Still Building After All

BACKGROUND: Within the field of visual arts, the intersection of comparative arts and Ludwig van Beethoven studies is current in exhibitions such as Raum ist Partitur (2020 Bonn), Sisterman's Ode to Beet (2013) and backgrounded by Adorno's Beethoven (1998). A comparative arts methodology is found in Lockspeiser's Music and Painting (1973) and Albright's Modernism and Music (2004). This research interrogates new responses to Beethoven’s engagement with humanism on his 250th birthday. It asks: How can contemporary themes in humanism be revealed, relating to Beethoven's works, to create a complex sound and built installation? CONTRIBUTION: "Still Building After All" is a multimedia installation involving a 3-channel sound set in a simulated building site of bricks, scaffolding, lights and seating. I collaborated with Dr Christoph Dahlhausen. Conceptual and material manifestation was shared with equivalent participation, advancing our individual practices. Dahlhausen recorded performances of Beethoven's work, I took field recordings and composed. This work's contribution is to create a dialogical interplay of contemporary/historical musical material, embedded into an installation to perform a building site as metaphor for a never-ending humanist task. It re-renders Beethoven compositions into novel forms of sound diffusion including vibration. It physically performs the logic of comparative arts in transforming varied experiences into a gallery experience foregrounding humanism's contemporary horizon. SIGNIFICANCE: The work was exhibited at Siegburg Stadtmuseum Germany. We developed the concept in response to the Beethoven Reloaded Art Prize, supported by the BTHVN 2020 organisation and funded by German federal, state, municipal city and business funding. Our concept was one of 10 chosen from 250 applicants by a distinguished panel. We received € 4,000 commissioning fee, and € 1,400 prize. 4 newspaper articles covered the art prize.