mdwPress – serie

How are music/sound and dance/movement interwoven in artistic processes? What kinds of models can be identified when studying the relations between them, and which aesthetic intentions correspond to them? Based on these questions, the contributors to this volume map a wide range of performances from different genres and styles, including those that transcend the stage. The aim is to discuss relationships between music, its physicality, and moving bodies in artistic practice. In doing so, they respond to a theoretical challenge: to conceptualize music as an invisible but audible motion from the perspective of perception and on the basis of visible movements that can be staged, choreographed, or improvised.

In recent decades, social and economic changes have brought about a growing awareness of the role of art and culture in society. As a result, scholars have turned their attention to a sociological view of arts, developing hermeneutic approaches and conducting empirical research that have led to a wealth of insights into the organization of arts. These studies of the creation, production, distribution, evaluation and consumption of arts are clearly sociological, but they include approaches from other disciplines, notably arts management studies and cultural policy research. Volker Kirchberg and Tasos Zembylas critically discuss seven major theories of the social organization of arts in Western societies, with the aim of encouraging further research and theoretical developments.

The electroacoustic works of the Greek-French composer Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) captivate with their radical ideas, sounds and compositional models. They were often conceived as multimedia works for specific locations and architectures. The richness of the approaches and processes gave rise to an extensive body of sources. Therefore, this volume is particularly dedicated to a philological approach, combining contributions by companions of Xenakis and renowned experts in Xenakis research with studies in philology of electroacoustic music. It concludes with a roundtable discussion of the performance of these electroacoustic works, thus linking the philological questions back to musical practice.

In Dirty Dragging, Evelyn Annuß reformulates queer theorizations of drag, exploring the ambivalence of transgressive performances under apartheid, Nazism, and Jim Crow through a transoceanic lens. Taking up the ambivalence of “dirty” performance modes spanning drag and carnival to propaganda, she extends readings of gender bending by incorporating perspectives on blackface and “racialized drag.” She thereby explores violent, locally specific mobilizations of the transgressive along with the ways in which queer and creolized forms of performance intertwine to oppose identitarian boundaries. Given the current slide into right-wing authoritarianism, the book thus gestures toward the potential joy of collectively making societal conditions dance.

How can diverse musical interactions be productively used to promote inter- and transcultural communication, support human thriving and flourishing, empower marginalised social groups, or make society as a whole more sustainable, just, and inclusive? Bringing together perspectives from research and practice, this edited volume explores how music mediation as a distinct artistic-educational practice can foster social cohesion, enable dialogue, and create new forms of engagement. The contributions critically reflect on the conditions, limitations, and potentials of music mediation in various contexts, providing insights for scholars, musicians, and practitioners working at the intersection of music and society.

»Facing Drag« brings together international experts from cultural studies – including history, media, theatre, dance, and performance studies – to explore how gender, race, and ethnicity are impersonated across time and cultures. Drawing on diverse case studies, the volume examines performative acts of crossing, appropriation, and re-signification, foregrounding their political, ethical, and aesthetic dimensions. Expanding the concept of drag beyond gender bending, it investigates the interrelations of drag, processes of racialization and colonial histories. The essays offer critical insights into both the subversive potential of drag and its entanglement with violent forms of Othering and exclusion.