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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Under the leadership of the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG), researchers from Göttingen, together with audiologists and artists from the fields of film and music, have translated the sound experience with an optogenetic cochlear implant into image and sound. The music video artistically conveys the restoration of “hearing with light”, a technology that promises an improved hearing experience compared to conventional cochlear implants.
What does it sound like when someone hears again for the first time after years of profound hearing loss or deafness? How does it feel when new technologies make the world of sound clearer and more differentiated than before? These are the questions addressed by the audiovisual music project “KLANGLICHT - sound of light”, an animated video in the style of a music video, created under the auspices of the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) in collaboration with scientists, audiologists and artists from the fields of music and film. The aim is to give the audience a tangible understanding of current Göttingen research into restoring “hearing with light”.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 466 million people worldwide suffer from hearing loss that requires treatment, including around 16 million people with hearing loss and 80,000 deaf people in Germany. Those who have little hearing or are deaf from birth only learn to speak with difficulty, if at all. To date, hearing impairments in the inner ear can be partially corrected using electrical cochlear implants (eCI). These enable those affected to understand speech in a quiet environment, but the auditory impression is still far removed from natural hearing. Further development of hearing with a cochlear implant (CI) is required for complex auditory perception that allows speech to be understood in background noise, the emotional tone of speech to be interpreted or melodies in music to be enjoyed.
Göttingen scientists from the Institute of Auditory Neuroscience at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG), the Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Optogenetic Therapies (EKFZ OT), the Cluster of Excellence “Multiscale Bioimaging: From Molecular Machines to Networks of Excitable Cells” (MBExC), the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1690 ‘Disease Mechanisms and Functional Recovery of Sensory and Motor Systems’ and the German Primate Center - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research (DPZ). They are developing novel optogenetic cochlear implants (oCI) that respond to finely dosed light stimuli.
The audiovisual art project
The specially composed piece of music begins with an explosion of initially fragmented sounds, rhythms and distorted speech passages, symbolizing the recovery of hearing through an eCI. In the course of the piece, these sounds change into a much clearer and more emotional musical part, whereby the listener experiences a completely new sensory world. This is intended to illustrate the possibilities of “hearing with light” through the oCI, which is currently being developed in Göttingen. Combined with an animation of pulsating light forms, flowing colors and rhythmic dance interludes, the music is brought to life (choreography and dance: Marie Zechiel). Around 2,500 hand-drawn images were required for the about two-minute video. The impression is created that music and speech are not only audible, but also visible.
“This is where innovative research and art come together to communicate the new concept of optogenetic hearing restoration to society,” says Jenny Blum, audiologist at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the UMG and clinical contact for patients with cochlear implants. She was the initiator of the audiovisual music project and the driving force behind the artistic idea for many years.
“This exciting project has succeeded in a unique way in capturing the fresh courage, drive and joyful anticipation of the researchers for better hearing,” says Prof. Dr. Tobias Moser, director of the Institute of Auditory Neuroscience at the UMG and spokesperson for the EKFZ OT and the MBExC.
The film was directed by award-winning video artist Boris Seewald, with internationally renowned composer Ralf Hildenbeutel responsible for the music. Together they created a work that combines research, technology and emotion in an intense visual and auditory experience. The project was funded by the MBExC and the EKFZ OT.
About the artists
Boris Seewald is an award-winning video director. He treats film as visual choreography and composes images in a rhythmic flow that complements and expands music and sound. With a penchant for the experimental, he combines a wide variety of film techniques and combines abstract animation and painting with live-action film. His work has received numerous awards, including the Cinedans Dioraphte Jury Award, the Promax Gold Award and a nomination for the German Camera Award.
Ralf Hildenbeutel is a producer and film composer whose eclectic style is characterized by his classical training and his passion for electronic music. In the nineties, he was instrumental in the emergence of the trance music style, worked with Sven Väth on his most important albums and toured Europe with his electronic project “Earth Nation”, performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival and London's Brixton Academy, among other venues. His focus has been on film music for years and he has worked on countless national and international productions such as “Vincent will meer”, “Maltese” (RAI), “Supersex” (Netflix) and “Everybody Loves Diamonds” (Amazon Prime).
The Göttingen Cluster of Excellence MBExC
The Göttingen Cluster of Excellence “Multiscale Bioimaging: From Molecular Machines to Networks of Excitable Cells” (MBExC) has been funded since January 2019 as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. With a unique research approach, MBExC investigates the disease-relevant functional units of electrically active heart and nerve cells, from the molecular to the organ level, using innovative imaging techniques such as optical nanoscopy, X-ray imaging and electron tomography. To this end, MBExC brings together numerous university and non-university Göttingen Campus partners. The overarching goal: to understand the connection between heart and brain diseases, to carry out basic and clinical research and to develop new methods.
The Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Optogenetic Therapies (EKFZ OT)
The new Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Optogenetic Therapies at the UMG is funded by the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation, the state of Lower Saxony and the UMG. It develops innovative therapies for patients with deafness, blindness, movement disorders or gastric paralysis. Optogenetic therapies combine gene therapy with optical medical technology and promise more precise and effective treatment than conventional approaches - including in the area of hearing.
Prof. Dr. Tobias Moser, Institute of Auditory Neuroscience, Phone +49 551 / 39-63071, tobias.moser@med.uni-goettingen.de, www.auditory-neuroscience.uni-goettingen.de
- Music project “KLANGLICHT - sound of light”
http://www.mbexc.de - Cluster of Excellence “Multiscale Bioimaging: From Molecular Machines to Networks of Excitable Cells” (MBExC)
https://ekfz.uni-goettingen.de/ - Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Optogenetic Therapies (EKFZ OT)
Composer Ralf Hildenbeutel, audiologist Jenny Blum, director of the Institute of Auditory Neuroscien ...
umg/frank stefan kimmel
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Composer Ralf Hildenbeutel, audiologist Jenny Blum, director of the Institute of Auditory Neuroscien ...
umg/frank stefan kimmel
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