21-24 February 2019
With Hereafter, the festival used its 25-year history to reflect on the rapid changes in our cultural and artistic relationship with technology, seizing the opportunity to share the enthusiasm, hope and concern that come with it. Over the years, Sonic Acts’ perspective has changed from challenging our understanding of audiovisual experiences, to exploring the interplay of humans and machines, and from experimenting with tools and technologies to questioning their social repercussions and their impact on our daily lives.
This festival explored the genesis of our current crisis – and what happens in the hereafter – by reflecting on the issues we are forced to confront on a daily basis: the inequalities caused by colonisation and geostrategic maneuvering, the challenges brought forth by immigration and the climate crisis, the ever-present exploitation and precarity of the work force, and the way technological advancements disrupt and not emancipate – that is, the gooey mesh of global capitalism. In order to gauge the complexities and interconnections of this crisis and re-imagine a different reality, festival participants looked back, re-evaluated and untangled the threads that encumber our thinking outside the sticky terrain of neoliberalism.
By reflecting on the entangled issues of power relations, neocolonialism, technology, the rise of fascism and the implications of those practices for our environment, Hereafter addressed some of the pressing topics of our time. A diverse group of artists from all walks of life shared a sensitivity towards the “legacies” of our past, with which we are currently confronted, and combined the drive to explore, engage, and address these important topics through nuanced voices. The festival moved through conversations with thinkers and artists at the international conference, to multiple evenings filled with audiovisual performances, concerts, films, installations, an exhibition and club nights showcasing artists whose own nightlife operations explored some of the very same topics.
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2019.sonicacts.comProgramme GuidePhotos of Sonic Acts Festival 2019Videos of Sonic Acts Festival 2019
HC Gilje at Sonic Acts Festival 2019, Paradiso. Photo by Pieter Kers.
Chynna Rogers at Sonic Acts Festival 2019, Paradiso. Photo by Pieter Kers.
Thomas Ankersmit at Sonic Acts Festival 2019, Paradiso. Photo by Pieter Kers.
Conference at Sonic Acts Festival 2019, De Brakke Grond. Photo by Pieter Kers.
The Rodina, Accidental Geopetics, at Sonic Acts Festival 2019, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo by Pieter Kers.
Ramon Amaro at Sonic Acts Festival 2019, De Brakke Grond. Photo by Pieter Kers.
Acousmonium at Sonic Acts Festival 2019, Paradiso. Photo by Pieter Kers.
Irit Rogoff at Sonic Acts Festival 2019, De Brakke Grond. Photo by Pieter Kers.
GIL and mobilegirl at Sonic Acts Festival 2019, Paradiso. Photo by George Knegtel.