Nadine Schildhauer
Dissertation Project
Postcolonial Dance Floors. World articulations in the dystopian and utopian soundscapes of transnational music collectives (Working title)
The focus of “Postcolonial Dance Floors” are transnationally organized music collectives. These collectives produce music outside of the popular club canon, and are known for their eclectic and experimental sounds. The analysis follows the forms of aesthetic practice employed by collectives that come together online and organize themselves across national borders, asking: What role does joint music making play? Albums and DJ sets often evoke associations with science fiction soundtracks, creating worlds through dystopian and utopian soundscapes. The project takes up from the Popular Music Studies of Kodwo Eshun and others, who examine tracks by artists engaged with afro-futurist concepts (cf. Eshun 1998).
The project asks: What are the ideologies that these collectives represent? What discourses do they refer to? What influence do they have on the aesthetic practice of the artists? Ultimately, these analyses of the collectives and their respective music are merged, investigating which worldviews of dystopia and utopia they express in sound and organization. The focus here is on form and structure of the tracks rather than on their lyrics or the geographical location, gender, or race of the artists.
Vita
Nadine Schildhauer holds a master’s degree in politics and philosophy. She attended the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg and the L'université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne. Her 2013-thesis focused on a comparative social science analysis of 'doing' and 'undoing' of gender in a number of TV series. Since 2010 she has been working as a freelance music journalist for SPEX,Missy Magazine, Kaput Magazin, Groove, Juiceand others. Between 2014 and 2020 she worked as an event and PR manager as well as a copywriter in various companies. She was also a member of the programme committee of re:publica 2018and participated in the selection process for the conference track "Music & Sovereignty". As a member of the program team she has been working for the DICE Conference + Festivalin Berlin since 2018.
Publications
Please note that these listings appear in the language they were originally published.
„[Lyra Pramuk:] Wir können die Zeit einfrieren“, in: Missy Magazine, 02/2020.
„[REWIND2019]: Simon Reynolds Conceptronica – Was der Polemik gelingt und wo sie scheitert“. in: Groove (online), 20. Dezember 2019.
„Lafawndah. Link ins nächste Leben“, in: Missy Magazine, 03/2019.
„Dave. Den Finger auf die Wunde“, in: Spex Nr. 384, 01/02 2019.
„Puce Mary und Yves Tumor. Nichts wie es scheint“, in: Spex Nr. 383, 11/12 2018.
„Ballroom braucht nicht den Mainstream. Der Mainstream braucht Ballroom“, in: Groove Nr. 174, 09/10 2018.
„Eartheater: Orale Phase“, in: Spex Nr. 381, 07/08 2018.