Events at the Hertz-Lab

"inSonic" is a showcase for cross-genre artistic discussions with new media technologies and innovative artistic concepts that are developed in lectures, practical demonstrations, concerts and live performances. "inSonic" took place for the first time in 2015 and from 2018 onwards it is held every two years in alternation with the "next_generation" festival by Hertz-Lab.

The series "Sonic Experiments" aims to provide international musicians with a forum for contemporary electronic music. The series shall present artists operating outside of the academic scene, who often have no access to large electronic studios or for whom large production opportunities, such as those available at the Hertz-Lab, are unknown. With these concerts, the Hertz-Lab also finds important impulses from outside and puts itself on the map as a working studio for contemporary electronic music.

The next_generation festival has been held every two years at the ZKM since 2005. It was initiated with the intention of bringing university and non-university studios into contact with each other and thus promoting the exchange between the different approaches of university studios and young composition students of electronic music. Through a series of concerts, installations and a symposium lasting several days, participants will have the opportunity to present their own works to a broad and interested audience and to exchange ideas at a scientific level.

The Giga-Hertz Award is considered one of the most important international awards of its kind and has experienced ever-growing attention in the past years with its accompanying concerts and performances. The previous award winners include such renowned artists as Pierre Boulez, John Chowning, Francis Dhomont, Jean-Claude Risset, Pauline Oliveros, Brian Eno, Gottfried Michael Koenig, Trevor Wishart, Jonathan Harvey, Curtis Roads, Laurie Anderson and Éliane Radigue.

The Giga-Hertz Award is endowed with a total of 20,000 € prize money. The main prize for the lifetime achievement, which is 10,000 € is proposed by the jury and is not selected from the entries. The two internationally oriented Giga-Hertz Production Awards, endowed with 5,000 €, serve to initiate and promote new projects. The Production Awards consists of a project realization grant with which the award winners realize their submitted exposé at the ZKM | Hertz-Lab in Karlsruhe or the SWR Experimentalstudio.