The World of Mundartliteratur, Part 1
The German-speaking part of Switzerland is home to many different dialects, often referred to as distinct languages: Baseldytsch, Bärndütsch, Züritüütsch.
Despite the lack of a standardized writing system, authors in Switzerland are writing the stories of modern Switzerland the way they hear them and in the language in which they live. This literature, referred to as Mundartliteratur, is a unique form of translation from the spoken to the written word.
Featuring: Professor of literature at the University of Fribourg, Ralph Müller and Swiss writer and poet Beat Sterchi, a member of the collective Bern ist überall.
Originally released on Asymptote Jounrnal
Bio
The work of musician and linguist Dominick Boyle (1991) explores the fragmentation and recombination of place and memory through constructed soundscapes. Using his self-compiled collection of field recordings and interviews–memories collected around the word–as well as sounds from in and around the performance space, he aims to synthesize a sonic space surrounding the audience which fuses with the environment around them, augmenting rather than overtaking it. Using personally created software in the computer coding language ChucK, as well as violin, modular synthesizer and other effects he creates flexible spaces governed by his own input as well as chance.
Dominick holds an MA in Language and Communication from the University of Basel and a BA with a focus on Music from Sarah Lawrence College. He has also studied at the California Institute of the Arts. Performances in Switzerland include Snippet Festival (2022, 2020), Lust*Streifen Film Festival (2021), Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW, Bonjour Baby and SideEffects pop-up gallery. Podcast editor for Asymptote Journal of world literature and translation (2017-2019). Cooperation with dance, theater and filmmakers in New York, and performances at venues such as Experimental Intermedia, Danspace Project, Hudson River Museum and the NYC Summer Streets festival. He has lived in Basel since 2016.
