about
the institute for transacoustic research (german: institut für transakustische forschung, iftaf) was founded by nikolaus gansterer, matthias meinharter, jörg piringer and ernst reitermaier in the year 1998 to define and research transacoustics.
with expertise in visual arts, music, sound-poetry and philosophy and supported by external experts the institute organizes public experiments, laboratories and expeditions, conducts field research, invents instruments, creates sound and artworks and holds workshops and lectures in a process-oriented, context-dependent way; at the home base in vienna as well as internationally. the combination and confrontation of heterogenous disciplines and approaches has become a crucial method; the steadily forming network of artists/scientists from the most diverse realms is not a by-product, but rather a central aim.
transacoustic research
“transacoustic” describes the area between acoustics and other fields and the process of crossing and exploring these borders, which is unfolding new cognitions and perspectives. humans perceive the world with their senses and divide it into a diversity (immanuel kant called it “mannigfaltigkeit”). as everything is connected, the various fields influence each other and it is possible to cross the borders of perception. transacoustic happens in between different fields, its not the phenomenon itself, it is the transition, the translation from one field into the other. it is impossible to get hold of it, and once experienced the phenomenon will probably lose its transacoustic aspects.
so, we are talking about subjective experiences; transacoustics as such, does not exist; it is only a perspective. there is only transacoustic research, which constantly circles its imaginary core and thereby arrives at the most diverse and unexpected results and realizations.
a crucial characteristic of transacoustic research is its transdisciplinary approach; it carries out science by means of art and art by means of science; methods and settings from both areas are combined to arrive at unique lines of connection and division. the approach is experimental, which means that the set-up for experiments is created; the end results of the experiments remain unknown.
transacoustic research is concerned with the peripheral effects and tangential areas of acoustics, with their borders to other areas of research. these contours and definitional borders are necessarily blurred and vague and are constantly shifting.
thus the question of the essence of transacoustics is as impossible to answer as the question of art or philosophy's essence.
to give a few examples for potential transacoustic research assignments:
- neutralizing gravity with sound
- translating smell into sound waves
- controlling brain activities by rhythm
- an ultrasonic philharmonic orchestra with bats and dolphins
and so on. the possibilities are endless.
the success, productivity and efficiency of transacoustic research do not depend on finding answers to these questions, but unexpected byproducts and new research questions.
selected projects
2020 kaffeenistik (Vienna)
2018 transpeditionen (Vienna)
2014 department pop (Vienna)
2012 hearing cage (radio show, OE1)
2011 sound performance (at secession, Vienna)
2010 performance (at 10 years klingt.org, Vienna)
2009 animation epidemic - sound performance together with the polish sound collective male instrumenty (at MAK, Vienna)
2009 translecture (at club transmediale, Berlin - Germany and konturen, Vienna)
2008 performance (at geiger festival, Goteborg - Sweden)
2008 fallstudie (at reheat festival, Nickelsdorf)
2008 performance together with the swiss sound collective elixir (at belluard festival, Fribourg - Switzerland)
2008 sound performance (at mobile music workshop, Vienna)
2007 transacoustic research tour (Innsbruck, Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp - Belgium)
2007 asymptotische versuchsanordnungen (at musikprotokoll, Graz)
2006 M wie Made (workshop, Vienna)
2006 labor (Vienna)
2005 zum beispiel / transakustische forschung (at MAK, Vienna)
2004 transakustik a-z, Wien Modern (3 days)
2003 translectures (2003-2004 at Forum Stadtpark Graz, festival in potenza vienna, Konzerthaus Wien, MQ Wien, lothringer13 Munich, aufhoeren festival Vienna)
2001 outpost (2001-2002 in Vienna, Linz, Hamburg, Feldkirch, Frankfurt, podewil Berlin - Germany)
2001 Fremde Dezibel (at Festival der Regionen 2001)
2000 MSV 2000 (at Fest der Flüsse, Vienna)
2000 cede gluebing (in Vienna & Graz)
1999 hearings (1999-2004 in Vienna)