Oooo: Always already fractured
31. July 2025, 18:00
Overbeck Pavilion

With ALWAYS ALREADY FRACTURED, Christian Naujoks presented a musical work in the garden of the Overbeck Pavilion that focused on hearing itself—not as a neutral perception, but as a politically, socially, and physically conditioned practice. Based on personal research into hearing changes and tinnitus, Naujoks examined the breaking points of hearing—those moments when perception became unstable, overloaded, or elusive. The title referred to Jonathan Sterne’s concept of “diminished faculties,” which assumes that sensory perception is never complete or objective, but always already fractured. Naujoks’ music questioned fundamental notions of sound and audibility. Typical, culturally familiar sounds—such as dripping, noise, and signal tones—appeared alienated, stretched, isolated, or placed in new contexts. These shifts created a sonic space between irritation and resonance—a space for shared hearing, for difference and connectedness.
Naujoks understands hearing as an embodied, relational experience—shaped by environment, contexts, conventions, and exclusions. Thus, within the framework of O, hearing was not only made audible, but also reflected upon as a social and sensual event.
The audience included cultural players from the area, including a publisher, the director of the Schwerin Art Association, art historians, the former chairman of the Overbeck Society, and the board of the Gemeinnützige. In addition, a young audience was also attracted, with young people from different cultural contexts in Lübeck.