Conference Lausitzer Rhythmen: Hören, Erinnern, Leben

What does Lusatia actually sound like? What memories, experiences, and stories do its noises and sounds carry? What role does hearing play in active memory and experience? These questions are the focus of the soundscape project “Lusatian Rhythms,” initiated by Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz (Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg) and Prof. Dr. Shintaro Miyazaki (Humboldt University of Berlin).

On June 4 and 5, 2026, the conference “Lusatian Rhythms” will take place in Berlin and Cottbus. Drawing on a variety of academic perspectives, it will explore the sounds and noises of Lusatia, a region historically shaped by lignite mining. In a visually dominated present, hearing often takes a back seat, even though it plays a central, often underestimated role in experience and memory. Contributions from musicology, artistic research with sound and image, acoustics, architecture, and film art open up different perspectives on the soundscapes of Lusatia and their socio-technical assemblages. The focus is on questions regarding how these soundscapes manifest in the lived environments of local people, how Lusatia can be experienced through sound and image, and how memories are generated by technology and nature. We also aim to explore, in part experimentally, transitions to other sensory perceptions such as smell and touch.

Against the backdrop of the planned phase-out of coal by 2038, these questions take on added significance. The open-pit mines in Lusatia that are still active today will become key elements of future remembrance, living archives.

June 4, 2026, from 1 p.m. to about 5 p.m.

Place:  Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Room 2.26 (Signallabor), Georgenstraße 47, 10117 Berlin (Please register by email with  anna.brautmeier.1@hu-berlin.de)

With contributions from musician, composer and sound researcher Richard Ortmann; cultural studies scholar and historian Uta C. Schmidt; architect Adrian Dorschner; musician and sound artist Peter Cusack; media artist Udo Noll; and cultural anthropologists Anne Dippel, Alastair Mackie and Sarah Thanner.

June 5, 2026, from 9 a.m. to about 5:30 p.m.

Place:  Kunsthalle Lausitz, Güterzufuhrstraße 7, 03046 Cottbus (opposite main railway station)

With contributions from former staff members of the Lausitz and Central German Mining Administration Company (LMBV) Toni Schneider and Göran Liebchen, acousticians Stephan Hernschier and Jan Magister, filmmaker and set designer Constanze Fischbeck, musicologist Albrecht von Massow, artist Eva Lopez, restorer and researcher Alexandra Skedzuhn-Safir, cultural organiser Michael Apel, ‘Heritage of Lusatia’ (UNESCO 5) project manager Susann Troppa, podcasters Alena Voigt and Anna Brautmeier, and students from the BTU ‘Campus Soundscapes’ project.

The conference is held in German.

Poster

BTU News article