Research project

Research team
Arne Bathke, Martin Weichbold, Bernd Resch, Katarzyna Grebosz-Haring

Music is bound to space and time – that is to say, it is played, sung, created, heard, practiced, taught, etc., at a certain place and at a certain time. As part of the “Salzburg Music Map,” a comprehensive data collection on the spatiotemporal distribution of music or musical practices in the city (and province) of Salzburg is being created and visualized with the help of an interactive (GIS) application.

The goal is to create a freely accessible web application based on open-source technologies, in which the production, mediation and reception of different music genres can be experienced interactively at different times, in different forms and at different places. Using a cartographic representation, it is possible to move virtually through space and time, to discover spatial hot spots but also blank patches on the music map, or to contrast periods of silence with those of intensive music production. By integrating additional data on the socioeconomic structuring of spaces (e.g., the sociostatistical characteristics of the population, residential density, mobility data, etc.), the Salzburg Music Map goes far beyond a purely representational function and offers possibilities for scientific analysis (cf. e.g. Grebosz-Haring, Weichbold 2018; cf. also the spatial-theoretical positions of Pierre Bourdieu or Martina Löw).

Through the close cooperation of the different disciplines (musicology, music psychology, sociology, data science, mathematics/statistics, geoinformatics), synergies can be expected that are informative for research on the interplay of music and space in various respects. At the same time, there are also long-term effects for related cultural studies disciplines, as well as for music mediation, music pedagogy, music management and musical practice.