Open Call “Sonic Confession” 2025

About the Open Call

This year’s theme of the laboratory is “Sonic Confession”, deepening exploration of collective creation through a self-directed annual art and research lab at the Torhaus Wehlen Gallery in Germany’s Saxon Switzerland National Park area. Building on last year’s inquiries, the lab will further shape and experiment with existing and emerging approaches, practices, and the intersections between local culture, nature and evolving technologies. With a continued emphasis on Correlated Complementarity, this year’s lab maintains its focus on sensory perception and the ability to hear, an encounter of listening practices. While sound remains central, the lab encourages a broader dialogue on how different modes of experience interact and inform one another, incorporating inner and outer relations, and connecting to the multiplicity of the cultural environment. A key aspect is the emphasis on exchange and learning about Acoustic Ecology and ecomusicology, exploring relationships between sound and the natural environment. Participants will engage in field recording, listening, and music/sound making, encountering philosophical questions about the border between music and sound, and bringing together traditions like herbalism and folklore with new thought processes and technology. The lab invites enthusiasts to explore possibilities of communication beyond sound-based entities and spaces. The program follows a non-hierarchical, collective-organization structure, including collective cooking, shared activities, and regular channeling circles. Workshops include Field recording and listening practice, Sound cartography, Hydrophones and underwater sound perception, Silent day, Somatic practice, body work, History and field exploration, Becoming alpaca workshop, and Stone licking workshop. The laboratory culminates in public events in Stadt Wehlen, Dresden, and Berlin.

What is Offered

With a positive funding decision (expected June 2025), the program intends to offer: a travel cost share (limited to bus or train), a possible mini grant, vegan/vegetarian food, shared sleeping spaces with shower, kitchen, and basic working studios and construction tools.

Requirements

Artists, researchers, and enthusiasts interested in acoustic ecology, sound, and sensory perception are invited to apply. Applicants should be open to collective creation, non-hierarchical structures, and shared living/working environments. A portfolio showcasing previous work and a willingness to engage with the thematic questions are required.

How to Apply

Applicants must pick 3 questions and reply to them in any way/form/medium, generate 3 questions for the organization in written English, select 1-3 works responding to the thematic direction (pdf, jpeg, video/audio link, webpage), and provide a personal website or portfolio. All required information must be compiled into one PDF file and sent to outininoutinoutoutin@gmail.com. Questions submitted may be documented and published anonymously or with attribution on the website.