https://phaidra.kunstuni-linz.at/o:3751 The Scream of Music : between tradition, appropriation and contemporary deconstruction. a communicative sound installation in public space Fischer, Daniel Daniel Fischer Mignonneau, Laurent Laurent Mignonneau text eng This thesis examines how symbols of national identity change through processes of medial transformation and performative re-staging in historically charged spaces, using my artistic installation The Scream of Music as its central case study. The work translates an iconic image from the film The Sound of Music, a globally circulating symbol of Austrian national identity, into a chain of technical and performative transformations: image encoding, vocal performance (yodeling), directional sound transmission via a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), algorithmic pattern recognition, and material reconstitution as a fragmented postcard image. This research integrates theoretical analysis with artistic practice, drawing on cultural studies, media theory, political philosophy, and sound art. The conceptual framework builds on three interconnected perspectives: First, it engages with theories of identity as a narrative and communicative construct, particularly through the work of Anderson, Hall, Appiah, and Hecht. Second, it considers borders as biopolitical and medial formations, drawing on critical analyses by Balibar, Foucault, and Vaughan-Williams. Third, it approaches media as active agents of meaning production, informed by the media theories of McLuhan, Eco, and Lefebvre. Rather than merely illustrating these theoretical positions, the study tests and interrogates them through the concrete technical, spatial, and social conditions of the installation. Beyond its analytical objectives, the thesis reflects on artistic research as a form of situated knowledge production. The realization of The Scream of Music involved extensive technical experimentation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and engagement with legal, social, and political constraints in public space. These processes proved to be not ancillary but constitutive of the research itself. The thesis argues that medial transformation can function as a critical method: by exposing the infrastructures, errors, and conflicts through which national symbols are produced, circulated, and contested, artistic practice becomes a means of generating knowledge about identity, power, and public space. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://phaidra.kunstuni-linz.at/api/object/o:3751/download 10.57697/WK7A-7J90 application/pdf 6.87 MB 2026