News

Affecting and Therapeutic Effects of Polyaisthesis. Symposium May, 17-18, 2023

 
A first review of the Polyaesthetic Symposium in memoriam of Prof. Dr. Claus Thomas (+ 23.12.2022) in Salzburg.

It is to the merit of Prof. Claus Thomas, our recently deceased honorary member, that the "Polyaesthetic Education" initiated by Wolfgang Roscher developed a strong affinity to therapeutic aspects. Due to his studies in pediatrics, Claus Thomas knew in particular detail about the desires and needs of young people. He developed extensive methodological approaches to effectively meet these challenges in an aesthetic way. With his own practical realizations, he comprehensibly demonstrated their effect.
What has developed from this in the more than 30 years since Claus Thomas' contribution of the same name in 1991, and how significant these aspects appear again in the current psychological distress of young people, was subject of the symposium of the International Society for Polyaesthetic Education Salzburg, who will publish a summary a.s.a.p.

Perceive – Experience – Express. Int. Symposium 2023

Aesthetical approaches from pedagogical and psychological points of view.

A conference dedicated to the memory of Wolfgang Roscher († 2002) and Christian G. Allesch († 2022) was arranged by the Department of Music Education in cooperation with the International Society for Polyesthetic Education on May 19 and 20, 2023 at the University Mozarteum Salzburg.

Questions of aesthetic perception within the arts and in common were issues of the program. While artistic references showed multiple references to the work of polyaesthetic education by Wolfgang Roscher, aesthetic references were often also made to the memory of the cultural psychologist Christian G. Allesch.

LINK to the Foreword of IGPE's president Gerhard Hofbauer

In the announcement of the congress Dr. Michaela Schwarzbauer wrote: "Some of the ideas that seemed visionary in the circle around Roscher at the end of the 20th century seem to be part of everyday practice today. To what extent have new impulses, promoted by the possibilities of digitalization and a softening of the boundaries between the arts, influenced and changed the issues of (poly)aesthetic education since Roscher's death in 2002?" (Translation G. Hofbauer)

Further details (in German) may be found on  https://www.moz.ac.at/de/veranstaltungen/2023/05/19-wahrnehmen-erfahren-darstellen

Orbituary to Prof. em. Dr. Claus Thomas (1924-2022)

Deeply saddened, we announce the passing of our Honorary Member Prof. Dr. Claus Thomas.

                       Recital by Claus Thomas at the Symposium 2020, Hohnhurst, Germany. © Helge Thomas

Our highly esteemed founding and honorary member, Professor em. Dr. Claus Thomas passed away after a long disease one day before Christmas, on December 23, 2022.

Inspired by the conviction that the perceptiveness of the human senses is an indispensable basis for the realisation of the deeper meaning of human life, his advice and support have been among the strongest impulses since the foundation of the International Society for Polyaesthetic Education, which he himself co-founded in 1982.

As much as health difficulties increasingly affected our honorary member, Claus Thomas firmly held on to the mediation and further development of 'polyaisthesis'. When we held the symposium at his home in 2020, he was one of the most active participants.

Now we are confronted with a painful caesura. We may evoke his sonorous voice from memory as if it were physically present. But we will have to understand, a long meritorious life on earth has completed. To honour what his work gave us over decades will become possible as soon as the veil of sadness will lift.

First of all, we express our sympathy with all the mourners, with his wife Ute, who has been associated with our society since the beginning, who mourns the loss of her husband after years of tireless care, and with their children and their families. We thank them for supporting her husband and father over a long time to be able to participate actively in the artistic events he longed for. May they all, as well as the members of our polyaesthetic community, be comforted that an often restless soul has now found peace after sorrowful times.

Our appreciative thankfulness will fill our thoughts more and more as we commemorate Claus Thomas' so extensive oeuvre and as we trace his life's footsteps.

Professor Claus Thomas was emeritus professor at the State University of Music and the University of Freiburg. In addition to teaching speech training, music pedagogy and acting as well as therapeutic approaches to pedagogy, his meritorious leadership of the "Studiobühne" is particularly remembered. Since 1965, Claus Thomas has worked together with Wolfgang Roscher both artistically and academically. Together they founded the International Society for Polyaesthetic Education [IGPE] in 1982, whose vice-president he was until 1996 and since 2007 its honorary member. Together with his wife, he staged and designed many significant stage contributions to the symposia as well as a large number of pioneering contributions in the publications of the IGPE and far beyond. Previously, Claus Thomas had already been a cooperator of Carl Orff. From then on, Orff's works were as much a part of Claus Thomas' repertoire of recitations as those of the important classics of German literature such as Hölderlin, Rilke, Morgenstern, etc. As a lecturer at the University Mozarteum Salzburg, he worked at the Carl Orff Institute and was awarded the Medal of Merit of the University Mozarteum. His work was above all interdisciplinary and comprehensively polyaesthetic. Due to his studies in paediatrics, he masterfully knew how to transform therapeutic contents into artistic, music-therapeutic and perceptual-physiological applications. Francis of Assisi's "Sonnengesang" (Canticle of the Sun), created with mainly young people with disabilities, is only one of the unforgettable milestones in Claus Thomas' polyaesthetic-pedagogical work. On his 90th birthday, he was awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon for his comprehensive, interdisciplinary life's work.

Even with health difficulties, his appreciative correspondence with me as a representative of the International Society for Polyaesthetic Education continued until late autumn. It was also testimony to a very deep personal friendship, the loss of which is very painful.

In honourable respect and thankfulness,

Gerhard Hofbauer

president of IGPE
on behalf of all members of the International Society for Polyaesthetic Education 

POLYAESTHETICA 2022-12 Basic Letter 08-en

POLYAESTHETICA 2022-12 BASIC LETTER 08 E-Mail and printout – [en]

We report about:

… the ‘state of the art’

a short review of the Symposium 2022 „EROS und THANATOS

a short review of the General Assembly 2022

a preview to the Symposium 2023 in cooperation with the Departement of Music Education of the University Mozarteum Salzburg

news since the last edition of polyaesthetica

About the ‚state of the art‘: Some things seem to be “verrückt”in the meaning of derailed

„Think positive – stay negative!“ a friend called out to me when we met at the COVID-test-station in the pharmacy. The social climate in Salzburg, the overcrowded Christkindlmarkt, bargain hunting in the stores, could probably be well described as "race to catch up", if it weren't for the thousands of tourists who just stand, look and marvel at what is suddenly all pouring out of all the stores again. Perhaps they are also catching up on missed impressions.

Our elderly need completely different help, namely people who adjust their pace of life to them for a while, turn to them and become perceptible to them, so that compassion and care can happen. When we sang Advent and Christmas carols with the people of the Malteser Hospital Service in Salzburg on one evening of the week of this advent season, these were just such hours of recreation

By the phrase "some things seem to be somewhat derailed," I mean that quite a few practices that have drifted, that have gone into a state of levitation, have lost their orientation and seem to be in the process of re-locating themselves. These changes cause an intensified awareness. We have to re-evaluate which things, actions and interactions we give attention, time and space to.

I see this 'Advent' as a challenge to 'aisthesis', to 'poly-aisthesis' at the meeting areas of nature, of the arts, of social life, at new places of positioning. Poly-aesthetic education wants to form and strengthen the abilities for it concretely. Let us take up the challenge!

Vice President Dietmar Jürgens chose a passage from the Gospel of Thomas and the Epistle to the Corinthians for our Christmas mailing: "I will give you something that no eye has seen and no ear has heard, that no hand has ever touched and that has never been in the mind of any being."

We wish everyone the corresponding strength, leisure, sensual openness and confidence to find the traces of new meaning, of a meaningful life, during the Christian holidays and especially for the New Year!

Gerhard Hofbauer,
on behalf of the Board

A short Review of Symposium 2022 „EROS and THANATOS” in Salzburg

If someone thought that had also been somewhat derailed, I joyfully agreed. It was quite extraordinary. Who thematizes, problematizes life and death so clearly? And the fact that we shifted our locations three times, from the creative laboratory of the factory to the balanced, stylish hall of Frohnburg Castle, to the ultra-modern ambience of the Museum der Moderne, and finally to the familiar meeting zone at the IGPE headquarters, resulted in a constantly agile, changing flair... as well as to Hans Martin Ritter's monodrama "Müller's Winter Journey", as a permanent, dramatic search for a place where life gives meaning. - We are working on the documentation of this event, which got feedback as particularly successful.

A short Review of General Assembly 2022

The formal occasion proceeded clearly, tightly and constructively. The board was re-elected with clear approval, Hans Martin Ritter became an additional board member. The finances ensure the continuity and already in May 2023 the next event will follow. Do not hesitate to ask for more information if you were not present at the meeting anyway.

Symposium 2023 in Cooperation with the Department of Music Education of the University Mozarteum Salzburg

The next symposium from 19 to 20.05.2023 is entitled "Perceiving - Experiencing - Representing. Pedagogical and psychological reflections on aesthetic questions". The event will be coordinated by Michaela Schwarzbauer on the part of the Mozarteum together with IGPE. Like our Symposium 2022, it is dedicated to the memory of Wolfgang Roscher († 2002) and Christian G. Allesch († 2022). Details will follow shortly on www.paeb.org

News since the recent edition of polyaesthetica:

Several of our addressees enabled us with membership fees and donations to manage our activities in spite of the lack of public subsidies. Some support came from the Salzburger Sparkasse and from the "Verband der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaften Österreichs" [Federation of Austrian Scientific Societies]. Many thanks to everybody.

Our participation in organizing the "Song-Contest Musik macht Mut" of the Child and Youth Advocacy Office Salzburg led to the participation of some of the groups in the symposium, but also to very cordial encounters with exemplary pedagogues and young people in the practical field of aesthetic education.

EROS and THANATOS. Review of Symposium 2022

Historical und actual (poly-) aesthetic approaches to existential experiences

Symposium of the International Society for Polyaesthetic Education (IGPE) cooperating with University Mozarteum Salzburg, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Kunstraum "Fabrik BBK600",
celebrating the 40th anniversary of IGPE, in memoriam of the founder Wolfgang Roscher (+2002) and the psychologist and board member Christian G. Allesch (+2022).

 The confrontation with suffering and death in the context of pandemics and warlike events deeply touches and affects us, and foments the longing for a new awareness of existential questions of life. As a kind of "aesthetic response" IGPE offered the symposium EROS and THANATOS. The program led into all five dimensions of polyesthetics, into intercultural, traition-integrating, inter-medial, social-communicative and interdisciplinary context. Music, visual arts and video art, dance, theater and poetry were represented poly-medially. The performances ranged from student workshops to contributions of professional artists and scientists, including presenters and participants from Japan and from several European countries. A visit of the extraordinary exhibition of the American video artist Bill Viola at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg opened an additional option to reflect the issue. The closing celebration of "40 years IGPE" was followed by the general assembly which attested the successful work of the board, re-electing its members completed by Prof. Hans Martin Ritter, Berlin.  Review to -> program  (paper in German) -> abstracts, papers, biografic details of contributors (German)

Pool of Ideas about "Perfom in the Arts, how Nature affects"

How can be represented artistically and creatively "how nature affects"? 30 exemplary examples are given in this pool. You may take it as ressources for further activities. On request, we are can tell you more about the details. 

• We are successively expanding the pool with more ideas as well as links to further sources and materials.
• The ideas are to be discussed and commented on. We look forward to a lively exchange of ideas and experiences.
• For those who want to implement their own ideas, we are happy to provide advice and support as far as possible.

1. Children and young people composed songs about their griefs, their sorrows and heartfelt wishes. From the competition of the Children and Youth Advocacy Salzburg, some groups present their song at the symposium on 08.10.22 from 09:10am, at the Salzburg Frohnburg, live and also via ZOOM. For more details please see www.paeb.org . Those young people who intend to compose more songs we would be proud to support pedagogically as far as we can. 

    

2. School class harvested potatoes which they had planted in the TV-garden Salzburg
   One class of the Montessori Elementary School Nonntal had planted potatoes in the ORF TV garden in May 2022 together with biological gardener Karl Ploberger and with support of the Salzburg gardeners. On 16.09. was harvested, accompanied by a lecture of an author on site. (https://salzburg.orf.at/tv/stories/3154238/) We suspect many attractive stories as well in the heads of the children. We would like to support them brought to the surface just as much as the potatoes...
    

3. Christiane Lutz characterizes the book "Die Wand" by Marlen Haushofer (1963) as "dystopian, very disturbing, and yet full of loving reflections on life, on nature" in the "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" of September 2nd, 2022, reporting about and reviewing  the current production of the same name at Schauspiel Essen in "virtual reality format". This means that the VR-medium, together with VR glasses, is handed over to interested parties for a booked appointment in their own home, for an immersive 360o-virtual experience in their living room. The plot shows a woman suddenly isolated in a small vacation house in a forest in her survival and then pragmatic life action, "more and more entwined by nature". A great story to re-enact and self-enact, we think... 
   Reference, source: Süddeutsche Zeitung, online, www.sueddeutsche.de 02.09.2022, Virtual Reality Theater Survival in 360 degrees. www.sueddeutsche.de Photo: collective archievs.

   
   

4. "Giving nature its proper space" posts the consumer-oriented lifestyle magazine falstaff [www.falstaff.at] to its August issue. "Nature has meanwhile advanced to an important component in our lives..." it states on the same page. The "meanwhile" surprises. Finally natured arrived here, too? We would appreciate to evoke individual answers, artistically expressed, from those young people who deal with this approach in a consumer-critical way and tell us how they would like to be "touched by nature".

   
   The booklet "Trends Shaping Education 2022" propagates new educational aspects about being affected by nature: "Our changing nature, highlights the intertwined societal and environmental processes that shape human well-being, from food production and eating to digital communications and face-to-face relations. We must find a new relationship between innovation and progress, what is technologically possible and our societal and planetary needs. Climate change has given us an imperative; ongoing advances in physical, cognitive and emotional enhancement further raise fundamental questions about what it means to be human." For details see 
   Executive Summary | Trends Shaping Education 2022 | OECD iLibrary (oecd-ilibrary.org)
   
   

5. An inspiring dialog arose from an encounter with the physicist (!) Ille C. Gebeshuber. Her field of expertise, bionics, means "learning from animate nature for applications in natural science, technology, architecture and art" (p. 37). She credits her discovery of certain diatoms, for example, to the initially cursed, then praised water snails that ate everything else in the aquarium (pp. 44-48). Following Gebshuber's footsteps has many such surprises. State of the art technology developers are their enthusiastic customers. How innovative! I particularly recommend Gebeshuber's research approach "Innovision": look accurately - allow yourself time - and the "3D" principle "discover - determine - design". This opens up the worlds of aesthetic approach. And anyone who presents this artistically is right up there with the rest. We make the contact with I.C. Gebeshuber. Quotes are taken from 2016, Where the machine grows. How solutions from the jungle will change our lives. Vienna: Ecowin at Red Bull Media House, Wals, Salzburg.
   
   

6. Mag.^a Alrun Pacher works artistically with children and young people on "sounds and colours". More than connecting the two artistic media of expression, she addresses the relationship between perceptions and impressions of the natural and cultural environment in general as impetus for artistic avtivities. Reflection on the works of Paul Klee or the compositions of contemporary composers play a special role in her didactics. The contribution was presented at the Int. Polyaisthesis Symposium 2020. A full text version is available. 
   
   
   
7. Gerhard Laber experimented with natural sounds and effects in a natural cave with flowing water in the park "Salzburg-Aigen". Correspondingly, he added sounds, improvising due to the sillable structure of the Japanese haiku. The results were presented at the Int. Polyaisthesis Symposium 2020 as video-films. 
   
   
   
8. Students of DDr. Dietmar Jürgens, professor for Aesthetic Education at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences North Rhine-Westphalia in Cologne worked on the task "Nature as a Site of Aesthetic Education" during the academic year 2019/20. In his summary, DDr. Jürgens presented at the Int. Polyaisthesis Symposium 2020 the divergent approaches which his students had worked out. We can inform about further details.
   
   
   
   
   
9. The Viennese painter, composer and performance artist Wolfgang Seierl created two series of paintings referring to the task of social distance forced by the pandemic. His work was presented at the Int. Polyaisthesis Symposium 2020 under the motto "Manuke", derived from Japanese. It problematises interpersonal closeness and distance, including philosophical texts with related issue. We can make further insights available.
   
   
   
10. Dr. Masayuki Nakaji, Professor of Music Education at Gakugej University Tokyo, investigated Japanese children's song lyrics for their connection with nature. The aesthetic inclusion of natural phenomena is a standard of Japanese cultural tradition. But do modern Japanese youths feel the same way? - And how do European youths deal with it, asks Prof. Nakaji. However, we will support the communication with Tokyo. Please see also the new contribution of Gakugei University "Workout 1".
    
    
    
    
11. To make the view of the earth from the perspective of astronauts fruitful for an interdisciplinary educational context is the intention of the German educator of religion and media scientist Ulrich Kumher. We are happy to provide the graphic worksheet in original size. The edition of the full text is in progress. We would be glad to support your interest.
    
    
    
    
    
12. Visual Literacy is the research area of Prof. Dr. Andrea Kárpáti at Corvinius University Budapest. At the Int. Polyaisthesis Symposium 2020, she presented reflections on the perception and experience of nature by Roma youth and artists. The deeper, in-depth engagement with their artistic representations opens up new, positively guided approaches. This creates new perspectives for intercultural encounters - also elsewhere than in Hungary. A wealth of artistic examples is available.
    
    
    
13. "Expressive Arts" is a methode of aesthetic education at the European Graduate School in Saas Fee in the Swiss Valais which connections worldwide. Originally founded with an art-therapeutic approach, Expressive Arts today deals with the fundamental possibilities of expressing people's emotional problems, spiritual needs and desire through artistic action, transforming them into diverse modalities of artistic expression. Relationship to nature is an essential content. We are in steady contact with Barbara Hielscher-Witte, director of the Expressive Arts Institute Berlin, and with the staff in Saas Fee. Please do not hesitate to ask for further information.
    
    
     
14. Prof. Dr. Joachim Bauer says in his book "Fühlen, was die Welt fühlt." about the importance of empathy for the survival of humanity and nature, that modern individuals may have cut themselves off from an inner connection with nature to the same extent as things like the smartphone become a part of their self. That leads to our questions, how can "inner connectedness with nature" or cutting off from it be expressed artistically? Polyesthetic Education contacted Prof. Bauer and may help with further information. The following three ideas also relate to the quoted book.
    
    
    
15. Where does our "own nature" stop? Not at the borders of our skin, according to Joachim Bauer (op. cit., 28). Smart phones and social media accounts are part of our "extended self". This provides an interesting playing field for the visual arts, dance and drama!
    
    
16. The first festivals of man were festivals in nature, with nature and for nature, Joachim Bauer reminds us and asks for reasons why nature on the brink and the feelings we experience in it occur so little in the field of contemporary culture, music, theatre, poems or novels of our day. (op. cit., 142) Artistic-creative speculation suits young people, we think. We call for this and support new initiatives where we can.
    
    

17. Joachim Bauer encourages to reorient ourselves in our inner attitude and with our behaviour towards nature. Because nature is not only a habitat for humans, it can serve them as a tremendous medical and social resource. Bauer emphasises, human health, good human coexistence and the preservation of nature are in a triangular relationship of reciprocity (op. cit., 150). How can this message be expressed artistically and creatively? We are ready to support new ideas and projects.

     
    
    
18. The artist group SUPERFLUX has installed 100 charred trees and a green sprouting island of plants inside the area at the MAK in Vienna. The ORF reported about the SUPERFLUX's message, we had to change ourselves and the way we see nature completely. - In the meantime cole-burned trees are reality. Maybe nature has a chance of survival at least in the museum? - We encourage to express the task creatively and artisticly and are ready to give our support. [We are in contact with SUPERFLUX and also have more pictures. Here is the link to the -> exhibition at the MAK]
    
    
    

19. Netz des Lebens – Kreisläufe – Sonnenenergie, als Impulse für künstlerische Ideen und Ausdruck.

    Fritjof Capra defined the term "Ecoliteracy". Nature works according to the three basic principles of networking, recycling and dependence on solar energy. The Benedictine monk and mystic David Steindl-Rast quotes the physicist and systems theorist: "The basic organisational form of life is the network. Materia constantly circles through the network of life. All ecological cycles are maintained by ... solar energy." We think that could be expressed by fine arts, dance, music and scenery excellently. 
    
    
    
    

20. David Steindl-Rast concludes referring to Capra: "Becoming eco-conscious in the sense of ecoliteracy is the most urgent task for humanity today. Our survival as a species depends on using nature as a model for the design of our communities, our social institutions and our technologies. Training our eco-consciousness will first give us intellectual insights, but must also engage our will and emotions. This requires that we are well informed about nature and its principles of life. Information, however, must lead to action, and this can only be achieved through willing and determined personal commitment. [...] Personal and social life can only flourish if it is attuned to the harmony of life and nature - the alternative is self-destruction." (Steindl-Rast, David: Finding Orientation. Key words for a fulfilled life. Innsbruck, 2021, p. 50 f.) We think this is ready made for a interdisciplinary project of science i.e. philosophy and the arts.
    
    
    

21. Ingrid Sitzenstuhl's breath therapy exercises help you to trace the "Experiential Breath" as a natural phenomenon. Based on the Breath School according to Ilse Middendorf, the breath therapist guides us to deeper self-awareness. We were present at the workshop at the Int. Polyaisthesis Symposium 2020 and can provide further information and establish contact.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
22. The Tyrolean percussionist Manu Delago says about his new project "Liquid Hands": "When I decided to make an album incorporating the sound of our environment, it was pretty clear that I had to include the mighty element of water. I started by experimenting with various water percussion sounds recorded with an underwater microphone but I soon realised that the track needed a visual component as well, so I invited the choreographer Cornelia Voglmayr to work on ‘Liquid Hands’ with me. Our aim was to create a musical interplay between nature and humans in which the sound of water is featured but also visibly compelling."
    His Video-Clip  -> "Liquid Hands" is inspiring. Creative composing oft "water music" is a wide field of artistic expression. How to create a "liquide" sounding environment refers back to the contribution of Gerhard Laber as mentioned above.  
    
    
    
23. We entered into an interesting dialogue with Professor Walter Ötsch. The economist, who teaches at the Cusanus University in Germany, among other places, is currently researching questions of imagination from both a current and historical perspective asking how the people of the early Middle Ages did perceive the world. A historic artistic project could express the answers of young people to this question creatively! 
    
    
    
24. In her project "Stalltänze" (stable-dance), the clarinettist and perfomer Barbara Maria Neu addresses the borderlines between rural confrontation with nature and agricultural cultural work. This gives rise to dialogical correspondences between artistic sound actions and "natural behaviour" of the chosen environment. The performance was shown at the BORG Mittersill as part of the Composers' Forum Mittersill. A short -> stage video and a -> trailer can be viewed on her -> website/Stable Dances. Plot enough for interdisciplinary studies and artistic expressive projects!
    
    
    

25. To express artistically how nature touches could mean to make visible, audible and tangible the wounds and injuries of the natural connection between man and nature.  Articulating their recovery as a matter of survival is what my encounter with Katharina Reich brought me to:
    
    
    

    Resilience means to grow over hurdles, Katharina Reich knows how to describe very authentically from the experiences of her own life. Everyone carries resilience within oneself, although this is not so clear in moments of crisis 1). It is about "embodiment", about attentiveness to the connection between one's own body and one's mental state. As a "curator of transformation" she accompanies these processes. Art is a way of expressing oneself differently 2), emphasizes the transdisciplinary conceptual artist 3)

    1), 2) Interview with Anita Pitsch, 22:00, Folge 21 - Katharina Reich - von der Architektin und Kunstschaffenden zur Transformations-Kuratorin (stationista.com, 2021-09-25).  3) https://www.katharinareich.com/about/, 2021-09-25;   Portrait image: Clemens Kneringer; painting: K. Reich.
    
    

26. 

    The artist collective NUKLEUS from Chur/Switzerland  thematises the extinction of species in nature in the performance with live singing "EXTINCTION LAMENTO". Through a kind of poetry of artistic movement and gesture, the spatially integrated audience experiences itself more and more as a witness to the show-down. The soundscape that accompanies the action makes clear the permanence of inevitable progress - a lament "sans paroles". At the end, the deserted stage seats appear like a graveyard ..." (G.H. after the performance at the Roxy Theatre, 29.10.21, Basel) We think a retransformation of the artistic idea into poetry or lyric would be highly interesting, but also dance was a perfect mode to express the plot.
    
    
    

27. The musical-architectural art project "HAUS" by "studio-klangraum" encircles the perspectives of auditory architecture, sound architecture, architectural music. The three-part event at the Architekturzentrum Basel (dis)led each of the "HAUS guests", including myself, into an individual sound session with eyes closed on a gently rotating swivel chair, surrounded by a private-sensitive vocal and electronic performance by a singer. Secondly, everyone is listening from a corridor to the live-sounds in the surrounding rooms. The third session leads everyone into a virtually and holographically staged sound-space with an immersive effect. After the performance (30.10.21), G.H. walked through Basel's old town with his ears spread in a completely different way, (but with his eyes open for his own safety...). Such could also be installed in a school-building?
    
    

28. "Atmospheres of Silence" is the title of the contribution by music educator Julia Jung in issue 90/21 of the journal Diskussion Musikpädagogik. "Investigative eavesdropping on nature" she names as one of the reasons for incorporating silence exercises into her classroom-lessons. Jung describes aptly how many 'unheard' soundscapes then open up to the eavesdroppers. "Lauschen, Schauen, Bilden (Eavedropping, Watching, Shaping, G.H.)" was a related publication of Polyaesthetics, published in 1994. Christian G. Allesch, whom Jung quotes in detail, was involved in this project. And with the nature scene videos of Gerhard Laber in this pool of ideas we are proud to contribute some soundscapes immediately...
    
    
    
    
    
29. Remembering his performance with his own works at the 2020 Symposium, actor, poet, theater and music educator Hans Martin Ritter describes his artistic journey through the constraints of viral blockades:
    

    The ongoing Corona pandemic restricted the radius of action. So the house as a place of self-encircling and the family world was predominantly the event field: in the house above all the piano playing - for me and in small house concerts - following the traces of the romanticism: Schumann and his "scenic music", Schubert, Chopin, Brahms and Debussy, also a Mozart sonata program, were present. Again and again, duo-play with Monika's flute - among others, Bach, Schubert's Variations on the Little Flowers, the Arpeggione, Fauré, also Schumann and, of course, Bach. Furthermore, dealing with my own poetry is a friendly competitor to daily piano playing. In my poems I find central life moments and images again, can express them and experience them anew. Thus, I will continue to look for possibilities to present them to others, as I have already done with the program nature - as she speaks in us and through us.

    With pleasure we pass on this report, in the hope that others may also leave the shadows of distance so heartily with their creative experience and share it with us.
    
    
    

30. We discovered a historical context in the research about the founder of the pedagogical institution and term "Kindergarten", Friedrich Fröbel, about the year 1840. His intention was: "As in a garden under God's protection and under the care of experienced, insightful gardeners in harmony with nature, so here the noblest plants, people, children as germs and members of humanity, are to be educated in harmony with themselves, with God and nature." (Froebel, 1840, p. 8, quoted from: Förster, C.; Göller, M.; Rockstein, M. Fröbel, 2017,13) May some things sound strange to us, relationships with nature are a current topic and goal. From project to pre-scientific work, there is of course much room for improvement. We would be happy to give such initiatives pedagogical support.
    
    

31.  

    coming soon 

Timeline of „Showing through the Arts how Nature affects“

Milestones of the work in progress 2019-2022:

1) Dec. 2019: Conference of the international and interdisciplinary council of experts 

2) Sept. 2020: symposium "Perform in the Arts, how Nature Affects"

3) Summer 2021: Video sequences by students of Gakugei University Tokyo.

4) Winter-term 2021/22: Artistic-aesthetic reflections of the students of the Kath. University of Applied Sciences Cologne

5) Jan. 17, 2022: Virtual dialogue between Tokyo and Cologne, analysis

1) In December 2019, the international and interdisciplinary council of experts defines the motto "Perform in the Arts, how Nature Affects".

2) The international symposium "Perform in the Arts, how Nature Affects" discusses the basics of the topic; Experts of sciences and arts meet in Hohnhurst, Germany, others join via internet, in September 2020. (see: Events)

3) The students of Dr. Masayuki Nakaji at the Gakugei University Tokyo publish on the same topic in 2021 video sequences with their own compositions and texts. See Workout 1.

4) Dr. Dr. Dietmar Jürgens from the Kath. University of Applied Sciences Cologne introduces the students of his courses "Staging scenes of everyday life - Polyesthetics and social work" and "Nature as a field of aesthetic education" to the videos made by the Japanese students. Starting with the impulse to work independently with this task, they form small groups to reflect the Japanese workout. They create their aesthetic reflections following their perception independently. See Workout 2.

5) In a virtual dialogue between Tokyo and Cologne, the working outcome was presented, discussed and reflected together with guests from Polyaesthetic Education on January 17, 2022. Gerhard Hofbauer analyzed the feedback and the comments by quantity- and quality-content research. Please feel free to ask for more information. A short report see Workout 3.

An overall documentation is intended.

Workout 1 (Tokyo): Perform in the Arts how nature affects

WORKOUT 1 about "Perform in the arts how nature affects"  guides you through the composition, improvisation and visualisation of students at Gakugei University in Tokyo, Japan. Enjoy this workout from the perspective of the Japanese young generation and feel free to send your impressions.  

The medial products of the students of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences which are reflecting this Japanese workout you will find at WORKOUT 2, the analysis of the comments of WORKOUT 2 you find at WORKOUT 3. 

"Perform in the arts how nature affects"  
Three Polyaesthetic Videos of students of Tokyo Gakugei University, 2021
All concers of copyright and quoting  are the responsibility of the authors. 
Translation into German: Masayuki Nakaji and Gerhard Hofbauer.
German lyrics: Gerhard Hofbauer

Using images and poems by Japanese artists as well as paintings by French painter Claude Monet, students of music education with Prof. Dr. Masayuki Nakaji musically reflected on the invitation to "Show in the arts how nature touches." They composed, improvised and played music and created three video films. With this they participate in the project to which "Polyesthetic Education International" [ www.paeb.org ] had invited cross-culturally. With students of the German University of Applied Sciences Cologne they share their experiences.

Product A    （葛飾北斎の木版画による富嶽十六景）

Scenes of the Fuji-Yama after woodblock prints by Hokusai Katsushika / Szenen des Fuji-Yama nach Holzschnitten von Hokusai Katsushika

https://youtu.be/PdoVtIDSXaY

Hokusai Katsushika (葛飾北斎 1760-1849) is one of the most famous Japanese woodblock artists. His works had significant influence on impressionist painters of Europe. Four students used European instruments to create musical scenes to 16 motifs of his woodblock series about Fuji-Yama, the sacred mountain of Japan.

Product B    （クロード・モネ「睡蓮」への４つのオマージュ）

Hommage to Claude Monet and his paintings of „Nympheas“ – „Water Lilies“ / Hommage an Claude Monet zu Bildern der Serie „Nympheas“ – „Seerosen“

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAUwn5VCO0k

Claude Monet was influenced both by Hokusai and by Japanese woodcarving in general. There would be even more to add: Vincent van Gogh was also inspired, and a picture by Hokusai features the title page of Debussy's "La Mer". - The students composed four musical scenes using European tonality and had it interpreted by the traditional Japanese instrument “Koto 箏”. The mottos of the four movements are " Closeness - Freshness - Tranquility - Brilliant". 

Product C   （八つの短歌による四季の情景）

Four Seasons represented in eight Tankas / Vier Jahreszeiten in acht Tankas

https://youtube.com/watch?v=V2p1V9YkYq4&feature=share

Tanka is a Japanese short poem of 5-7-5-7 syllables, much older than the 5-7-5 syllable haiku. The students selected eight tankas to represent the four seasons. They tankas date from the 7th, 8th and 10th century. The students composed the music vocally and instrumentally. They used traditional European and Japanese instruments as well as electronic instruments. The German text translation into the syllabic structure of the tanka was done by Gerhard Hofbauer according to the translation by Masayuki Nakaj.

The authors of the poems (see below) and the dating of the anthologies:

For messages to the youth authors, please use our contact form. We will do our best to forward them promptly.

Workout 2 (Cologne) "Perform in the arts how nature affects" International Online-Dialog

WORKOUT 2 is presenting the multi-medial productions of the students of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences who were reflecting creatively the Japanese videos, we published as WORKOUT 1.
A short summary of the analysis of the comments about WORKOUT 2 please see under WORKOUT 3 (Translation in progress).

In January, 2022, via a Webex conference, the working groups of the Cologne courses "Setting the scene for everyday life" and "Nature as a place of aesthetic education" presented their results. As design for the presentation the majority chose short videos, some preferred PowerPoint, partly as slide shows. Some groups recited texts or gave a commentary to the presentation. 

Please feel free to watch the pdf and mp4 contributions as listed and linked below and to send your comments via the contact form. Information about the dialogue you will find -> below the matrix.

Contributions from: "Exercise in Aesthetic Education: Setting the scene for everyday life - polyaesthetics in social work".

Contributions from: "Seminar on Aesthetic Education: Nature as a Space for Aesthetic Education"

The international Online-Dialogue about the contributions

After each presentation, everyone participating in the event was asked to pause for five minutes and communicate a maximum of ten words via the communication platform chat about what they perceived. All students also wrote their feedback texts collectively in an email and submitted the result to the course instructor for anonymized evaluation. (For a short report about the analysis please follow WORKOUT 3.)

The dialogue event was prepared and organized by Prof. Dr. Dr. Dietmar Jürgens, Vice President of IGPE, Catholic University of Applied Science North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne in cooperation with Mag. Gerhard Hofbauer, President of the International Society for Polyesthetic Education, Salzburg and Prof. Dr. Masayuki Nakaji, Gakugej University Tokyo and member of the board of IGPE. 

The dialogue was concluded by a contribution of Prof. Dr. Anna Zembala, Member of the Expert Council of IGPE, about the intended projects for autumn 2022.

Workout 3 (Salzburg) „Perform in the Arts, how Nature Affects“ Data Analysis of Online-dialogue

Workout 3 is a short report on the analysis of the group-feedback given in the Online-dialogue of Polyaesthetic's "Performing in the Arts how Nature Affects" (Workout 2).

Under the title "Polyaesthetic Perception of Nature Online?" Gerhard Hofbauer analyzed in detail the feedback of the participants about eleven multimedia presentations of the students of the University of Applied Sciences NRW Cologne at this Online-dialogue. The results are briefly reported here. The overall result will be published a.s.a.p. If you are interested, please feel free to contact "Polyesthetic Education International" via the contact form.

In addition to the main exploratory question of what impressions were left by the presented contributions, the response material was subjected to a structural analysis in terms of content and syntactic and semantic aspect of language, leading to insights into what and how was reflected aesthetically.

The International Society for Polyesthetic Education has been working on the topic "Performing in the Arts how Nature Affects" since 2019 (see article "Timeline..." on this WebSite). The basis for the workout by the students in Germany were the multi-media contributions of the students of Gakugei University Tokyo (see WORKOUT 1).

Methodologically, the analysis follows essential approaches of Philipp Mayring's Qualitative Content Analysis[1], reflected on an overview of research methods in educational science. [2] The data material was extracted from the feedback on the chat of the video session. The number of responding participants* was 34 in total, of which student 29, non-student 5. The total of answers given was 137. The median and mean value of responses is 4 each (see below Figure 2 from the results report).

All contributions are anonymized in the report. The socio-cultural background of the students are their studies for social professional qualifications and in Aesthetic Education in this context in the courses "Setting the scene for everyday life" and "Nature as a place of Aesthetic Education" by Prof. DDr. Dietmar Jürgens.

How many feedbacks each of the eleven presentations received is shown in Figure 4 from the final report, vertically the number of feedbacks, horizontally the contributions 1 to 11. This distribution is also moderate, the mean is 12.5 and the median is 12.

Fig. 2: Number of answers per participant                   Fig. 4: Number of answers for each presentation (B1-B11)

Category system

Content analysis was guided by the central question, "What impressions did the presentation of each group outcome leave on the other participants?" Formal structuring of the data led to categorization into pedagogical, design, impact, content, reflection, and external. The reflection and external categories also provided insight regarding the context of answers given.

Figure 5 from the final report shows quantitatively how many passages (vertical) were assigned to which categories (horizontal) in the process of coding. The multiple reference to 2-3 categories, which resulted from quite a few passages, is shown in the final report. (see right: Figure 5, distribution of the number of responses to the six categories).

Creation of subcategories

In the second, critical process of the analysis, a subdivision of the 4 categories design, effect, content, and reflection by subcategories became essential:

Design was differentiated into a technical and an aesthetic subcategory. In the category effect, a distinction was made between cognitive and sensual-aesthetic feedback, in the category content between content-related and ideological, in the category reflection between rationalizing, ethical-moral and psychophysical formulations.

This step can be considered highly efficient because clear quality characteristics of the feedbacks emerge (see Figure 8 from the final report): The coded passages on aesthetic moments of the design amount to more than five times those on technical aspects. Sensory-aesthetic impact receives twice as many assignments as cognitive impact aspects. On the other hand, almost twice as many assignments are made to content-related content aspects as to ideological content aspects. Also in the category reflection, the passages that can be coded as rational amount to almost the same number as the two subcategories ethnic-moral and psychophysical together.

Fig. 8: Totals of the passages assigned to the subcategories

What can be clearly deduced from this:
Aesthetic context clearly predominates over other contexts. How far this result can be attributed to the fact that the courses are located in the department of "Aesthetic Education" or to the design and effect of the presented contributions cannot be concluded from this. In any case, the following is true: Aesthetics moves, affects.

Whether this feedback on "aesthetics" refers to medial design or to its content-related messages, such as the moment "...how nature affects", was examined and discussed in the last, extensive section of the analysis. In order to protect and preserve the meaning content of the phrases, each text summary is followed by a kind of syntactic and semantic [3] language analysis (in a broader sense) according to word categories, which is also summarized interpretatively.

More details cannot be subject of this brief presentation. But we can enable a time limited offer to the analysis material. Table 2 (see below) from the final report shows an excerpt of the pdf file [4], which can be enlarged as desired for readability.

Further impulses

Of course, it would make sense to also subject the Japanese contributions to a kind of media analysis and to examine the German contributions for visible traces of the Japanese stimuli. Up to questions of possible cultural transfer, this would result in further research aspects, which are highly familiar to Polyesthetics due to its interdisciplinarity. In any case, the Japanese students have already inquired after the publication of the German results in order to trace the medial reflection on their own works. Basically, one could speak of a modern form of a "Hermeneutic Circle", which resulted and will still result in this procedere.

[1] Mayring, Philipp: Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. 11. Aufl. Weinheim: Beltz, 2010 (Beltz Pädagogik).

[2] Friebertshäuser, Barbara; Langer, Antje; Prengel, Annedore (Hg.): Handbuch Qualitative Forschungsmethoden in der Erziehungswissenschaft. 3. Aufl. Weinheim: Juventa, 2010 (Juventa-Handbuch).

[3] Vgl. ebd., S. 94–95.

[4] www.paeb.org/files/dialog2022/Dialog_2022_Datenanalyse_Sammler.pdf

Kontakt: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Gerhard Hofbauer, (C) 2022