Julia Eckhardt

Julia Eckhardt is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences of the Free University of Brussels (VUB). Her investigation focuses on the notion of quality in music: in its current way to use it, it reflects the binary construction of our Western societies, in which judgments of “good” or “bad” became instruments of power serving to in- or exclude. Criteria stay opaque and keep shifting, and aren’t up for arguments. However, refraining from judgement is not a valid alternative, because judging is a fundamental political activity, and an important instrument for building a culture. The current goal of this research is to develop a method of judgment which values subjectivity, context, and the specificity of the sonic in cultural mediation. Julia is a musician and organiser in the field of the sonic arts. She is artistic director of Q-O2 workspace for experimental music and sound art, has performed internationally, and has (co-)authored publications about sound, music, and gender.