AudioVision : Sound, Music, and Noise in East German Experimental Films

Abstract

With 16 mm and 35 mm stock reserved for professional film, most East German artists in the early 1980s experimented on 8 mm. Because this format often lacked an audio track, one might surmise that sound played no role in this process, yet as this chapter explores, the aural dimension was often essential. Live sound programs performed at screenings could both corroborate and contradict the experimental films’ editing rhythms and thematic concerns. Influenced by contemporary jazz and combining media art, minimalist composition, and popular genres such as punk, GDR experimental filmmakers blended images and sound, noise and music. Analyzing works by Jürgen Böttcher, Thom di Roes, A.G. Geige, and Matthias BAADER Holst, the chapter tracks how sound and image coincided in East German experimental films.