Forword
Alaa Alkurdi, artistic director of the public domain and head of stream Porgy&Bess

In just a short period, the Stream was being broadcast by Porgy nearly twice a week with the support of the Media lab Akademie der bildenden Künste, totaling 50 concerts till September 2020. The Academy reopened and needed the equipment back; what now?

Amazingly, working closely with Christoph Huber and Gabriele Mazic, we overcame many obstacles. We steered away from conventional approaches and cultivating a quality between the artists on stage and those artists behind the camera.

In this approach of having artists behind the 1400~ streams reflects on connecting all content together and having multiple disciplines in one team member or the whole group made this five-people job to be managed by one person every evening (on rare occasions, we don’t get the copyright to stream, but that’s okay)

From the beginning, It was crucial to me to implement even cinematic elements while eliminating any unnecessary distractions, such as too much light, too noisey/loud, and too much discarding of ascetics and artistic practices, to create a quality that reflects the music on stage and be true to the genre’s attributes. In every reflection session with the stream team, we shaped this experience to deliver an online stage available for the whole world during the streaming times and documentation of an entire scene. The archive is growing, and so is the team.

Even through experiencing the streams and the people behind them, more is needed to demonstrate the people’s importance and character behind the streams. Therefore, it was essential to show in this exhibition the artistic qualities, work, and questions that the team members are working with outside of the Stream.

ad II. Rooms by Daniel Helmer
The “Public Domain” and the “Live Music Club” are essential parts of PORGY & BESS. Both curated as individual entities within the same building and institution. Yet the two spaces remain divided geographically and co exist independently. This Sound installation merges these spaces on a sonic level. As you roam through the exhibition in the public domain you are able to hear not only the sounds and the atmosphere of or your immediate surroundings, but also perceive the live music and auditory signals emitted from the music club below. The soundscape offers a fusion of the sonic qualities of these two spaces, creating an artificial room that interweaves the Public Domain and the Live music club.
Playback station: This “Playback Station” offers a selection of the music i created. If you get bored, feel free to use the provided effect machines to enhance your experience.

ad IV. Objects by Veronika Beringer
I’d imagine someone wandering around in the mountains. The moon is already visible and the sun is nearly gone, but it’s not yet completely dark. With your bare eyes you can still see pretty well, but if you’d want to take a picture with a camera, you’d realise how dark it has already become. It’s the moment when it’s neither day nor night. The person is not really sad or lonely, just by themselves wandering.