Sommersemester 2021/Wintersemester 2021/22:
"Casting the Pod - unstable Bodies"
by Christina Jauernik and Fabian Puttinger 

Casting the Pod is dedicated to the possibilities and impossibilities of speaking about/with/through the plants and their milieus. Following the root of the term "to pod", which indicates an uncovering of layers in a flowering plant to release the fruit or seedling - a botanical gesture of uncovering new beginnings so to speak - this podcast series will turn its attention to another kind of perception through the engagement with plants. Casting from the perspective of the plant, we change known frequencies and gather stories on the shared edges of human and plant (in)audibilities.

The first episode is an exchange with Monica Gagliano, evolutionary ecologist studying plant behavior and cognition:

"It was in late 2011 that bright yellow kernels of corn decided to break the silence with their vibratory signals.
... their loud and chirpy vegetal clicks were heard by our ears and recorded by our sensitive scientific laser instruments."

This discovery in a laboratory lead Monica Gagliano to question the ways how such vegetal expressions are decoded for our ears. And we ask her how to approach the imperceptible.

Casting the Pod is an experiment of cross-pollination, shifted perspectives, encrypted signals and unfamiliar languages. Within the frame of the artistic research project Unstable Bodies* (Institute for Art and Architecture, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna) PEEK FWF AR574, we will initiate a series of conversations to reflect on questions of what it means to see and hear, letting the plant become part of and eventually take over the conversational sphere.

*for Unstable Bodies: Christina Jauernik, Fabian Puttinger, together with Vicki Kirby, Johann Lurf