Hi everyone. I am Mio Matsui, a 2nd year master’s student.
In this article, I will continue off of this article. Please start reading from here.
“Autumn 2023 – University of Art Linz Exchange Program Experience Diary (First volume) – The first month of the exchange”

Before getting into this volume, I would like to check the answers to the previous quiz.

Based on the above, ④ Stra?enbahn was the correct answer! If I were to forcibly write it in katakana form it would come out to be something like Strassenbahn. “bahn” has the meaning of “(manmade) roads,” so if you understand that you can guess the meaning of ① Einbahn and ③ U-Bahn.
“ein” means “one.” When I was at Linz I managed to remember the numbers 1 through 10 in German but on the streetlamps I would see signs with “Einbahn” written on them, and I was pretty happy to have been able to somehow deduce the meaning at the time.
“U-Bahn” is derived from “Untergrundbahn” which is quite similar to the English word “underground,” which makes it pretty easy to visualize.
“④ Stra?enbahn” too from the apparent meaning of the word could be understood as meaning “a train that runs along the street” if you understood the English as “Street” + “bahn.” By the way, ②Zug is read as “Zuhg.”

That’s the end of the quiz.
In the second volume, I have written about my university student life on site from October until the time when I had to return to Japan.

About the lectures

I did my exchange in the Interface Cultures Department (referred to as IC) but the lectures I actually took were part of the “Time Based Media” Department (referred to as TBM). At the time when I was aspiring to do the exchange, I heard from the previous exchange student Mr.Ishizuka about the existence of TBM. I checked via the school website what sort of classes were on offer, and I had a strong interest in that department since they had classes about soundscapes, etc..
Even though they were lectures for a different department, for the most part they were welcoming of short-term exchange students. There is an internal school system to search for the syllabi and whilst getting guidance from my IC friends I searched for lectures which I was interested in taking. Most of the students for the IC department are exchange students so all of the lectures are conducted in English, but for other departments they tend to be held in German alongside English as a supporting language. However, when you actually go to the lecture and if there are any students who do not understand German they will switch over to English which I was grateful for.

I will introduce some of the lectures which I took below.

①Acoustic Ecology

In the TBM class the lecture name “Acoustic Ecology” is defined as the research field of the soundscape concept put forward by its designer Raymond Murray Schafer. The main contents of the lectures are to reconsider the foundational elements of acoustics and then discuss. The number of participants in the lecture was very low and the class progressed in the format of the professor throwing out questions. For example, by beginning with the discussion topic concerning the very title of the department asking “what is time based?”, “what do you think the difference in sound is between a piano key versus smacking a table?”, and many other questions. Seeing how students of various backgrounds tackled those simple questions, once again reconsidered those themes and the purpose of trying to redefine the terms was really interesting.
Additionally, we also had a task in the classroom where everyone closed their eyes for 5 minutes in silence and listened to sounds. At this time I was nominated to write on the blackboard, and although there were no difficult words, I remember very well that I was very nervous as I wrote while frantically converting them into English under everyone’s attention. I wrote to the very end whilst asking questions such as “what is the sound a stomach makes in English called?”
Further, we had occasions where we left the classroom and did fieldwork which involved being guided by the professor whilst walking alongside the Danube river and listening to various sounds.

By the Danube river. I brought my recorder.

In this way the things themselves that we were doing were very simple and the contents allowed for even beginners to participate. The class was very enjoyable and gave me the opportunity to think anew about sounds and sound environments, and earnestly about our lives amidst that context with lectures to discuss.

②Pause, silence, rest

I would like to introduce the characteristic fieldwork of this lecture. The fieldwork consisted of about 6 students and 1 professor with all of them wearing earplugs walking around the city of Linz until night fell. This state wasn’t for just a few minutes, but rather since it was for a number of hours it was an intense experience. By wearing earplugs the sounds you can hear are limited, and we observed the town whilst straining our ears to hear the sounds of the town that had become quiet. It was precisely because we wore the earplugs that the vibrations of when I walked, and the sounds of the cars and construction works that could be heard even with earplugs were impactful. Additionally, since earplugs precluded conversation with members of the group, exploring the city with eye contact and gestures was interesting in itself as a form of communication.

A back alley in Linz

By wearing earplugs the sounds you would typically hear in a town are dampened, and this fieldwork which shone a light on the fine sounds which you would not usually notice lead to an understanding of acoustic characteristics in the environment. Sheaffer said in his “The Tuning of the World” that “what is necessary is not earplugs, but rather ‘the power of clairaudience’,” but in order to listen carefully we ventured to wear earplugs that are designed to block out sound, and in doing the sound walk our “clairaudience” improved.

③Acoustic design

To put it simply, the contents of this class were composed of lectures about designing acoustics, classes about practical tips and theories for DAW software, and students and teachers listening to everyone’s pieces with a discussion afterwards. The lectures began in the sound studio in the main school building, separate from the building where the IC department is located.

There are large speakers, and the acoustics are great.

In the lecture there were times students would listen together to the gathered pieces, play them in the studio facilities, talk about their thoughts, and looking at the waveform the professor would expand the conversation. I had a sound work with me that I had previously produced in a piece played on a large-sized woofer. The main element was the bass vibrations, so the professor progressively increased the audio and the studio livened up. This time apart from me everyone was a German speaker but one student suggested that they try to use English for my sake and in the middle of the class they switched to English. I was extremely grateful.

④Listening as a creative act

The contents of this class were composed of listening to sounds we unintentionally hear and trying to grasp them from various perspectives, alongside watching videos, listening to music and then having discussions. The lecture was held after the night had fallen. The atmosphere was one of relaxation and enjoyment as I would sit on the sofa comfortably in the classroom and watch the projector.There was also a day in the school building where we had a pizza party so we attended the lecture with pizza and alcohol (the professor was a bright and welcoming person). There were times too where we would all visit the professors studio at the top of the mountain and talk as we drank beer, juice, etc.

A studio made like a leisure home

Before the lecture began, the professor would always introduce various genres of music. Even noise music and vocaloids made an appearance. Furthermore, the day that gamelan music made an appearance, I exclaimed that “I have played the gamelan before!” and the conversation turned into them requesting me to show them so I introduced the gamelan with a video. I heard that it was their first time meeting a gamelan player.

⑤Art thinking

The IC departments class is held in a lecture hall at the ARS Electronica Center and the professor is Hideaki Ogawa. The overarching theme is “as an artist how do you consider things?” and the lecture begins with reference to a line of Mr. John Maeda “Design is a solution to a problem. Art is a question to a problem.” Whilst comparing the thought process behind design and in relation to art, the lecture progressed with contents pertaining to “what exactly ‘Art thinking’ is all about.” The discussion that against a certain problem if design-centered thinking is a solution to the problem, then art-centered thinking creates questions was memorable. Using that discussion as an introduction, a workshop called “Creative Question Challenge (CQC)” was held where several people engaged in dialogue and amidst that considered creative questions and made proposals. The students would divide themselves into groups of 3 to 4 people and within 20 minutes choose one creative question. As a result of the members each showing their individual social interests a large occurrence that was common to all members was the novel coronavirus which sparked conversation, and in the end we decided on a question that was akin to the likes of “if funerals began to be held online, would you be happy?” This specific question was based on the merits and demerits of being able to be connected at a distance and an interest in how our classic rituals will be transformed in the future. In this workshop there were no correct answers but endeavoring to not answer the question with a “Yes” or “No” was regarded rather well, so the presentation as a whole was evaluated on that sort of point. Since everyone’s home country differed on my team from Egypt to Spain to Colombia, it was a really valuable experience to get the opportunity to talk together.

⑥Lerning Linz

This lecture was a class in the IC department, and involved going around to different art facilities within the city of Linz, and it is also intended to lead to the future use of local facilities.
I would like to give a special mention to Tabakfabrik Linz which is the remains of a tobacco factory facility. The facility was quite large and had various areas but it was very enjoyable as in particular many sound art works were exhibited.

I was able to actually interact and play the reactable.

By arranging multi-channel speakers as in the photo, you can physically experience 360 degree stereophonic sound.

I took the lectures above but since I left more or less two months after the beginning of the academic term, it was unfortunate that I was not able to take lectures until the very end.

Touring galleries in Berlin

After appreciating the surrealist paintings in Venice my interest accrued, and in order to see more, I visited Berlin and in two days I toured around 8 galleries and art museums. I got there via a night bus from Linz. This time I went together with friends that I got to know in Linz so I was able to get to Berlin without errors.

The specific facilities I visited were the below:

• Gegenwart National Art Gallery (Hamburger Bahnhof)
• The Berlinische Gallery
• Jewish Museum Berlin
• K?NIG Gallery
• khroma (new media art center)
• East Side Gallery (Berlin Wall gallery)
• Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection
• Contemporary Fine Arts Gallery

I would recommend any of them but at the time I went to the Gegenwart National Art Gallery a large-scale retrospective exhibition for Lee Ufan was being held. It was my first time until now to see Lee Ufans artworks closely. The display route and captions were very thorough, and the contrivances to learn about the motives behind the “School of Things (Mono-ha)” were elaborate. My understanding of the artworks expanded more than before and I began to more deeply feel the appeal. (A little while after I had returned to Japan, I also went to the Lee Ufan art museum on Naoshima).
Additionally, at the Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection where many surrealist artworks were gathered, there were paintings but also videoworks being screened and by chance I saw Maya Deren’s “Meshes of the Afternoon,” but it was a work that in the midst of watching drew me in and left a particularly strong impression on me.
Apart from these, I was able to appreciate many works to the point that I cannot write about them all and I encountered many unforgettable artworks. Then, after looking it up later, I frequently found that a famous work was by a famous author or they appeared in books I was reading. It was really congested and the end of my trip to Berlin ended up with me having to run around but I thought it was great that I was able to see many artworks.
After finally being exposed to such a large number of works, I feel that I have come to understand in a very personal way that paintings that can be seen in photographs are quite different from those that can be seen in person.

At the large-scale new media art facility known as “khroma,” a large storage-like space was used and many artworks were on exhibit that required specialized environments using darkness, lighting fixtures, and acoustics. I want these sorts of facilities in Japan too.

My masters research activities in Linz

At the site, in fact, through lectures, art appreciation, looking for and briefly reading related thesis papers I think that my research activities were mostly input-based. I sorted them using the infinite plane tool “miro,” and further progressed my research.
In addition, literature that was needed in Linz I obtained through an unlimited e-book reading service. I also used the library of the university but the focus was on literature works in German so I would mainly look at the collections of painting books.
Furthermore, for my productions, whilst gathering ideas I schemed up a plan concerning what artworks to make for the IAMAS Annual Presentations early in the New Year. One of the ideas I was considering was a video acoustics work so I recorded videos with my phone and did field recordings alongside the Danube river in Linz.
In conjunction with these research activities, I had regular online meetings with my primary supervisor from IAMAS and developed my research.

Domestic trips during the weekend in Austria

During the weekends I would go on domestic trips in Austria with friends I made locally. We visited Hallstatt, Salzburg and Vienna. Each one was a rather short stay so we could not really go touring around to see artworks but I was able to enjoy Austria’s culture to the fullest.

Hallstatt

I encountered Anna Chormy’s “Pietá” in Salzburg. It is a work that I liked where the center of the mantle becomes a cavity and since light cannot enter nothing can be seen yet something exists within.

Hosting a DJ event

Close to when I was returning to Japan, I hosted a DJ event in a bar’s underground space in Linz. I thought that I wanted to try taking something on apart from my research, so I brought my own DJ equipment. Within the students at Interface Cultures, I invited friends who did visual DJing, and live recordings to come up with a name for the event, create the fliers and then the day of the event had arrived. On the day of the event, many friends that I had made in many places during my exchange came. Until the hosting of the event, the bar staff who spoke German as their mother tongue and myself who couldn’t speak fluently in English had some rough spots at times but even with that included it became a very valuable life experience.

The state of the DJ event

Closing remarks

During my exchange, I got a lot of motivation from the friends I encountered in Linz. There were of course the IC students, and other exchange students I met from Japan that weren’t on a short-term exchange program but had officially enrolled into the local university. Each of them came with great determination to live in Linz for several years, and although they were in different fields, they came to the university every day to draw and create, which inspired me to work hard as well. I feel like I had to do my best and I am extremely thankful.
In addition, during my exchange I was able to receive a large amount of support from my family. I want to take this chance to give my thanks to them too. Thank you truly.

Thank you for reading this far!

English translation: Eric Lupea