Lausitz Rhythmen Conferenz: Listening, Remembering, Living

It is a joint event organised by the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) and Humboldt University of Berlin.

What does Lusatia actually sound like? What memories, experiences and stories are associated with its noises and sounds? What role does hearing play in active recollection and experience? – These are the questions addressed by the soundscape project ‘Lusatian Rhythms’. The project was initiated by Prof. Dr Astrid Schwarz, chair of the Department of Technology Studies at the BTU, and Prof. Dr Shintaro Miyazaki (Humboldt University of Berlin). On 4 and 5 June 2026, the “Lausitz Rhythms” conference will take place in Berlin and Cottbus. 

The forum will examine the sounds and noises of Lusatia from various academic perspectives. The region has historically been strongly shaped by lignite mining. Although it plays a central, often underestimated role in experience and memory, hearing frequently takes a back seat in a visually dominated present. At the event, contributions from musicology, artistic research with sound and image, acoustics, Architecture and film art will present different perspectives on the soundscapes of Lusatia and their socio-technical assemblages. 

The focus is on questions regarding how these soundscapes manifest themselves in the lived environments of local people, how Lusatia can be experienced through sound and image, and how memories are evoked through technology and nature. Transitions to other sensory perceptions, such as smell and touch, are also explored, in some cases experimentally. - Against the backdrop of the planned phase-out of coal by 2038, these questions take on added relevance. The open-cast mines in Lusatia that are still active today are becoming agents of future memory, living archives.

PROGRAMME

4 June 2026, from 1.00 pm to approx. 5.00 pm
Venue: Humboldt University of Berlin, Room 2.26 (Signallabor), Georgenstraße 47, 10117 Berlin (Please complete registration by email at 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.

5 June 2026, from 9.00 am to approx. 5.30 pm
Venue: Kunsthalle Lausitz, Güterzufuhrstraße 7, 03046 Cottbus (directly opposite the 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.