Spot On MozART

What do you see when you’re listening? Spot on MozART is an inter-university, interdisciplinary project devoted to visual research in how we listen, and thus to a (new) understanding of the music of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart in the 21st century.

"Albert Einstein observed that 'Mozart's influence transcends history' and that 'each generation sees something different in his work'. Spot On MozART offers an ideal way of looking at timeless works with fresh eyes."

Dame Janet Elizabeth Ritterman
Advisory Board member
Former Principal of the Royal College of Music in London

"Kunst – ob Musik, Literatur oder Bildende Kunst – muss sich ständig neu erfinden, um aktuell zu sein. Als interdisziplinäres Projekt ist Spot On MozART – innovative musicfilms® als Brücke zwischen Tradition und Innovation unentbehrlich. Selbst für ein Genie wie Mozart ist es relevant, ihn für die Menschen des 21. Jahrhunderts neu zu deuten und neue Wege zu finden, um ein junges Publikum zu erreichen."

Thaddaeus Ropac
Advisory Board member
Founder, owner and director of Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac with galleries in Salzburg, Paris and London

"Innovation bedeutet die Bereitschaft zu beständiger Infragestellung und zum Experiment –dabei die Forderung nach Interdisziplinarität und Kreativität ernst zu nehmen. Experimente sind die einzige Möglichkeit voranzukommen. Die wichtigste kulturelle Innovation ist also das Zulassen des Versuchs."

Antje Hundhausen
Advisory Board member
Vice President Brand Experience at Deutschen Telekom

"Eines der interessantesten Features digitaler Medientechnologien ist, dass sie wie kein Werkzeug davor für alle Formen des künstlerischen Ausdrucks einsetzbar sind und damit eine Welle von hoch interessanten Projekten und Kooperationen nicht nur zwischen den künstlerischen Genres sondern auch mit Wissenschaft und Technologie ausgelöst haben. Zu Recht wird ja oft auch von einer „neuen Renaissance“ gesprochen und betrachtet man die zentrale Rolle der digitalen Transformation für alle Bereiche unseres Lebens, wird ganz schnell klar, wie wichtig diese von der Kunst ausgehenden Impulse für die gesamte Gestaltung unserer digitalen Zukunft sind. An dieser brisanten Schnittstelle präsentiert sich das neue Programm des Mozarteums als beispielhafte Initiative."

Gerfried Stocker
Advisory Board member
CEO/Artistic Director at Ars Electronica Linz

"Mozarts Genie überstrahlt die Jahrhunderte. Die Art und Weise, Musik zu erleben, ändert sich allerdings rasant. Spot On MozART bietet einen wichtigen Freiraum für die Entwicklung neuer audiovisueller Formen. Die Kraft und Schönheit von Mozarts Musik wird so für möglichst viele Menschen erlebbar."

Frank Gerdes
Advisory Board member
Head of Culture at Servus TV

"Kunst und Kultur sind international anerkannte Stärken Salzburgs. Die Digitalisierung eröffnet als fundamentaler Veränderungsprozess viele neue Chancen und Möglichkeiten. Tradition und Moderne, Kunst, Kultur, Kreativität und Technologien intelligent über Innovation zu verbinden, den Menschen ins Zentrum der Entwicklungen zu stellen und ihn zum Maßstab im digitalen Zeitalter zu machen, dafür steht Salzburg und Spot On MozART. Innovation und Kultur werden damit zur gelebten Innovationskultur."

Walter Haas
Advisory Board member
Managing Director of the ITG Innovationservice für Salzburg

"Musik ist in der Lage die Herzen zu öffnen und den geistigen Horizont zu erweitern."

Hannes Palfinger
Advisory Board member
CEO at Audiodata Salzburg GmbH and Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Palfinger AG

"Wir leben in einem Visuellen Zeitalter, das heißt auch, dass wenn man Mozart ins Hier und Heute holen will – und dahin gehört er zweifellos, denn seine Musik ist zeitlos – dann muss man sich zwangsläufig auch Gedanken machen, wie man das visuell umsetzt. Ich bin schon sehr gespannt auf die Antworten, denn so logisch das Vorhaben klingt, so erscheint doch eine Lösung alles andere als einfach!"

Ernst Buchrucker
Advisory Board member
Managing Director at Unitel GmbH & Co. KG

"Musik und Performing Arts sind integraler Bestandteil unseres Lebens und damit ständig im Wandel. Spot On MozART entwickelt und erforscht neue, genreübergreifende Form- und Bildsprachen, und übersetzt Mozarts Werk ins Heute: In audiovisueller Form ist es so auch für zukünftige Generationen erfahrbar."

Katharina Jeschke
Advisory Board member
Secretary General at IMZ International Music + Media Centre (Austria)

Governance & teams

Spot On MozART is a project of the Mozart Forum of the University Mozarteum Salzburg, operating autonomously within the field of project design and financing. Governance and team consist of an Advisory Board, a Cluster Board, a Steering Board and the office.

The project

Multidisciplinary is key to this project – the synergy of the arts and approaches to creative design, the effect in the moment and in the place of encounter with an audience – whether on a stage or in the digital space of social media. Students, teachers, and personalities from the world of art, media and culture collaborate to develop “work projects” which always link hearing and seeing, to explore, question and “paint over” the understanding of music. Over the three-year duration of the project, the University Mozarteum (together with the University of Applied Arts and the University of Technology in Vienna, Research Studios Austria and the universities and academies in Salzburg) provides a wide-ranging and divers co-operation network with a variety of know-how. Artistic expertise, scientific research of both the work and its context,knowledge of tradition and quality of interpretation, technical  know-how, as well as experience in production, presentation and participation – all this forms the foundation upon which Spot On MozART embarks on an expedition into a visual exploration of hearing and listening, and thus into a (new) understanding of the music of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart in the 21st century.

As the only university of the arts in Austria that combines music, drama and the visual arts under one roof, the Mozarteum embarks on a journey of ideas and design with this project that is interdisciplinary and thus intra-institutional in nature, thereby also unfolding an extra-institutional effect.

Through the intensive collaboration of several academic institutions with external experts, Spot On MozART stimulates artistic and communicative potential that creatively deal with digitalization and digitality and the social transformation entailed. Through the co-operation between universities (of the arts), technology and creative industries, the project explores new fields of activity – thus opening up the unique opportunity for students of working in the professional field  of culture and the arts both individually and in teams, while simultaneously researching and experimenting – all as part of their studies.

Five fields of activity

Essential for all “work projects” are the inherent five field of activity ensuring inter- and transdisciplinarity, as well as the necessity of the convergence of protagonists with diverse fields of experience and know-how: eye and ear, music and visualisation operate in conjunction; production and presentation (Spot On) must be equally considered and scrutinised, art and research develop a dynamic that is also intended to unfold a creative potential in the direction of innovation. Using digitalisation/digitality and transformation, this enables an interactive experience in a 360° format. The impetus for a “work project” may come from any of the fields, but then it is a question of finding the participants for the other fields. The office or the members of the various Boards can help with this. For each field of activity, there is a network or a team of experts; each field demands penetration and positioning, which will be documented in portfolios and updated throughout the duration of the project.

MUSIC

Mozart's compositional output comprises more than 600 works of all musical styles and genres of his time, which today are usually counted according to their sorting in the Köchelverzeichnis (KV) following the chronological order of their creation. Carefully selected, a single work by Mozart forms the starting point of each Spot On MozART project, from which the realisations of the other four fields of activity are developed.

RESEARCH

From an artistic, aesthetic point of view, what happens during a visualisation process? Can visualisation generate an expanded understanding of a work? Who perceives the visualisation, and what significance can Mozart's œuvre assume in the digital age? The Research department explores a wide variety of questions relevant for artistic and academic research, musicology and music education, psychology and sociology – all relevant to the artistic work itself.

VISUALISATION

(Film) production, media art and other means of digital visualisation constitute the wide range of artistic and conceptual options for developing a visual answer to musical reality. Distinguished, experienced artists, directors and filmmakers play an active part in the Spot On MozART network and its interdisciplinary visualisation concepts.

SPOT ON

Analogue and digital media, festivals, conferences, shows, etc. – the "Spot On" moment refers to the presentation and (discursive) positioning of the project in public (spaces). What happens when work and audience coincide for the first time? An experimental field, a challenge and a research moment. Spot On itself can be part of the artistic project.

INNOVATION

Innovation is an inherent factor in every Spot On MozART project. Just like music, innovation plays a supporting role in every field of activity.