Listen and think along
In their podcast, ethnomusicologists Sydney Hutchinson and Hannah Judd talk about archived sounds and how they are researched using experimental methods. Listeners get to know East German dance music from the 1950s and 1960s or find out how historical songs of the Naga, an ethnic group from northeast India, have been artistically restaged and thus brought to life. In the current episode, they can discover Orion - a dance that was invented in the GDR as a politically correct alternative to Western trends such as rock and twist.
What is the podcast about?
The podcast reports on experimental research in various sound archives, especially in Berlin, for example in the phonogram archive of the Ethnological Museum. “Playing the Archive” particularly focuses on music and dance of the GDR as well as colonial histories.
Who is the target audience?
The English-language podcast is aimed at music and media scholars, artists and musicians, as well as anyone interested in sound archives, ethnomusicology or a somewhat different perspective on German-German history.
Who are the creators?
The podcast is a part of the project “Second World Music: Latin America, East Germany, and the Sonic Circuitry of Socialism” led by Dr. Sydney Hutchinson, research associate at the Institute of Music and Media Studies at HU. The podcast is also supported by the Media Department of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, where Hutchinson is researching a collection of GDR audio tapes.
What is the current episode about?
The latest episode tells the story of the Orion, a dance trend invented in the GDR in 1963, and which premiered at the Workers' Festival that year. “New dances” like this one were conceived in the GDR as an alternative to Western trends such as rock and twist and were intended to offer young people a socialist perspective that emphasized values such as optimism and progressiveness. The dances were also intended to be easy to learn and fun for everyone. Sydney Hutchinson has reconstructed some of these mostly forgotten dances as part of her research project and staged them in videos on Tiktok and YouTube.
Who hosts the podcast? Who are the guests?
The hosts are Sydney Hutchinson from HU and Hannah Judd, PhD student at the University of Chicago. The guests are scientists and artists who, like Hutchinson, use experimental methods to research sound archives. Guests have so far included Dr. Senti Toy, ethnomusicologist and musician from New York and Nagaland, India, and Dr. Gina Knapp, visual anthropologist at Berlin’s Ethnological Museum.
What happens next?
The next episodes will deal with collaborative work on a telenovela in Papua New Guinea and research into the internet as archive. A radio play is also planned in which voice actors will take on the roles of GDR musicologists and artists. The script was compiled almost directly from the minutes of committee meetings that took place in 1963. In the coming months, international interns will work on the podcast and add their own unique touch to it.
Further information
Playing the Archive - A Second World Music Podcast
Current episode: Orion, Orion, Oh My!
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