The Klang und Realität master’s program is housed at the Institute of Music and Media, which brings together performative, compositional, and algorithmic forms of contemporary art. In keeping with that expansive mission, the program combines many approaches of time based art.

Over the course of their studies, students will develop positions independently. They learn to reflect their own approach in relation with artistic, academic, political, and scientific contexts and will graduate prepared to shape, advance, and even anticipate developments in the 21st century.

Musical practice is not bound to musical instruments; it encompasses many approaches to art and research. Accordingly, the master’s program is open to students from all disciplinary backgrounds. It is particularly suited to those interested in the diversity of subject areas, media forms, and modes of thought; the conservatory context facilitates the exchange of interests and expertise from different domains. Student projects are at the center of this process, continually re-conceptualized over two years of study on the basis of critical and multi-perspectival feedback. Students design and execute these projects in collaboration with their peers, working in one of two areas of focus, Epistemic Media or Transmedia Forms, each of which opens up innovative avenues of inquiry. Further information on the curricular structure can be found in the Klang und Realität module overview.

Concentration: Epistemic Media

The Epistemic Media concentration emphasizes independent research and the development of new methods in the humanities, sciences, and arts.

Projects may focus on:

• experimental artistic approaches or novel methodologies
• interactions between disciplines and work at the interface between art and science
• art as epistemic endeavor

Not only text, but composition, film, installation, and performance are epistemic media – they are vital means of insight and discovery. In fact, projects may generate entirely new practices, formats, or collectives. We are conducting acoustic field research, investigating sound and image in documentary film, and use mathematical methods for artistic thinking. We explore algorithmic music, develop a semiotics of hearing, and refine artistic research. This work has been continuously expanding the scientific and artistic commons.

Concentration: Transmedia Forms

• performative elements of audio and visual composition (e.g. video, VR/AR, gaming, installation, expanded cinema, public art, turntableism)
• composition, improvisation, sound art and experimentation in various (electronic/electroacoustic) performance practices
• narration, storytelling, and dramaturgy (e.g. text, fanzine, radio, podcast, sound design, performance)

Transmediality explores the opportunity to enter into a conversation about society, space, and time through interaction and immersion. It means sounding out the established limitations and questioning the concatenations of forms of knowledge in music, media and art. And it transgresses norms to open up new avenues of process-based exchange. 

Course of Study

To encourage interdisciplinary exchange, the largely elective coursework for the two concentrations overlaps considerably. Courses provide the theoretical, aesthetic, and technical foundations necessary to cultivate an advanced artistic and research practice.

To apply for the program, applicants must submit a detailed project proposal showcasing their interests, motivations, and skills (see Requirements for Klang und Realität). For admitted students, this will then serve as the basis for the experimental project development work that comprises their first year of study. During this open, exploratory phase, students will refine the projects that they then spend the second year of study implementing.  Throughout the entire process, they'll attend seminars in small groups, a regular colloquium and work together in close cooperation and exchange.

German Proficiency

International applicants must possess adequate German language skills. The B2 certificate (in the Goethe Institute classification system) or a comparable qualification is required. This also applies for those wishing to enroll in a later semester.

Application Deadline and Program Start

Candidates can apply for the Klang und Realität master’s program once a year; applications must be received by October 31. Courses start in the summer semester, at the beginning of April.

Apply

Applications for summer semester 2022 must be submitted online. Further information can be found here (German), along with access to the online application portal Muvac. Instructions for using Muvac can be found here.

General questions about the program should be directed to the Student Assistants.