To mark the start of Christina Kubisch’s Electrical Walks in Aachen, we warmly invite you to the two keynote talks Electrical Walks 2003–2026. Electromagnetic surveys by Christina Kubisch and Sonotopias. Sound mapping between auditory exploration of the world and speculative future practice by Dr Anna Schürmer (media theorist Freie Universität Berlin), followed by an artist talk moderated by Rebekka Seubert. The event will be held in German.
Prof. Christina Kubisch
Electrical Walks 2003–2026. Electromagnetic surveys
Christina Kubisch (b. 1948 in Bremen) belongs to the first generation of sound artists. Following periods of study in Germany and Switzerland, she lived in Milan until 1987. Trained as a flautist and composer, she came to prominence early on through projects at the intersection of visual art, media and music. During the 1970s, her work focused primarily on gender-critical video performances, followed by site-specific sound installations employing magnetic induction and other largely self-developed audiovisual techniques, which she has been exploring since the 1980s. In 2003, she initiated the series Electrical Walks, sound walks in public spaces that invite participants, equipped with specially designed electromagnetic headphones, to experience a previously unknown mode of acoustic perception within the everyday environment.
Following visiting professorships in Maastricht, Paris and Oxford, Christina Kubisch served as Professor at the Saar University of Fine Arts from 1994 to 2013, where she founded the Department of Sound Art. Since 1997, she has been a member of the Music Section of the Berlin Academy of Arts. Her installations, compositions and audiovisual works have been presented internationally at festivals, museums and galleries around the world. She has received numerous awards and fellowships for her work, most recently the Venice Music Biennale Prize (2021) for Best World Premiere, the Giga-Hertz Award (2021) from ZKM in recognition of her lifetime achievement, and the GEMA Music Authors’ Prize for Electronic Music (2025). Christina Kubisch lives and works in Berlin. www.christinakubisch.de; www.electricalwalks.org
Prof Dr Anna Schürmer
Sonotopias. Sound mapping between auditory exploration of the world and speculative future practice
The term ‘sonotopias’ combines the concept of sound (sonare) with that of place (topos) – and thus refers both to places of sound and to forms of spatialisation through listening and attunement. In this sense, field recordings and audio walks can be understood as methods of auditory world exploration: with the aid of microphones, antennas and our ears, the world’s soundscapes are mapped and made tangible – as an interplay of nature, culture and technology. At the same time, the concept of sonotopy carries a speculative element: resonant utopias of a better world – and echoes of how it might be and sound. In the spirit of ‘futuring’ as a proactive process for shaping the future, sound is understood as a medium that not only reflects worldly conditions but also brings them into being through imagination: ‘Musicking Future’ – making music of the future.
Anna Schürmer has been the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Professor at Freie Universität Berlin since 2026; prior to that, she was a junior professor of musicology at the Cologne University of Music and Dance from 2023. In her academic work, she advocates interdisciplinary perspectives and discourses within the context of ‘Music and Media’ (Sound Studies). Specifically: intersectional approaches in music research (Queer Musicology), speculative forms of sound-based knowledge production (Musicking Future – Futuring Music), and auditory perspectives in artistic research (Acoustic Research). She pays particular attention to new and electronic (club) music. Outside academia, Anns Schürmer also works as a music journalist: she hosts programmes, gives sound lectures, leads listening sessions and publishes regularly in various print, radio and online media. Further information: www.interpolationen.de.
Credit: Christina Kubisch, Electrical Walks Chemnitz, 2022. Photo: Foto: Archiv Kubisch