Urbirds singing the Sonata
2011
6.0 sound (mono)
32 min 39 s
Astrid Seme, Urbirds singing the Sonata, 2011
The rights for all bird recordings are with their respective owners and supporters of Urbirds singing the Sonata: Prof. Dr. Hans-Heiner Bergmann, Ernst Arendt, Karl-Heinz Frommolt, and Karl-Heinz Garberding.
It is not clear which influences brought Dada artist Kurt Schwitters to create his phonetic sound poem Ursonate (1922–1932). Some historians claims he was inspired by bird sounds. Astrid Seme strongly believes this to be true and therefore brought the primordial song back to the birds. Urbirds singing the Sonata narrates and describes what Kurt Schwitters might have heard in order to arrive at his phonetic poetry and rhythmic score.
Astrid Seme is an independent graphic designer based in Vienna. She received her MA at Werkplaats Typografie after graduating from the University for Applied Arts in Vienna. In 2014 she was a resident at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels. She is also a member of Mark Pezinger Verlag, a publishing house and exhibition platform for artist books. She is a supervising tutor at the New Design University in Austria.
