Search results for artists-speakers
Science Fiction by Omar Muñoz-Cremers and ARC
RESEARCH SERIES #1 The publication of The Absence of Light inaugurates the Sonic Acts Research Series, in combination with the ARC panel videos we organised in cooperation with Simon Ings of ARC – ‘a magazine of futures and fiction from the makers New Scientist’.
GIL, Know V.A., Zaïre Krieger and more confirmed for Progress Bar on 20 March
After Sonic Acts Academy 2020, a new edition of Progress Bar takes place at OT301 on Friday 20 March, with performances, DJ sets, films and presentations by artists and speakers including Chooc Ly, GIL, Ifeoluwa, Know V.A., pía ío luuuz, Yantan Ministry and Zaïre Krieger.
Interview with Bart Rutten on Verticality
RESEARCH SERIES #13 In February 2014 the Vertical Cinema project was presented in the Stedelijk Museum. The programme was accompanied by lectures by experts on cinema, video, new media, and contemporary art, one of which was Bart Rutten, at that time still curator of modern and contemporary art at the Stedelijk Museum.
Interview with Lukas Marxt
RESEARCH SERIES #17 In one static shot, Lukas Marxt’s Reign of Silence (2013) observes a vessel boat swirl in circles in the Arctic sea and watches the ripples spread. While it’s only for a moment, the central theme that occupies Marxt makes itself visible – the dialogue between human and geological existence. As he journeys to the far corners of the earth, the Austrian artist lets so-called ‘deep time’ – the unimaginably vast time scale that describes geological processes – intersect with what we consider ‘real time.’
More artists, speakers and commissioned works announced for Sonic Acts Academy 2020
Sonic Acts is excited to now reveal the second wave of artists, thinkers and commissioned works for Sonic Acts Academy 2020, taking place in Amsterdam from 21 to 23 February 2020 at Paradiso, De Brakke Grond, Stedelijk Museum and OT301.
Programme announced! Rosa Pistola, No Bra, Lone Taxidermist, SHYBOI and lots more confirmed for Sonic Acts Academy 2020
The Sonic Acts Academy 2020 programme is now online, with a new wave of artists and speakers announced for a packed three days of live, immersive, expanded and charged experiences, and vital critical perspectives.
Vertical Cinema at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, IFFR & Kontraste Festival
"Vertical Cinema," the most ambitious and promising show in the entirety of the Rotterdam festival" "Yet simply the readjustment necessary to watch this program was something tremendous to experience, an exhausting craning upward at the skyscraper-like white tower of screen which asked for an up-and...
Signe Lidén and Espen Sommer Eide – Vertical Studies: Acoustic Shadows and Boundary Reflections
In Vertical Studies: Acoustic Shadows and Boundary Reflections, a collaborative work with Espen Sommer Eide, Eide and Lidén wish to invite the participants on a journey to a 46 meter high former water tower in Sint Jansklooster.
Free PDF download of the Academy 2020 Magazine
The impulse to listen, talk and learn with one another now hinges on the need to stay at home, and many of us have more time than ever to read. For that reason, we’re giving away a free digital edition of our latest publication, the Academy 2020 Magazine.
Thank you for contributing to an unforgettable Academy
Sonic Acts Academy 2020 is a wrap! As always, we are extremely grateful to everyone involved in making this year’s edition another great success. Thankfully, our incredible team of photographers and videographers were on hand to capture every moment.
Kontraste 2013
The tenth edition of the Kontraste festival Dark As Light took place from 10 to 13 October 2013 in and around Krems, Austria with a compelling programme of cutting-edge films, unconventional concerts, installations, an illustrated lecture, and a publication. Presented in a thematic, historical and interdisciplinary context. Kontraste 2013 was curated by Sonic Acts. sonicacts.com/kontraste/2013
Paul Prudence: Generative Spaces: The Spatiotemporal Subroutines of Runtime Planet Earth (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
From the global to the microscopic, the Earth runs subroutines that generate a multiplicity of complex patterns & emergent spaces – their runtime(s) lasting from anywhere between a few milliseconds to millions of years. Paul Prudence discusses the metamorphic algorithms, hydrodynamic computations, aeolian protocols and sonic mechanisms, sometimes acting in collaboration with living organisms that define the dynamic generative forms and spaces around us.
Dark Ecology Interview Tim Morton
RESEARCH SERIES #6 During the first Dark Ecology journey, which took place from 9 to 12 October 2014, a group of artists, researchers and theorists travelled the border zone between Norway and Russia. On the last day we sat down with Timothy Morton, author of amongst others The Ecological Thought and Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World.
Tim Maughan interviews Liam Young
RESEARCH SERIES #7 One of the speakers at the next Sonic Acts Festival is speculative architect Liam Young. Together with Kate Davies he runs the Unknown Fields Division, ‘a nomadic design studio that ventures out on annual expeditions to the ends of the Earth exploring unreal and forgotten landscapes, alien terrains and obsolete ecologies’.
An interview with Hillel Schwartz
RESEARCH SERIES #9 During Dutch Design Week, on Saturday 25 October 2014, Sonic Acts presented ‘A Day of Noise’ in Temporary Art Centre (TAC) in Eindhoven. The keynote speaker was cultural historian Hillel Schwartz, undoubtedly one of the world’s foremost experts on noise.
Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag: raum-Arbeiten – The Space of Sound and Acoustic Architectures (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
In 1993 I realized, on an IRCAM Workstation, together with programmer Jörg Spix, the first endlessly rising and falling movements in noise to create a paradoxical situation of perception by a simulated volume movement in the space. The main problem of talking about the acoustic space is, that what we call hearing happens in our brain and not only with the ears, with the space of our body too, and also combined with all the other senses. Sonntag will talk about the theoretical background and the development of his raum-Arbeiten and sonic architectures.
Interview with Noam Elcott on Verticality
RESEARCH SERIES #12 In February 2014 the Vertical Cinema programme was screened at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The programme was accompanied by four long lectures by experts on cinema, video, new media, and contemporary art. The American scholar Noam M. Elcott gave an impressive lecture-presentation which also sketched a possible genealogy of 'vertical cinema'.
Interview Jananne Al-Ani
RESEARCH SERIES #24 Born in Iraq, London-based artist Jananne Al-Ani engages with the politics of the image. In her works in photography, film and video, Al-Ani interrogates our ways of seeing by undermining the structures of scale and perspective in which visual culture is shaped. While her conceptual application is subversive, her methods are gentle, often resulting in evocations of assumptions which are quietly unsettled. Julian Ross interviewed Al-Ani when she attended the Sonic Acts Festival in 2015 for the screening of her two films Shadow Sites I and Shadow Sites II.
Interview with Don Foresta
RESEARCH SERIES #14 In June 2014 Sonic Acts invited research artist Don Foresta to give two presentations in the Netherlands. Before his lecture presentation at STEIM in Amsterdam, Arie Altena sat down with him to talk about his experiences, working with Nam June Paik, Woody and Steina Vasulka, and other pioneers of video art, and his involvement in the first experiments with network art.
Robert Whitman: On Experiments in Art and Technology (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
In his lecture Robert Whitman discusses the way that he has used space as part of the vocabulary of his installation and performance pieces. In 1966 Whitman was one of the New York artists who worked with Billy Klüver and more than 30 engineers and scientists from Bell Telephone Laboratories to create works for the now legendary 9 Evenings.
Philip Beesley: Responsive Environments (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
This lecture was part of Sonic Acts XIII within a session called Gardeners of the Future. This session was about the following: In order to survive the near future, humans need to rapidly adapt to the challenges ahead. Artists will play an important role in ‘gardening’ the future, not only by shifting from computer technology to biology and genetic engineering, but also by starting to understand the universe as a single, large natural algorithm that needs gardening in order to function in a sustainable way.
Interview with Karl Lemieux
RESEARCH SERIES #16 Live presence is not often considered to be a part of cinema, but Karl Lemieux thinks it should be. Using 16mm projectors as his principal tools, the Montreal-based artist employs various tactics to manipulate both the film material and apparatus itself during the act of projection—an approach that results in a distortion of the image. Working with Swedish composer and sound artist BJ Nilsen, Lemieux shot footage on the border between Russia and Norway. This would be the basis of their collaborative performance, unearthed, presented at the 2015 Sonic Acts Festival in Amsterdam.
Christopher Salter: Immersion, Absorption and Dissolution in Cross-modal Environments (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
This talk will examine the repercussions of Turrell’s and Irwin’s proposal to investigate the thresholds of perception in an experiential environment. Specifically, I will focus on the conception of the self and body in both contemporary artistic practices with media coupled with recent concepts arising from enactive cognition. What role does spatiality play in these synchretic perceptions? What happens to the ‘sensing self’ and its embodiment in audio-visual environments that overload or reduce our perception and how does this self expand or dissolve through such encounters?
Roger Malina: Intimate Science; Or Artists in the Dark Universe (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
This lecture was part of Sonic Acts XIII within a session called Gardeners of the Future. This session was about the following: In order to survive the near future, humans need to rapidly adapt to the challenges ahead. Artists will play an important role in ‘gardening’ the future, not only by shifting from computer technology to biology and genetic engineering, but also by starting to understand the universe as a single, large natural algorithm that needs gardening in order to function in a sustainable way.
The Geologic Imagination: Lectures, Interviews and Recordings
RESEARCH SERIES #19 To get you in the mood for the upcoming Dark Ecology Journey, Research Series #19 includes recorded lectures, excerpts of live performances, sound recordings and interviews made during the 2015 festival The Geologic Imagination. With contributors such as Timothy Morton, Jana Winderen, Espen Sommer Eide, BJ Nilsen and Karl Lemieux, Raviv Ganchrow, Ele Carpenter and Graham Harman.
Acousmonium: Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)
German electronic music legend Hans-Joachim Roedelius (AT) has been active in music for over thirty years. Over his prolific career, Roedelius’ musical output has covered a great deal of sonic territory and emotional range: from deeply introspective to very rhythmic, from experimental improvisations to heart-felt vignettes.
Combining Compositional Precision and Uncontrolled Processes: Interview with Thomas Ankersmit
RESEARCH SERIES #23 On 12 October 2013 Arie Altena interviewed Thomas Ankersmit about his work and his set-up for his concert the following day in the Minoritenkirche in Krems. Ankersmit was there as part of the 2013 Kontraste Festival
What Is Dark Ecology?
RESEARCH SERIES #26 In this essay, which draws on his book Dark Ecology, For a Logic of Coexistence, Timothy Morton — who originally coined the term dark ecology — explains what dark ecology is. He also argues how agrilogistics underpins our ecological crisis and our view of the world.
We Are All in the Mud
RESEARCH SERIES #32 Eyal Weizman is a London-based Israeli architect, Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures, and writer, who focuses on architecture as a form of political intervention and the role of architecture in modern urban warfare. Lucas van der Velden interviewed Eyal Weizman after his lecture at the 2017 Sonic Acts Festival.
Jennifer Walshe, Timothy Morton, Áine O’Dwyer, Lee Patterson, M.C. Schmidt, Streifenjunko and Vilde&Inga – Time Time Time
Time Time Time is an operatic work written by Jennifer Walshe and Timothy Morton, which premiered at Sonic Acts Festival 2019. Morton and Walshe join forces with an ensemble of renowned musicians and sound artists to explore the multiplicity of temporalities at the heart of being human.
Gert-Jan Prins, Bas van Koolwijk, Justin Bennett, Tina Frank, Jerome Noetinger and Billy Roisz – The Synchronator Orchestra
The Synchronator Orchestra is a live performance project in which several artists produce sound as well as visuals, using a Synchronator device. Commissioned for Kontraste Festival Krems in 2012
Sonic Acts XV - 2013 - The Dark Universe
Impression of the fifteenth edition of the Sonic Acts festival 2013, entitled The Dark Universe. Starting points for the theme The Dark Universe are recent developments in science. These developments show that our world is more unfamiliar and weirder than we imagine. We know that in all likelihood ...
Philippe-Alain Michaud Vertical Cinema Lecture
The tradition of experimental cinema, which persists today in the practices of many artists, shows that film cannot be defined from the restricted point of view of the history of cinema. It must be reconsidered from the enlarged viewpoint of the history of art as a resurrection of the stage and the ...
Vertical Cinema
Vertical Cinema is a series of ten newly commissioned large-scale, site-specific works by internationally renowned experimental filmmakers and audiovisual artists, which are presented on 35 mm celluloid and projected vertically with a custom-built projector in vertical cinemascope. Vertical Cinema is a Sonic Acts production in collaboration with several partners. verticalcinema.org
Dark Ecology
Dark Ecology was a three-year art, research and commissioning project, initiated by Sonic Acts and Kirkenes-based curator Hilde Methi, and in collaboration with Norwegian and Russian partners. Dark Ecology unfolded through research, the creation of new artworks, and a public programme that was presented in the zone on both sides of the border in 2014, 2015 and 2016. darkecology.net
Tim Maughan: Watching Paint Die (Sonic Acts XV, 2013)
About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird universe that draws us in and enfolds us in its shroud, blacker than burned black. Seekers of the unknown and the undiscovered must be able to...
Frank Swain: Leave Nothing to the Imagination: Maps, Monsters, and the Importance of Uncharted Lands (Sonic XV, 2013)
About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird universe that draws us in and enfolds us in its shroud, blacker than burned black. Seekers of the unknown and the undiscovered must be able to...
Alastair Reynolds: White Noise (Sonic Acts XV, 2013)
About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird universe that draws us in and enfolds us in its shroud, blacker than burned black. Seekers of the unknown and the undiscovered must be able to...
Simon Ings: Cupid's Dart (Sonic Acts XV, 2013)
About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird universe that draws us in and enfolds us in its shroud, blacker than burned black. Seekers of the unknown and the undiscovered must be able to...
Opening Sonic Acts exhibition The Dark Universe
With works by: Matthew Biederman, Félicie d’Estienne d’Orves, HC Gilje, Ivana Franke, Matthijs Munnik, Semiconductor, Yolanda Uriz Elizalde, Jürgen Reble, Justin Bennett The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird, dark ...
Karen Lancel & Herman Maat: Tele-Trust (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/karen-lancel-herman-maat-tele-trust-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Karen Lancel and Hermen Maat (NL) create ‘meeting places’ in public spaces. These performances and ins...
Roger Malina: Intimate Science; Or Artists in the Dark Universe (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/roger-malina-intimate-science-or-artists-in-the-dark-universe/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Humans were designed very badly to understand the universe they live in. Our senses filter out almost...
Philip Beesley: Responsive Environments (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/philip-beesley-responsive-environments-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Beesley presents a detailed tour through his recent interactive immersive environments. Discussion of i...
Robert Whitman: On Experiments in Art and Technology (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/robert-whitman-on-experiments-in-art-and-technology/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. In his lecture Robert Whitman discusses the way that he has used space as part of the vocabulary of his install...
Christopher Salter: Immersion, Absorption and Dissolution in Cross-modal Environments (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/christopher-salter-immersion-absorption-and-dissolution-in-cross-modal-environments-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. In 1968, an unrealized proposal developed in 1968 by visua...
Panel Spatial Perception: Jacob Kirkegaard, Hans Christian Gilje & Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. How do we perceive space? How do artists reflect on the experience of space and heighten the sense of space using sound and vision in sometimes radical or radically reduced ways? This panel was part of "Ses...
Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag: raum-Arbeiten – The Space of Sound and Acoustic Architectures (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/jan-peter-e-r-sonntag-raum-arbeiten-the-space-of-sound-and-acoustic-architectures/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology Since the Renaissance the visual sense in our Western civilisation dominates our o...
Paul Prudence: Generative Spaces: The Spatiotemporal Subroutines of Runtime Planet Earth (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. From the global to the microscopic, the Earth runs subroutines that generate a multiplicity of complex patterns & emergent spaces – their runtime(s) lasting from anywhere between a few milliseconds to mill...
Panel The Dream Machine, Part 2: Kurt Hentschläger: Flicker, Feedback, Void (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)
Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. "The Dream Machine" broached the issue of time and senses in cinema. In the past and the present, artists using the flicker effect conceive of cinema as a dream machine - sometimes literally. Henschlägers t...
Panel The Defeat of Time, Part 3: Joachim Nordwall (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)
Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. "The Defeat of Time" was a talk with Joachim Nordwall and CM von Hausswolff, moderated by Mike Harding. Following their respective performances in Paradiso on Thursday night,they discussed drone music
Acousmonium: Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)
Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. German electronic music legend Hans-Joachim Roedelius (AT) has been active in music for over thirty years, has . He is a pioneer in electronic music, not least for his collaborations with musicians and compo...
Panel The Defeat of Time, Part 2: Carl Michael von Hausswolff (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)
Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. "The Defeat of Time" was a talk with Joachim Nordwall and CM von Hausswolff, moderated by Mike Harding. Following their respective performances in Paradiso on Thursday night,they discussed drone music
D-Fuse: Latitude (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)
Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Inspired by the idea of drifting through the city, Latitude 3110N /12128E follows the emotive qualities of the space that surrounds us. Fragments of conversations, crowds, journeys, lights, deserted spaces a...
Cluster live (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)
Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Legendary German band, consisting of Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Since the early 1970s, the duo have produced exceptional instrumental music, floating somewhere between Krautrock, improvisatio...
Acousmonium: Christian Fennesz (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)
Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Christian Fennesz (AT) uses guitar and computer to create shimmering, swirling electronic sound of enormous range and complex musicality. His lush and luminant compositions are anything but sterile computer ...
The meditative collage of the session Earth Magnitude and the World Beyond Humans
Accumulating knowledge is the collective crystallization of our sensory information. The drive for knowledge is the urge to make contact, to grasp, to touch, to understand. Yet, crystalized information over generations also provides insights into the mechanism of our sensory machines. And the more we investigate, the bigger the gap between what’s known and what’s unknown.
Raviv Ganchrow – Long Wave Synthesis
Long Wave Synthesis is a land-art scale sound installation that investigates infrasound, and probes the relations between how we perceive the landscape and long-wave vibrations. The piece creates a complex topography of acoustic waves in a range of 4 to 30 Hz (mostly in the infrasound range, below the threshold of human hearing) spreading out from an array of custom-built, very low frequency generators. Commissioned for Dark Ecology Journey 2014
Save the Date: Sonic Acts Academy
From 26 to 28 February 2016, Sonic Acts hosts a new research-oriented programme at the intersection of art, music and science at several locations in Amsterdam. Over the course of three days, Sonic Acts Academy will invite artists, theorists, and scientists to expand on their research through lectures, concerts, film programmes, work presentations, masterclasses and workshops.
Otto Piene's The Proliferation of the Sun at Stedelijk
After the impressive performance of The Proliferation of The Sun (1967) by ZERO artist Otto Piene during the Sonic Acts Festival 2015, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Sonic Acts present the performance again in honour of the opening of the exhibition ZERO: Let Us Explore The Stars on Friday 3 July.
Sonic Acts & EYE on Art: Weather Report
Following the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, on 15 December Sonic Acts and EYE on Art will host a Dark Ecology inspired evening on climate change. The programme explores the subject from the perspective of Dark Ecology. Included are works from EYE’s collection as well as contributions by artists who are part of the 2015 Dark Ecology Journey.
Dark Ecology Journey: First Journey Report
We are back home from a successful second Dark Ecology Journey. Over the course of five days, we travelled with a group of more than 50 artists, researchers, curators, writers and organisers to Kirkenes in Northern Norway from where we took a bus to Murmansk in Russia, to Zapolyarny and Nikel, and back to Kirkenes.
Progress Bar in Amsterdam!
We’re thrilled to announce that Sonic Acts, Viral Radio and Lighthouse will present a special season of Progress Bars in Amsterdam. Starting with the first event on 16 January 2016, Progress Bar is a night for cutting edge thinking and dancing that presents a lively mix of talks, screenings, performances and a club in a single night.
About
From 26 to 28 February 2016, Sonic Acts hosts a new programme at the intersection of art, music and science at several locations in Amsterdam. Over the course of three days, Sonic Acts Academy will invite artists, theorists, and scientists to expand on their research through lectures, concerts, film programmes, work presentations, masterclasses and workshops.
Looking back on first edition Sonic Acts Academy
The first edition of Sonic Acts Academy has ended. We look back proudly on an opening night with performances at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, five workshops and two days of presentations celebrating today’s artistic practices at de Brakke Grond, and an invigorating line-up at Paradiso that had visitors dancing into the early hours.
Re-Imagine Europe
Re-Imagine Europe is a four-year project presented by ten cultural organisations from across Europe, with an aim to respond to the social and political challenges that we are currently facing. Funded by Creative Europe, the project involves artistic residencies, commissions, workshops and symposia, using art to empower a young generation of digitally connected Europeans to explore new ideas. re-imagine-europe.eu
Anthea Caddy – Long Throw: An Exploration of an Expanded Energetic System for Cello and Loud Speaker
Long Throw: An Exploration of an Expanded Energetic System for Cello and Loud Speaker is a live performance that expands the physical properties of projected sound energy via amplified cello. The piece premiered at Sonic Acts Academy 2020 as part of Sounding Provocations programme at Stedelijk Museum.
Progress Bar Amsterdam: Second Edition
On 26 March, the second edition of Progress Bar, a new collaboration between Sonic Acts, Lighthouse and Viral Radio takes place at Paradiso Noord, Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam. Described as ‘cutting edge thinking and dancing’ by FACT Magazine, the event presents a lively mix of talks, screenings, li...
Sonic Acts Academy 2016: Impressions
From 26 - 28 February the first edition of Sonic Acts Academy took place in Amsterdam. For this three-day event artists, theorists, and scientists were invited to expand on their research through lectures, concerts, film programmes, work presentations, masterclasses and workshops. The Academy relate...
Honor Harger: The Dark Arts
SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Honor Harger: The Dark Arts 22 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Artists and musicians have been active in producing some of the most powerful and persistent ideas about the possibilities of the invisible universe that surrounds us. ...
Alastair Reynolds: White Noise
SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Alastair Reynolds: White Noise 24 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird univers...
Simon Ings: Cupid’s Dart
SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Simon Ings: Cupid's Dart 24 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird universe that...
Frank Swain: Leave Nothing to the Imagination: Maps, Monsters, and the Importance of Uncharted Lands
SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Frank Swain: Leaving Nothing to the Imagination: Maps, Monsters, and the Importance of Uncharted Lands 24 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the unive...
Dark Ecology Programme Update - Commissioned works
The third edition of the art, research and commissioning project Dark Ecology will take place between 8 and 12 June 2016 in the border zone between Norway and Russia, with events scheduled in the Pasvik Valley and Kirkenes (NO) as well as in the surroundings of Nikel (RU). A group of more than 50 artists, researchers, curators, writers and organisers, will travel from Northern Norway to North West Russia.
Cecilia Jonsson – Prospecting: A Geological Survey of Greys
Prospecting: A Geological Survey of Greys is an interdisciplinary, site-specific art project that appropriates the scientific geological methods of extracting, analysing and categorising mineral specimens. The work consists of drilling residue, fragments from inside the rock. These residues serve to identify the bedrock’s various grey tones and visualise a temporary juxtaposition; a massive cylindrical column of rock core sample shadowed by its negative – the adjacent 5-centimetre-wide hole in the basement rock.
Looking back on Progress Bar in Amsterdam: More than Music
Looking back on the first four editions of Progress Bar Amsterdam which took place at Paradiso Noord / Tolhuistuin between January and June of this year, the event series' resident interviewer Jo Kali recounts her experiences and positions these nights, which are characterised by the combination of talks and performances, within the contemporary (cultural) landscape.
Homage to Dick Raaijmakers at ICMC
After thirty years, the internationally renowned conference on computer music ICMC (International Computer Music Conference) is returning to the Netherlands. On Tuesday September 13 ICMC invites Thomas Ankersmit & Tarik Barri for a special performance of 'Homage to Dick Raaijmakers' and 'Versum' at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht.
UNFOLD #3: Reinterpreting the digital
On 1 December, the third public event within the framework of UNFOLD continues with the research line mediation by reinterpretation. The evening will start with the workshop 'Sensory Augmentation and Obstruction', organised by Joost Rekveld and LIMA together with Sonic Acts.
Karl Klomp – Sonic Acts Festival 2019 spatial media design
For Sonic Acts Festival 2019, Karl Klomp developed an extensive spatial media installation comprising a monumental LED structure suspended from the ceiling and LED screens on stage displaying live video footage of the performances. The spatial media design was presented at Paradiso, Amsterdam, as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.
Sign up for workshops, seminars and guided tours at Sonic Acts Festival 2019
Sonic Acts is pleased to announce a special educational programme for Sonic Acts Festival 2019, with workshops led by artists and theorists including Christina Kubisch and Arie Altena, as well as seminars and guided exhibition tours.
Rana Hamadeh – Étude #1: On Recitation
Étude #1: On Recitation is a composition-in-progress with organ book, organ book machine, Disklavier, Sony cube monitor and horn speakers, and is a stepping stone towards a future compositional work by the artist. The work was presented at Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.
Phoebe Collings-James and Last Yearz Interesting Negro – Sound as Weapon, Sounds 4 Survival
Charting psycho-emotional landscapes and mapping them on to the physical, Phoebe Collings-James and Jamila Johnson-Small work with their multi-dimensional bodies as the primary technology and source material for a collaborative live performance. Sound as Weapon, Sounds 4 Survival was presented at Paradiso, Amsterdam, as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.
Sonic Acts and Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee podcast: Sadaf speaks to Ivan Cheng
Sonic Acts and Ja Ja Ja Née Née Née are collaborating on a series of podcasts for the upcoming Sonic Acts Academy. In the first episode, Sadaf speaks to Ivan Cheng and discusses the processes of making music, her work and the inspiration behind it all.
Christina Kubisch – Electrical Walks Amsterdam
Electrical Walks Amsterdam continues a series of works by the artist that trace the electromagnetic fields of urban environments. The work takes the form of a city walk and enables a new experience of Amsterdam, uncovering its hidden electromagnetic phenomena. The work is No. 74 in Kubisch's Electrical Walks series and was presented as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.
Polina Medvedeva and Andreas Kühne – The Informals / Неформалы
The Informals / Неформалы is a part-autobiographical work and a universal statement on the notions of decentralisation, collectivism, and non-conformist ways of living in the digital age. The European premiere of The Informals / Неформалы was presented at Paradiso, Amsterdam, as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.
Apply for the Creative Spatial Design workshop with Heleen Blanken and Karl Klomp
The workshop Creative Spatial Design will be an introduction to the artistic practice of conceptual stage design, led by spatial media artists Heleen Blanken and Karl Klomp. It focuses on the basic artistic and technical skills necessary for developing stage scenography for live performances.
Sonic Acts podcast with Lukáš Likavčan in collaboration with Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee
Sonic Acts and Ja Ja Ja Née Née Née are collaborating on a series of podcasts for the upcoming Sonic Acts Academy. In the second episode, Lukáš Likavčan and Leonardo Dellanoce discuss how the future influences the present.
Apply for Potential Wor(l)ds workshop with Anna Bunting-Branch and Aliyah Hussain
Potential Wor(l)ds is a collaborative project between artists Anna Bunting-Branch and Aliyah Hussain, drawing on shared interests in feminist science fiction, embodied processes of making, and different ways of worldbuilding.
Karl Klomp – Sonic Acts Academy 2020 spatial media design
For Sonic Acts Academy 2020, Karl Klomp developed an extensive spatial media infrastructure for the festival's night programme at Paradiso. The work – an innovative spatial setup utilising various media – created an intense visual experience, complementing the presentations of performing artists and the progressive club environment.
bod [包家巷] and Schwestern Sisters (SwS)– What If We Made A Video Game And It Was Like Dark Souls And All The Characters Were Artists (WIWMAVGAIWLDSAATCWA)
What If We Made A Video Game And It Was Like Dark Souls And All The Characters Were Artists (WIWMAVGAIWLDSAATCWA) is an enclosure of the audiovisual inputs of reality into the space of art that formally unifies performance and exhibition with the practices of organised interpersonal relationships.
Sonic Acts Academy 2020
Academy 2020 took its cue from inspiring artistic research with a special emphasis on experimentation and innovation. Informed by the urgency of the climate crisis and approaches to new futures, the Academy was an open invitation to listen, talk and learn with one another, fuelled by over 50 of the most exciting contemporary artists and thinkers from around the globe. 2020.sonicacts.com
Murmansk Prospekt
Murmansk Prospekt is a collaboration between Sonic Acts and Fridaymilk exploring the ways that artistic and speculative research can reveal the hidden histories and lost identities of the city of Murmansk. The project aims to enable current and future generations of citizens to re-imagine and redefine the city and articulate their personal identity through digital arts. fridaymilk.com inversiafest.com
Philip Vermeulen – More Moiré²
Philip Vermeulen’s sensorially powerful audiovisual installation More Moiré² premieres at Sonic Acts Academy 2020. In a panoramic Ganzfeld environment, with no horizon or anchor, the immersive cinematic experience puts visitors’ senses to the test. The tension between the experience of bodyless digitality and material physicality is palpable in More Moiré², which resets the senses in stimulating the awareness of one’s own material existence.
Progress Bar
Progress Bar is a periodic series of club nights dedicated to new developments in art, music, politics and society. Each event comprises lectures, presentations and film screenings, alongside audiovisual performances and adventurous DJ sets, and serves as a meeting point for a community of young artists and emerging thinkers and writers, who often combine their artistic practice with socio-political activism.
AV impressions of Sonic Acts Academy 2020 now online
Complete photo reports of the Academy will be published in the coming week, but you can already browse through a selection of first impressions on our social channels. Festival aftermovies and videos of the entire conference programme will also be online soon.
MÆKUR's CONDITIONS : 1218-0719 now available as limited edition vinyl
Released as part of Sonic Acts Academy 2020 and now available for digital download and as limited-edition vinyl, CONDITIONS : 1218 – 0719 is the first release by MÆKUR, the collaborative project of Maiа Urstad, Eva Rowson and Anton Kats.
Watch the 2020 conference talks and performances
In light of the difficult circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are working on ways to move future activities online. In the meantime, videos of the Sonic Acts Academy 2020 conference and performances can be watched over the weeks and months ahead.
Sonic Acts Festival 2019 – Hereafter
Under the title Hereafter, Sonic Acts explored the genesis of our current crisis by reflecting on the issues we are forced to confront on a daily basis: the inequalities caused by colonisation and geostrategic manoeuvring, the challenges brought forth by immigration and the climate crisis, and the way technological advancements disrupt and not emancipate. 2019.sonicacts.com
Sonic Acts Festival 2017 – The Noise of Being
The Noise of Being strived for a (de-)alignment of actors: humankind, Earth, technology and all other beings, by means of several strategies: de-colonising thought, de-normalisation, de-capitalisation, the inversing of time, creating cracks, and imaginative speculation – a chance to speculate about the strange and anxious state of being. sonicacts.com/2017
Sonic Acts Academy 2016
Sonic Acts Academy 2016 highlighted artistic engagement as vital to understanding the complexities of our contemporary world. Over the course of three days, artists presented work that challenged the sterile dichotomy of theory versus practice. Following an open and dynamic format, the Academy positioned art as a unique means of knowledge production. sonicacts.com/2016
Sonic Acts Festival 2015 – The Geologic Imagination
The Geologic Imagination examined how art and science map and document new insights, and how the changes and transformations that occur on a geological scale can become something humans can feel, touch, and experience. Sonic Acts invited artists and theorists to reflect on these transformations and make them imaginable. sonicacts.com/2015
Sonic Acts Festival 2013 – The Dark Universe
For The Dark Universe, Sonic Acts brought together scientists, artists, theorists, musicians and composers. They investigated how to make the invisible imaginable, taught us how to embrace the unknown, and guided us through the dark universe. The festival contained experiments with projections, sound generation and ‘expanded’ experiences to enhance the senses. sonicacts.com/2013 Download the programme brochures of the previous editions: 2020 - Sonic Acts Academy 2020 2019 - Hereafter 2018 - Sonic Acts Academy 2018 2017 - The Noise of Being 2016 - Sonic Acts Academy 2015 - The Geologic Imagination 2013 - The Dark Universe 2012 - Travelling Time 2010 - The Poetics of Space 2008 - The Cinematic Experience 2006 - The Anthology of Computer Art 2004 - Unsorted 2003 - Sonic Light 2001 - Point Pixel Programming 2000 - Sonic Acts 2000 1999 - Sonic Acts VI 1998 - Sonic Acts V 1997 - Sonic Acts IV 1996 - Sonic Acts III 1995 - Sonic Acts II 1994 - Sonic Acts I
Open Call: Underexposed – Mentorship Programme for Young Artists
Sonic Acts invites young artists to apply for Underexposed, an online mentorship and training programme. The programme is part of a Sonic Acts talent development initiative focussed on supporting artists at the beginning of their career.
Ecoes – an independent magazine about art in the age of pollution
Ecoes is a new periodic magazine from Sonic Acts about art in the age of pollution. The magazine features a number of artists and thinkers that propose alternatives to the anthropocentric view that sees Earth and the non-human world as an endless resource.
Angeliki Diakrousi and Yara Said selected for Underexposed
Underexposed is an online mentorship and training programme – part of a Sonic Acts talent development initiative – that focuses on supporting artists at the beginning of their career. Motivated by the number of exciting projects from young local artists, shown by many of the applications to our recent OVEREXPOSED residency call, Underexposed includes a mentorship period in which artists work directly with members of the Sonic Acts curatorial team, providing an opportunity to get feedback on the development of artistic projects.
Overexposed Podcast with Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee featuring Devin Hentz
In the third episode of the Overexposed Podcast – a collaboration between Sonic Acts and Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee – artist in residence Devin Hentz about data thieves, trash and its role in the archive of history, and the death of clothes.
The Smog Event
Aired on 27 March, The Smog Event brought together artists, theorists and film in an online programme about smog. The first event of the series included presentations by artist Amy Balkin and anthropologist Timothy K. Choy. These took place alongside a weekend-long screening of the 2019 documentary film Smog Town by Chinese filmmaker Meng Han. The programme was moderated by Harshavardhan Bhat. The evening was closed with a DJ set by Snufkin.
Artists in residence MELT look at different approaches to time
MELT (Loren Britton & Isabel Paehr) are arts-design researchers who work together on games, technology and critical pedagogy. During their 'residency time', MELT look at climate change and pollution in relation to different approaches to time.
Open Call: Sonic Acts continues its OVEREXPOSED home-based residency programme
Sonic Acts is proud to announce the continuation of the OVEREXPOSED residency programme. With this renewed open call, we invite applications from artists and researchers working across the fields of environmental humanities.
Underexposed
Underexposed is an online mentorship and training programme – part of a Sonic Acts talent development initiative – that focuses on supporting artists at the beginning of their career. It includes a mentorship period in which artists work directly with members of the Sonic Acts curatorial team, providing an opportunity to get feedback on the development of artistic projects.
Hugo Esquinca & Russell Haswell – Cadáver Exquisito Caleidoscópico En Cuatro Ejes
Cadáver Exquisito Caleidoscópico en Cuatro Ejes is a work by artists Hugo Esquinca and Russell Haswell and commissioned by Sonic Acts. It incorporates the game of ‘exquisite corpse’ – a technique of collective assembly in which they took turns contributing to the piece after receiving only a portion of what the other had previously contributed.
Tangle Eye: Worldbuilding with Mixtapes A Workshop by Arjuna Neuman
For a workshop taking place online on 31 May & Thursday 2 June from 18:00, Arjuna Neuman invites participants are invited to bring songs that build an argument, or even a new world, towards a collective mixtape that imagines the world as otherwise.