Search results for projects
Naut Humon: Transitions of the Spacial Station (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
Director of Recombinant Media Labs (RML) Naut Humon (USA) speaks on the formation, deployment and current activities of California’s Recombinant Labs and their West Coast affiliates. RML is an experimental mobile facility for the experiential engineering of surround cinema and immersive arts. Recombinant is a term derived from the field of genetics. Springing from this elastic media grid is a process which illustrates how an electronically strained ‘offspring’ comes to possess cultural characteristics not always present in either ‘parent’.
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.
Marcos Novak: 21st Century Invisible Architectures: The Poetics of Transactivated Space (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
Spaces are the lightest of media, demanding the greatest subtlety in both sensibilities and poetics. Initially trained as a physicist, Gaston Bachelard used phenomenology to build a philosophical bridge between the science of space and the poetics of making significant places.
Duncan Speakman: On Subtlemobs (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
This lecture was part of Sonic Acts XIII within the session The Poetics of Hybrid Space. In this session, a panel will explore the new conditions of experience emphasized by the concept of Hybrid Space through the prism of a series of artistic and interventionist projects drawing on the increased hybridity of the contemporary spaces of everyday life. The concept of Hybrid Space does away with misleading spatial dichotomies that have accompanied the rise of digital and networked media; real versus virtual; physical versus immaterial; flows versus places (Manuel Castells).
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’.
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.
Peter Westenberg: On Urban Interventions (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
This lecture was part of Sonic Acts XIII within the session The Poetics of Hybrid Space. In this session, a panel will explore the new conditions of experience emphasized by the concept of Hybrid Space through the prism of a series of artistic and interventionist projects drawing on the increased hybridity of the contemporary spaces of everyday life. The concept of Hybrid Space does away with misleading spatial dichotomies that have accompanied the rise of digital and networked media; real versus virtual; physical versus immaterial; flows versus places (Manuel Castells).
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.
The Stack and the Post-human User: an interview with Benjamin Bratton
RESEARCH SERIES #15 Benjamin Bratton is a theorist whose work spans Philosophy, Art and Design. He is Associate Professor of Visual Arts and Director of The Center for Design and Geopolitics at the University of California, San Diego. He is also Professor of Digital Design at The European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. In his book The Stack, due to be published in December 2015 by MIT Press, Benjamin Bratton develops a political perspective on computation on the planetary scale.
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.
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.’
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.
Panel: Perception and Illusion: Ulf Langheinrich
Cinema creates an illusion through the projection of 2D-images and sound. But what if we go beyond the audiovisual illusion? And what are the tricks that cinema can use to affect how the brain processes information in the visual cortex? A researcher and a media artist share their views.
Ulf Langheinrich: Drift (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)
With 'Drift' Ulf Langheinrich (D) brings abstract images and sounds from both art and music into the cinematic space. A stream of abstract, deep and dense images and sounds evolves from a realistic image. The images are transparent, high in resolution and fine in detail. A process of multiple metamorphoses in several parallel spaces and time-layers constantly transforms their consistency, viscosity and transparency.
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
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.
Peter Westenberg: On Urban Interventions (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/peter-westenberg-on-urban-interventions-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Peter Westenberg (NL) is a visual artist and filmmaker producing short films and urban interventions, ...
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
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
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...
Duncan Speakman: On Subtlemobs (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/duncan-speakman-on-subtlemobs-sonic-acts-xiii-2010-2/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Duncan Speakman (UK) examines how we use sound to locate ourselves in personal and political environments, cre...
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...
Marcos Novak: 21st Century Invisible Architectures: The Poetics of Transactivated Space (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/marcos-novak-21st-century-invisible-architectures-the-poetics-of-transactivated-space-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Spaces are the lightest of media, demanding the greatest...
Naut Humon: Transitions of the Spacial Station (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)
http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/naut-humon-transitions-of-the-spacial-station-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Director of Recombinant Media Labs (RML) Naut Humon (USA) speaks on the formation, deployment an...
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 Perception and Illusion: Ulf Langheinrich: Interference Moments (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)
Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Cinema creates an illusion through the projection of 2D-images and sound. But what if we go beyond the audiovisual illusion? And what are the tricks that cinema can use to affect how the brain pr...
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 ...
Ulf Langheinrich: Drift (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)
Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. With 'Drift' Ulf Langheinrich (D) brings abstract images and sounds from both art and music into the cinematic space. A stream of abstract, deep and dense images and sounds evolves from a realistic image. Th...
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.
Sonic Acts Commission Dolmen by Mario de Vega in Berlin
From 9 to 20 December 2015, Mario de Vega’s Dolmen will be presented by singuhr-projects at Meinblau Projektraum in Berlin. This installation was commissioned by Sonic Acts in collaboration with donaufestival and was first presented in the context of The Geologic Imagination, the 2015 edition of the Sonic Acts Festival.
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.
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
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...
#Additivism: An Encounter with The Fluid Outside
SONIC ACTS ACADEMY #Additivism: An Encounter with The Fluid Outside 28 February 2016 - De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- A talk and Q&A session by Morehshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke about The 3D Additivist Manifesto + The 3D Additivist Cookbook and the artist’s own research and pr...
Benjamin Bratton: Geobiopolitics and Planetary-Scale Computation: Sensors, Abstractors, Governors
SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE GEOLOGIC IMAGINATION Benjamin Bratton: Geobiopolitics and Planetary-Scale Computation: Sensors, Abstractors, Governors 28 February 2015 - Paradiso, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Geography, geology and geodesy now converge on computational platforms to form interlocking...
Yoneda Lemma & Anna Mikkola
SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Yoneda Lemma & Anna Mikkola 27 February 2016 - Paradiso, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Yoneda Lemma (aka You Need a Lemon, sometimes Yoni Dilemma) is a quasi-causal brainchild for abstract exploration, experimental research, and a platform for productions, plotted by Canadian-bor...
Anton Kats: Radio Sound System
SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Anton Kats: Radio Sound System 28 February 2016 - De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Artist and researcher Anton Kats’ history with radio is a long one, spanning from his early memories of growing up in Ukraine, to recent projects in Jamaica. Anton’s fascination w...
::vtol:: aka Dmitry Morozov – Лесофон / Lesophon
Лесофон / Lesophon is an audiovisual installation. Slowly, adhesive tape rolls unroll themselves over the course of many hours. This process is recorded and the generated data produces an algorithm that generates sound which is subsequently transmitted on FM. People are invited to listen to the installation as it unwinds, through headphones and via FM radio.
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.
Justin Bennett – Vilgiskoddeoayvir: Wolf Lake on the Mountains
At 12 kilometres deep, the Kola Superdeep Borehole is one of the deepest man-made holes on Earth. The Borehole was a Soviet geology research project that started during the Cold War. Justin Bennett created a soundwalk for this abandoned site.
Signe Lidén & Espen Sommer Eide – Altitude and History
Espen Sommer Eide and Signe Lidén took participants on an evening trek in the mountains above Nikel, where they investigated the acoustic phenomena in relation to the topography of the area while relating them to the local history. Eide and Lidén had their specially developed mobile, meteorological music instruments with them, which they installed and activated at various places during the trek.
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.
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.
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.
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 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
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.
Sonic Acts collaborates with Ràdio Web MACBA on new podcast with Terike Haapoja
In a new podcast on Ràdio Web MACBA co-produced by Sonic Acts, Finnish artist Terike Haapoja invites us to imagine a hybrid, expansive, empathetic 'we', with room for ambiguity and difference and for interspecies political understanding.
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.
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.
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.