Alvin Lucier’s Reflexive Experimental Aesthetics

German edition

Alvin Lucier's pioneering work consists of making the usually inaudible audible. Based on a traditional understanding of music, as it was still prevalent during his neo-classical composition studies, the study traces Lucier's work through the live-electronic verbal scores from 1965 to the last phase of pure instrumental pieces from 1982. The minimalist consistency with which he listens to the phenomenality of sound always refers to the reflexive moment of perception itself. The use of live electronics is mostly based on scientific experiments and focuses on the acoustic characteristics of natural and architectural spaces as well as the physical properties of sound. The
instrumental pieces from Lucier's last work phase also stand outside a conventional understanding of music, despite traditional forms of notation and concert situations, and emphasize Lucier's radical aesthetic position by focusing solely on the phenomenon of beats. Taking particular account of Lucier's decidedly experimental positions and concepts, his entire oeuvre is explored both historically and theoretically. In doing so, the concept of the real according to Jacques Lacan is made fruitful and proves to be a key concept for the analysis of Alvin Lucier's work and aesthetics, making his significance as one of the most important representatives of American music of the 20th century tangible.

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