#Arteetude 343 - Detlef Schlich and his AI co-host Sophia travel much further back and ask - What existed first: sound or the receiver? Can sound exist without someone—or something—capable of perceiving it? Was the first instrument a body?

About Detlef Schlich Detlef Schlich is a rock musician, podcaster, visual artist, filmmaker, ritual designer, and media archaeologist based in West Cork, Ireland. His artistic practice moves between performance, photography, painting, sound, installation, film, music, podcasting, and digital image-making. Across these fields, Schlich reflects on the human condition, the relationship between ritual and technology, and the changing role of the artist in digital culture. As a media archaeologist, he explores how media shape perception, memory, culture, politics, and artistic expression. His work often uses the figure of the digital shaman as an alter ego — a method for navigating the space between ancient ritual structures, contemporary media, and technological transformation. Research & Artistic Method Detlef Schlich’s artistic research is rooted in his essay Shamanism, Art and Digital Culture: Cause and Effect , which investigates the relationship between ritual, artistic transformation, media, and digital culture. Download here for free: Shamanism, Art and Digital Culture: Cause and Effect https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303749640_Shamanism_Art_and_Digital_Culture_Cause_and_Effect Building on this foundation, Schlich developed Multilayerism: A New Paradigm in Contemporary Art – A Manifesto , an artistic method and conceptual framework for understanding contemporary art through layers of media, memory, technology, ritual, emotion, misunderstanding, and lived experience. Read here: Multilayerism: A New Paradigm in Contemporary Art – A Manifesto by Detlef Schlich https://www.researchgate.net/publication/375665507_Multilayerism_A_New_Paradigm_in_Contemporary_Art_-_A_Manifesto_by_Detlef_Schlich Together, these texts form the theoretical backbone of Schlich’s ongoing work as a visual artist, media archaeologist, ritual designer, musician, and host of the Arteetude podcast. WEBSITE LINKS Music Projects WAW / Wild Atlantic Way WAW is the music project by Detlef Schlich and Dirk Schlömer. Official YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WAWBand From the forthcoming WAW album The Stories of Nil Young Two songs from WAW’s developing album project The Stories of Nil Young form part of a mythopoetic journey along the Nile, where river, memory, loss, cooperation, and hope flow into music. AfricaSmile AfricaSmile follows the Nile as an imagined journey from its sources to the Mediterranean Sea — a river of memory, movement, rhythm, and myth. The song turns the meeting of the White Nile and the Blue Nile into a fragile image of cooperation. It is not a naïve peace anthem, but a wounded musical hope: two different currents meeting, listening, and still moving forward together. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnQbsh01YWU The Nile’s Bittersweet Song The Nile’s Bittersweet Song is the first official single by WAW / Wild Atlantic Way — Detlef Schlich and Dirk Schlömer. The song follows the Nile as a river of memory, be