Electronic Thinking
Symposium on Electronic Aesthetics in October at the Weimar Music University
Electronic aesthetics are the focus of a symposium on October 2 and 3 at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar. The conference “Electronic Thinking – Platform for Music and Discourse” explores questions related to electronically informed music and brings together lectures, concerts, and a panel discussion. The symposium will be chaired by Maximilian Marcoll, professor of electroacoustic composition and sound art at the Weimar Music University. Admission to all events is free.
At the heart of the symposium is the observation that electronic music has always been media music: it has been and continues to be linked to transmission, recording, and playback media—from radio to the web browser. The organizers view it as one of the central tasks of our time to critically examine the influence of media and production tools while simultaneously questioning the established categories and patterns of thought in electronic music.
The symposium deliberately does not focus on the technology itself, but rather on the ways in which it shapes aesthetics and artistic practice—as well as the possibility of a new way of thinking about music that is made possible only through technology. The goal is to bring together different viewpoints and perspectives and to refine concepts beyond technological fetishism and genre boundaries.
The program begins on Friday, October 2, at 4:00 p.m. with lectures by Prof. Dr. Nina Noeske and Prof. Kerstin Ergenzinger in the SeaM Lecture Hall (Coudraystraße 13A). In the evening, two concerts will follow in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus: At 6:30 p.m., Malte Giesen, director of the Studio for Electroacoustic Music at the Berlin Academy of Arts, will present works on a loudspeaker rotating around multiple axes under the title “Nullstrahler.”
At 8:00 p.m., this will be followed by the “Electronic Thinking International” concert, featuring works by W. Choi, A. Laville, D. Mayer, G. Mora, S. Nikos, V. Procino, D. Rossato, and L. Zielinska, curated from the “International Call for Works” by the Weimar Studio for Electroacoustic Music (SeaM).
On Saturday, October 3, the lecture program continues in the SeaM lecture hall: Dr. Monika Voithofer will speak at 11:30 a.m., followed by Prof. Dr. Christian Grüny at 12:15 p.m. In the afternoon, a lecture by Prof. Dr. Sabine Sanio will follow at 2:30 p.m., before a panel discussion concludes the lecture series at 3:30 p.m.
The evening once again features two concerts in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus: At 5:30 p.m., “Electronic Thinking Audiovisual” presents audiovisual works by A. Bartetzki, Glitschen, M. Ha, S. Khismatov, J. Oliveira, and A. Viramontes Nunura. The evening concludes at 7:30 p.m. with a concert by the German Society for Electroacoustic Music (DEGEM), featuring works by Y. Cho, K. F. Gerber, J. Gille, W. Jentzsch, C. V. Reusner, H. Son, and A. Wellmer.
[15 September 2026]