Sonic Acts is an interdisciplinary arts organisation based in Amsterdam. 

Founded in 1994 to present new developments in electronic and digital art forms, Sonic Acts has gained prominence with its biennial international festival — an intensive art, theory and technology gathering motivated by changes in the ecological, political, technological and social landscape. Sonic Acts is also a leading platform for international projects, research and the commissioning and co-production of new artworks, often working together with local and international partner organisations such as independent and institutional cultural incubators, universities and kindred festivals.

In the course of its 30-year history, Sonic Acts has been a site for experimentation: a place to exchange, think, create, learn, and act. By presenting artistic investigations and research, Sonic Acts aims to advance experimentation and in turn provide a podium for dynamic perspectives that can be tools for discovery, growth, development, and emancipation – vital to understanding the complexities of our contemporary world.
 
With a focus on talent development, Sonic Acts supports a community of emerging artists through the residency and mentorship programmes [Overexposed](https://sonicacts.com/discover/overexposed) and [Underexposed](https://sonicacts.com/discover/underexposed), as well as through the commissioning and production of new artworks. The festival and year-round activities bring together artists, curators, critical thinkers and a curious, diverse audience. Next to its biennial festival, Sonic Acts organises [Workshops](https://sonicacts.com/archive/filter/Workshops), reading and listening groups focused on applied knowledge and addressing ecological concerns; and [Night Air](https://sonicacts.com/discover/night-air), a programme about pollution combining in-depth talks with films, live performances, and a club night. Sonic Acts publishes the magazine _[Ecoes](https://sonicacts.com/archive/ecoes )_ about art in the age of pollution, as well as books, music releases, and online publications in connection to its festival, commissioned works, and research projects.
 
Through this wide range of cross-disciplinary programmes, Sonic Acts explores the rapidly changing relationship between art, science, technology, and politics. The exhibitions, club nights, screenings, workshops, and symposia are grounds for radical audiovisual performances and installations, contemporary visual art, avant-garde film, progressive club music, and innovative new media, celebrating and fuelled by compelling artistic and critical perspectives.
 
Sonic Acts partners with a number of institutions across projects. As an ongoing member of both de [Zaak Nu](https://www.dezaaknu.nl/over-ons) and [MOKER](https://moker.amsterdam/), they join local forces to support the presentation and development of visual arts in Amsterdam and the Netherlands. Other completed collaborative projects have included the four-year art, research and commissioning project [Re-Imagine Europe](https://re-imagine-europe.eu/), initiated by Sonic Acts and organised in collaboration with ten cultural organisations across Europe; the [Progress Bar](https://sonicacts.com/discover/progress-bar) series, highlighting the latest tendencies in radical sound and club culture alongside urgent conversations about politics and society at large; the [Sonic Acts Academy](https://2020.sonicacts.com/about), a biannual forum dedicated to artistic research; and [Murmansk Prospekt](https://murmanskprospekt.net/), a collaboration exploring the impact of human beings on the planet. Earlier projects include the international research and commissioning project [Dark Ecology](https://sonicacts-frontend.vercel.app/discover/dark-ecology), as well as the programming of three editions of the [Kontraste Festival](https://sonicacts-frontend.vercel.app/discover/kontraste) in Krems, Austria.

History

The Sonic Acts Archive collects documentation about works, events, and people, including audio-visual material, essays, interviews and publications that have been presented across Sonic Acts’ multi-faced programming.

Having evolved from a niche event for enthusiasts, blending academic music with cutting-edge electronic sounds, into a thematic festival and commissioning body that foregrounds the cross-pollination of art, music, science and technology, the institutional archive generated as a result focuses on the production of new media art. It documents the processes of creating new media works and practitioners’ engagement with “new technologies”, the networks of people (artists, curators, producers, and technicians that attend to it) and the material histories of tools and procedures used by artists (across visual, sound and film media) to present and create such works. Finally, it illuminates the crucial role of the festival as a site of creation of artistic work, equivalent in importance to the artist's studio, the darkroom or the writer’s desk – a goal that echoes the intentions behind the very founding of Sonic Acts Festival back in 1994.

The Sonic Acts Archive advocates for social memory, for sensorial experiences and ‘hard to discipline’ artworks and performances that require specific presentational formats and participatory audiences of a festival setting to exist.

The physical archive is currently accessible by appointment. Access to material or assistance with research projects can be arranged by contacting us at [archive@sonicacts.com](mailto:archive@sonicacts.com).

Colophon

**Funders 2023–2024**\
[Creative Industries Fund NL](https://www.stimuleringsfonds.nl/en)\
[Amsterdam Fund for the Arts](https://www.amsterdamsfondsvoordekunst.nl/en/)\
[Cultuurloket DigitALL](https://cultuurloketdigitall.nl/)\
[Mondriaan Fund](https://www.mondriaanfonds.nl/en/homepage-2/)\
[Provincie Noord-Holland](https://www.noord-holland.nl/)\
[Netherlands Film Fund](https://www.filmfonds.nl/)\
[Fonds 21](https://www.fonds21.nl/)\
[Hartwig Art Foundation](https://www.hartwigartfoundation.nl/)\
[Het Cultuurfonds](https://www.cultuurfonds.nl/)\
[Cultural Participation Fund](https://cultuurparticipatie.nl/)\
[Performing Arts Fund NL](https://fondspodiumkunsten.nl/)\
[Stichting Zabawas](https://www.zabawas.nl/)\
[Gravin van Bylandt Stichting](https://www.bylandtstichting.nl/)\
[Re-Imagine Europe](https://re-imagine-europe.eu/), co-funded by the European Union\
[Erasmus+](https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/)

**Partners, Collaborators & Friends**\
A4, Academy of Motion Pictures Museum, All Rent, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, Antenne Books, ArtScience Interfaculty, ArtEZ, Atheneum, BeamSystems, BEK – Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts, Berlin Art Book Fair and Festival, Bimhuis, Borealis Festival, Canal++, De Appel, de Bijloke, De Zaak Nu, Disruption Network Lab, Elevate Festival, Environmental Humanities UvA, Eye Filmmuseum, Field Station Friesland, FieldARTS, Forte Marghera, Garage Noord, Galerie Khoshbakht, Goethe-Institut Niederlande, Hackers & Designers, Het Hem, Het Lage Noorden, Hogeschool voor Kunsten Utrecht, Idea Books, INA GRM, Institut Français NL, Jacuzzi, JaJaJaNeeNeeNee, kanaal40, Kentalis, Kontejner, Kontrapunkt, La Biennale di Venezia, Ledlease, Looiersgracht 60, Michel Waisvisz Archief, MOKER PO_i, Muziekgebouw, NADD, Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis, Nieuwe Instituut, OT301, Oude Kerk, Paradiso, PAV – Parco Arte Vivente, Partyzaan, Radio Web MACBA, Radio Worm, Rijksakademie, Ruigoord, Rupert, SALWA, San Seriffe, Semibreve, Showcare, Singelkerk, SoundLAB, Spatial Media Laboratories, Stack Magazines, Stichting de Vrolijkheid Almere, Stichting Huygens-Fokker, Stichting IMC Weekendschool, Studio405, STUK, Subbacultcha, Teatro alle Tese, Tempel, Underbelly, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Universiteit Utrecht, University of Hong Kong, W139, We Are Public, WG Theatertechniek, Willem Twee Studios, Zone2Source


Funders

Stichting Sonic Acts is door de Belastingdienst aangewezen als culturele Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling (ANBI). Deze status geeft donateurs de mogelijkheid een financiële gift fiscaal van de belasting af te trekken.

**Bank- en factuurgegevens**\
KvK: 34198520\
BTW NR: NL814129201B01\
RSIN: 814129201\
IBAN: NL31RABO0115136169\
BIC: RABONL2U\
Adres:

Stichting Sonic Acts\
Weteringschans 6-8\
1017SG\
Amsterdam

**Directeur**\
Lucas van der Velden

**Raad van Toezicht**\
Mariette Dölle\
Nduka Mntambo\
Joost Rekveld (Voorzitter)


Sonic Acts hanteert de salarisrichtlijn van De Zaak Nu. De raad van toezicht verricht haar werkzaamheden onbezoldigd.

**Doelstelling**\
De stichting heeft ten doel het bevorderen van activiteiten en onderzoek op het gebied van de electronische muziek, de nieuwe media, kunst en cultuur en voorts alles wat daarmee inde in de meest brede zin des woords verband houdt of daartoe bevorderlijk kan zijn.

[Annual Report 2021](https://portal.sonicacts.com/uploads/Sonic_Acts_Annual_Report_2021_38ba1ba1d3.pdf?updated_at=2022-10-12T08:18:44.351Z)\
[Annual Report 2022](https://portal.sonicacts.com/uploads/Sonic_Acts_Annual_Report2022_LR_81c55f78bd.pdf?updated_at=2023-09-14T14:58:52.187Z)\
[Annual Report 2023](https://portal.sonicacts.com/uploads/Sonic_Acts_Annual_Report2023_LR_1b7c1fa17d.pdf?updated_at=2024-10-15T13:23:15.486Z)

[Jaarrekening 2021](https://portal.sonicacts.com/uploads/Sonic_Acts_Jaarrekening_2021_c5c97ce666.pdf?updated_at=2023-04-11T11:23:29.806Z)\
[Jaarekening 2022](https://cms.sonicacts.com/uploads/Sonic_Acts_Jaarrekening_2022_79954f3f5c.pdf)\
[Jaarrekening 2023](https://portal.sonicacts.com/uploads/uploads/Sonic_Acts_Jaarrekening_2023_5cf5cd5027.pdf?updated_at=2024-10-15T13:22:57.836Z)

[Download het Standaardformulier publicatieplicht ANBI algemeen](https://cms.sonicacts.com/uploads/standaardform_pubplicht_anbi_algemeen_2023_900a94ce57.pdf?updated_at=2024-10-16T08:40:05.774Z).

[Hoofdlijnen beleidsplan](https://portal.sonicacts.com/uploads/25501789_f26cec10d2.pdf?updated_at=2023-04-11T11:25:54.092Z).


ANBI

We currently have multiple vacancies! Find out more on [Homerun](https://sonicacts.homerun.co/communications-manager-3/en).

Vacancies

Sonic Acts aims to provide a safe and open forum for everyone. We are committed to creating a positive experience for our audience and artists free of intimidation, harassment, discrimination, aggression, sexism, and threatening or disrespectful language or behaviour regardless of gender identity, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, ethnicity, or religion. 

We follow and uphold this Code of Conduct in everything we do and it applies to everyone involved – both working or visiting Sonic Acts events. We also communicate it to all participating artists, our employees, partners, and freelancers who work with us. 

Sonic Acts reserves the right to revoke access to events for those who engage in inappropriate behaviour. If someone reports a breach of this Code during our events or in our online spaces, we will work with the complainant to determine an appropriate response. Please notify our staff members or email us at [info@sonicacts.com](mailto:info@sonicacts.com).

Remember to…\
… encourage a safe environment free from harassment and discrimination\
… be actively inclusive and challenge all discriminatory behaviours\
… respect boundaries and be mindful that each person has different boundaries\
… be aware of and challenge your own prejudices and privileges\
… respect how people choose to identify\
… listen if someone challenges you about your own behaviour\
… take care of your health and safety\
… respect the privacy of others

Code of Conduct

These house rules apply to both Sonic Acts organisation and employees and the visitors of its events. When buying a ticket to our events you agree to the following conditions and instructions given by the (event) staff. For all cases and/or situations not provided for in the house rules, the organisation reserves the right to impose additional rules verbally and/or in writing to which the visitor is bound.
 
The regulations have been drawn up to ensure order and safety during events:
 
- If ticket irregularities are discovered, such as false and/or duplicate tickets, or an attempt to gain access without a valid ticket, access will be denied, and a report will be made to the police.
- Tickets purchased online are strictly personal and non-transferable. You may be asked to identify yourself with a valid ID.
- Entering the event site is entirely at the visitor's own risk. The organisation is not liable for any injuries or damage caused to visitors and/or visitors' goods. This also includes theft and loss.
- Bringing professional sound recording and video equipment is not permitted, unless accreditation has been agreed in writing with the organisation.
- It is not permitted to distribute flyers, undertake promotional activities or trade goods on or near the event site without consultation with the organisation.
- The judgment of the security staff is binding. If prohibited items are found, you will be handed over to the police. Confiscated items will not be returned.
- During Sonic Acts events photo and sound recordings are made. Upon arrival, visitors tacitly give the organisation permission to reproduce, make public and/or use these recordings for promotional purposes. Would you rather not have us use a photo of you? Please contact us at [info@sonicacts.com](mailto:info@sonicacts.com) and we will remove the photo(s) in question.
- The house rules of the location have priority over these rules. If there are no house rules, rules drafted here will apply.
- In the event of disruptive behaviour, Sonic Acts and/or the venue reserves the right to remove individuals, as well as deny further access to the site and/or to the Sonic Acts events for a specified or indefinite period of time on the basis of Article 138 of the Criminal Code and Sonic Acts Code of Conduct.

House Rules

If you have any questions for Sonic Acts, including press enquiries, booking proposals or shop-related queries, please contact us at the relevant email address:

info@sonicacts.com\
residency@sonicacts.com\
press@sonicacts.com\
shop@sonicacts.com\
bookings@sonicacts.com

Sonic Acts\
Weteringschans 6–8\
1017 SG Amsterdam\
The Netherlands

Contact

An interdisciplinary arts organisation based in Amsterdam.

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Sonic Acts

An interdisciplinary arts organisation based in Amsterdam. 

The following interview comes from the sixth issue of _Ecoes_, Sonic Acts' periodic magazine about art in the age of pollution. Read this and much more in print by pre-ordering a copy from our [webshop](https://shop.sonicacts.com/product/ecoes-6/).

Don't miss **Tarek Atoui** during Sonic Acts Biennial 2024 events. Find the artist at both the [Michel Waisvisz: Touched by Sound](https://2024.sonicacts.com/programme/michel-waisvisz-project) talks and concert programmes, as well as a special [masterclass](https://2024.sonicacts.com/programme/workshops) on musical scores.

As part of a long-term collaboration with Sonic Acts, Tarek Atoui and Kristina Andersen have spent days unboxing objects, documents, and
fascinating musical tools contained within the archive of Michel Waisvisz (1949–2008). The project takes up the legacy of this unique Dutch
artist, composer, and instrument maker, evoking his important oeuvre to inspire new forms of experimentation. The historical materials, both
physical and ephemeral, are positioned in dialogue with an emerging generation of artists and former collaborators and, in this way, transformed in the present day. In conversation with Sally-Jane Norman, Atoui and Andersen reflect on engaging with the archive and staying true to the spirit of Waisvisz. As the process unfolded, they came to figuratively understand the collection in terms of ‘orality’, or the tradition of passing down knowledge through spoken communication. While codifying creative practices requires staying true to fixed-forms, orality offers a fluid, open, ever-adapting approach.

Michel Waisvisz was a pioneer in the international world of technological art, electronic sound art, and performance. Based on his experiences of playing with short wave radio as a child, he developed electronic and (later) digital instruments and software that transform bodily movements into sound. Works including the Crackle Box (1974) and Crackle Synth (1974), both pressure-sensitive, touchable devices, and The Hands (1984), twin MIDI controllers that can be attached to the player’s palms, garnered him international acclaim. His influence only increased after becoming the artistic director of the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM) in Amsterdam in the 1980s. 

Diverging from and encircling the archive, new musical instruments have been commissioned by Sonic Acts alongside reeditions of Waisvisz’s innovative inventions. Functioning as gestures, the instruments and archival materials will initiate communal narratives, introduced through workshops, conversations, lectures, and performances during the Sonic Acts Biennial 2024: The Spell of the Sensuous. On March 3, at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam, a programme of talks and collective improvisations will take place. Themed around the concept of ‘touching sound’ in relation to sampling and the crackle instruments, the featured artists include Boris Shershenkov, Görkem Arikan, Takuro Mizuta Lippit, Kristina Andersen, Ji Youn Kang, Julia Giertz, Tarek Atoui, and others. 

Performance scholar-practitioner Sally-Jane Norman, who served as STEIM’s artistic guest director from 1998 to 2000, engages in conversation with Atoui and Andersen. Her professional background and creative practice share deep connections with Waisvisz, with whom she collaborated personally. Together, they orchestrated the very first instalment of the Touch Festival, a gathering facilitating haptic, tactile encounters through discursive events, presentations, and more.

**Sally-Jane Norman: Can you explain how this project arose?**

**Tarek Atoui:** I always wanted to do it and Sonic Acts provided an opportunity. I contacted Kristina with my idea, asking whether she knew where Michel’s stuff was.

**Kristina Andersen:** And I knew!

**TA:** I had no clue how much effort and care you’d made after Michel’s passing. All the work you did – digitising, thinking, storing as much as possible, and throwing away anything unnecessary.

**KA:** That’s the weird thing about archiving – it’s as much about getting rid of things as it is about preserving. For some things we have initial sketches, drawings, circuitry, sound recordings from concerts. It’s not complete, but it’s complementary, and it spans a very long period and every single form of digital media you can imagine.

**SJN: You said ‘we’. Are there others involved you wish to name?**

**KA:** I worked with a lot of people over the years. I spent Sundays in the basement with Takuro Mizuta Lippit, aka dj sniff, STEIM’s artistic director from 2008 to 2013. We’d come out blackened with data from the analogue audio tapes – literally wearing the sound! Sound artist Andi Otto wrote a thesis on The Hands, and in his search for the evidence we shifted through a lot of material. Interns would come in for one or two weeks. We would also write the occasional academic paper on The Crackle, on the interactive exhibition presented at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1975, or The Hands. Together, these situations led to a practical approach to archiving – not as a big overarching project, but a series of little incursions.

**SJN: How do you keep Michel’s legacy alive? How does his body of work and artistic vision circulate with contemporary practitioners?**

**TA:** His ideas are still very much alive through people close to Michel, who made instruments, controllers, and concerts in the way he did, or through the technology, and his legacy of making and building. Michel’s philosophy also continues as a kind of playfulness. He believed that we must approach these materials differently: How can we use a circuit board, a photo, or a recording in a livelier way? 

Michel was important to me. He’s someone I’ve hugely cited in a lot of work I do. I also see his infuence in younger people who didn’t know him. For example, a young instrument maker in China who’s making dozens of versions of crackle boxes. Or people who make software, who are thinking about human-machine interaction, about instruments powered by solar energy, and non-electric sources... All these subjects are present in Michel’s work. So there must be a playful way to go back and explore it. I used to enjoy playing and having fun with Michel.

Ideas started to materialise when I looked at the collection with Kristina. We’d say, OK, this is a circuit board, could we share an image of this piece of circuitry with someone and ask them to imagine what it was meant to control? Or give someone a photo of a performance and ask them to try and build the instrument? We have plenty of ideas like these: How can we revisit instruments, unfinished ideas, photos, documents? All the materials have meaning and potential to generate meaning, or to trigger information beyond musicological, academic, or
usual frameworks.

**SJN: Is it a mix between speculative approaches and very physical anchorage?**

TA: Objects crystallise ideas, intentions, thoughts. But beyond physical objects, we also have recordings and spools. We’re interested in building instruments based on the spools. There’s an audio file of Michel playing The Hands at different moments over the years. So, what if we were to take this audio file and ask young builders to make controllers? It’s not just a question of objects, it’s a question of how we use the sound file, the photo, the score, the sketch. In the long term, there is scope for development across multiple chapters and iterations. This is just a start.

**SJN: How does the programme for the Sonic Acts Biennial 2024 fit in with what’s clearly a long-term undertaking?**

**TA:** We are preparing a series of workshops, concerts, and talks with a focus on the restoration of certain elements, as well as the re-edition, digitisation, and scanning of archival materials. It’s a question of setting the ground, generating material that will feed into the programme. There are also one or two instruments we’re building, inspired by Michel’s inventions. Kristina and I will be hosts, but the programme is being put together with a group of people who are participating. We invited people with whom we were in conversation, including friends and younger creatives from the now defunct STEIM, for an evening of talks and concerts, sharing memories and playing music. It’s about creating a place where we can come together and discuss ideas.

**SJN: Is there a longer-term time frame? It sounds as though this is going to evolve quite naturally, serendipitously?**

**KA:** Having spent ffteen years on this, I’m coming at it as formal caretaker of the archive, but also as an academic and designer. At the end of the day, the archive is something I’ll deal with for a long time, perhaps forever. There’s an inherent impossibility in archiving – you can never find the right solution; you can never be done. We are trying to look over our shoulders with respect and love for what came before, but also with a real eye to what Michel would have said: _maak wat van_ (make something out of it). For me, there’s a dilemma between making new things, but also wanting to hold onto some of the spirit that Michel brought to our lives. 

The stuff he left behind is conceptually rich, but not always technologically dependable. Sometimes it was just a matter of making things work in the moment. Michel’s philosophy of ‘let’s figure it out!’ is what we’re missing right now, and I think it could be helpful again.

**TA:** All the important things I’ve done have taken years to achieve. If you want to build things, it’s about giving them the possibility to fow, to evolve. Kristina, I’d like to know where are you with establishing the archive formally through a foundation? And how has that plan evolved through our project?

**KA:** I’m taking an instinctual embodied approach to the instruments. Right now, my kitchen is full of crackle speakers! Kees van Zeelst and Nico Bes, both longstanding STEIM people, helped me open them, and they’re all completely different on the inside. One of them had been used as a storage box! Each one will appear on stage differently because they’ve been modifed over and over. One of them doesn’t have a speaker cone. Somebody probably needed a speaker on a Sunday afternoon, so they took it. There’s something about that attitude that corresponds with Michel’s artistic character. I’m using this project to think about the longevity of the archive. In the longer-term, we will start a small, simple foundation to take care of its best interests, while being very aware that this is a complicated job that we will need to keep engaging with.

**TA:** The question of what an estate or a legacy means today is hugely important. Yet, it’s an undertaking that requires large scale organisation. Countries like the Netherlands often brag about their emphasis on preservation and the attention they pay to culture, legacy, heritage, yet very little of Michel’s work has been acknowledged. So, it’s great that, along with Sonic Acts, we’re able to create a framework to rectify this. We are not prepared to surrender to a certain context that won’t give this work the chance to exist for us and for others.

**KA:** I’m not looking at fling things away, but rather allowing them to continue to emerge. I’m interested in allowing objects, instruments, technology, memories, pieces of music, compositions, pictures to transition and take on multiple defnitions simultaneously. Physical objects allow us to deal with complexity. We’re dealing with tangible materials. For me, it’s about being able to engage – not necessarily with what Michel would or wouldn’t have done, but to engage with what might happen now. At the core, what we’re asking is: What does it mean to archive a live art practice?

**SJN: You’re talking about the layered repairs and (re)interventions that build sedimented histories. These can’t be finite objects because they’re already evidence of multiple iterations, and the notion of finitude runs completely counter to everything that Michel stood for. The process of intervening must be in the ‘now’ to see what these objects elicit today.**

**KA:** We must create space. If we care for every single object, if we remember and want to showcase everything, we can’t think of anything new. It’s a balance. I recently transported three sets of The Hands to Rotterdam for an exhibition. It’s complicated because two sets have quicksilver switches. If they break, it’s not only impossible to replace them, but we also don’t want mercury to spill everywhere. There is always a risk when we move things, which means we are somewhat selective about what leaves the archive and travels around.

**SJN: So how do you avoid turning The Hands into holy relics?**

**KA:** By not showing them all the time! They’re not meaningful for most people. They can’t be played by anyone else. Lots of things weren’t recorded and lots were lost. For this project we’re talking mostly about the very early stuff – aeroplanes, maps, and drawings. There’s an unacademic richness there; it’s not theoretical.

**TA:** Yes, we’re talking about the vocabulary that arose around the crackle boxes, the early works, some ideas to do with sampling, but focusing more on the record, the trace, the surface.

**KA:** In a sense, this is not really an archiving project. We met and picked out several boxes to look at in both a guided and unguided way. We ended up spending a day unpacking and laying the contents of one box out on the foor. When I returned the next day, Tarek had made a wonderful edit of the material, arranging it in a new configuration. What became interesting was not the objects themselves, but how they were
assembled.

**TA:** After a day and a half of unpacking, taking items out of boxes which were roughly categorised as ‘scores’, ‘records’, ‘drawings’, ‘spools’, ‘minidisks’, ‘notebooks’, and so on, we really started putting it all together. The approach emerged out of the correspondences I noticed. It became clear that these traces are like chapters or sections, and there could be multiple versions. I feel that if we did this again, Kristina, we’d come up with another collage.

**KA:** We’re not looking for a final truth. It doesn’t really exist.

**TA:** It’s about playability and playfulness. Each time we look at something it might generate another possibility.

**SJN: Kristina, you say it’s not an archiving project. How could it be succinctly described it in a way that’s satisfactory for you?**

**KA:** It’s about allowing things to happen that shouldn’t be possible, that may be before or even after their time. Tarek and I have very different trajectories and vocabularies – I have an urgent, personal need to deal with this body of work. After years and years, I realise it’s not archivable in a traditional sense. I don’t think any live art practice is, so we’re trying to engage with the material in a way that I don’t want to label, that’s true to the spirit of the material.

**SJN: The relationships between the objects and materials seem to be as important as, or even more important than, their own individual existences. Can you say more about how the work you’re doing might have a lasting impact amongst emerging practitioners, artists, and scholars?**

**TA:** The performance evening at the Bimhuis, where we will all come together, will be a moment of refection and research. It won’t be the rendering of a final outcome. I want to create a situation where we can be inspired in different ways. If it’s an instrument, great; a gathering of people, great; a sound, perfect. The workshops won’t be just ‘educational’ type presentations, they are opportunities for learning through conversations. If we revisit Michel’s scores as a group, it won’t be a matter of ‘presenting’ them, but of thinking about them together as an assembly.

**KA:** Within the project there are notions of gesture, assembly, kinship. We’re not trying to remake or preserve; we’re trying to make things that have a kind of kinship with Michel’s work.

**SJN: Kristina, those characteristics you’ve just mentioned – gesture, assembly, kinship – are also very much features of your own workshops.**

**KA:** Yeah, of course, we’re fellow travellers in many complex ways. We are all family and kin. It means that we do things, we come together, we gather in subsets, we’re all engaged in this prolonged relationship with each other.

**SJN: So there’s a nexus, a kind of holding point around which you converge, but also, you can take these energies in very different directions.**

**TA:** What’s been left behind resembles oral traditions. In Arabic culture, orality is fundamental not because text has been scarce; on the contrary, it’s due to the desire to avoid fxed forms, whether in poetry or in music. Orality allows the content or message to adapt to the vocabulary of the time. Arab poets and musicians did not feel compelled to transmit fxated works to future generations, but rather, they wanted to communicate an idea, concept, or intention, so it could be modelled and adapted to the era in which it’s being interpreted. We see it in the music: it isn’t scripted, the instrument changes, the technology changes. The scale is there to keep it together, but what can be done in the scale is left open. 

This approach shares parallels with what we’ve experienced in this process. We’re dealing with materials and elements that were not meant to be archived in a classical sense. They weren’t meant to be classifed in a museum. They often arose as the result of a spontaneous situation: Let’s do a concert, let’s collaborate, let’s come together. Michel’s scores were always adapting to different contexts. He didn’t have a methodology like some composers who have a very singular vocabulary and aesthetic. Instead, he was driven by the way people relate to a
score and understand it in the moment. Moreover, Michel used graphic scores, instructional pieces, and software code, and these all arouse from oral processes. 

It’s like archiving craft – the crackle speakers are put together hastily, they’re fxed on the spot, a piece might be removed from one and put on
another. They’ve never been considered as artworks. They are objects which are a form of and refect this sense of orality. So they need to be kept in a form that is not museum-like. How do we preserve the Crackle Box? The idea behind redoing the crackle speaker, but using today’s technology and today’s vocabulary, is not to produce or reproduce the same object. This motivates interventions such as taking photo of one of Michel’s performances and asking an instrument maker to make an instrument that can play it.

When I get asked about the context, my answer is that it’s not the point – the point is simply to observe the photo and create from there. At STEIM, when I ask someone to make an instrument based on their experiences, I’m not interested in them doing academic research and
finding out technical things. That isn’t the nature of the invitation. I’m trying to take a more poetic approach to everything we do as part of this project. When we come together in March 2024, creating a situation that allows other voices to emerge will be the most important aspect. What is the role of an instrument? They’re objects that allow convening, assembling, coming together and therefore, they are potent in the sense they can generate other opportunities for the future. 

I told you about taking the sounds of the old instruments and making new instruments based on them. At some point there will be institutions that will want to acquire the new pieces. But the problem is that what was initially a very open object, like a sound file, which was open to interpretation, will become a fnite object. Institutions come with specific requests about how to preserve, maintain, and integrate objects into their collections in order to make them accessible to musicians and practitioners. But what will happen when you’re dead, or in 200 years when the technology around the instrument will be obsolete, how will it operate then? Of course, you can fix it as best you can. But my answer would be to find another instrument maker to construct something new out of it. It’s about repeating the gesture, rather than preserving the object. That’s what orality is. How can I create different functions with different materials and not be stuck in a given time? This allows for an expansive archive that doesn’t get stuck on old dead icons.

**SJN: I love this notion of the orality and openness to reinterpretation and the way you circled back to gesture!**

**KA:** We are repeating the gesture, rather than preserving the object. Gesture and intention over preservation and instruction. This type of art making, music making, and instrument building requires a process that’s much more craft-like and linked to oral traditions. In a sense, it’s much older than an archaeological or archival impulse. This brings us back to teaching – our pedagogical strategy is concerned with showing what’s possible, and from that, allowing a much broader range of things to be possible.

**TA:** There’s a fundamental problem with education. Students are asked to find answers to questions that teachers have already formulated. We should allow people to learn to formulate their own questions. The attitude we have today is full of preconceived notions. There are countless definitions and lots of things that are being taken for granted. People should not be relying unquestioningly on fixed terms and conventions. I’m learning a lot from the obstacles we’re encountering with the archive. Maybe we should keep the documents and the photos as they were. I could assemble the unboxed materials into another collage, fnding other connections, other associations, and the form would be different. That’s precisely the power of the archive. It’s a little bit like the improvisations I recorded with Michel.

**KA:** We’re doing an improvised archiving. We’re learning to deal with the materials coherently – re-enacting, paying attention, and listening – attuned to the way the work was made in the first place.

**TA:** I’m super excited about the complexity we are facing; the questions of what to show and how to show it. I’m fascinated by the idea of making complex circuitry from basic elements or building big, absurd machines. When I’m teaching, I always use a microphone, mixer, and
speaker combined in different ways. The components are basic, but the results are complex. If the setup is too complicated, it will not be accessible to everybody. This allows me to redo an installation with kids, but to keep the same essence as when I work with adults. Children have their own intuitive approach, while experienced makers might bring along an Arduino, stress sensors, and other more sophisticated equipment. But the core components are always the same. This keeps the concept open and transmissible through time.

**SJN: When you describe creating situations that are open to different readings and temporalities, I see this as a kind of ethic.**

**TA:** It’s also about an attitude, about being ethical towards Michel’s materials. We don’t want to subjugate the material for the purpose of an exhibition or project. In fact, we’re trying to adopt an ethical attitude while also being highly selective. Approaching the archive through the notion of orality is not about being lazy. I’m sure some people might say we took this route because we’re not able to do it otherwise. On the
contrary, Kristina did an amazing job of putting things together in a way that is scientific. It was not about preserving everything exactly as we found it. We now have the result of a very complex process that has involved different phases of archiving. Our method cannot be described as prescriptive. In fact, it was the opposite. We uncovered the orality of the archive in the process of unpacking, fxing, scripting, and sorting
the materials.

**KA:** We also uncovered a sense of a fundamental and deadly serious curiosity in the archive. We’re not doing this because we’re bored or because it seems useful. We are desperately curious. We’re looking because it’s urgent to find things.

→ Pre-order a copy of _Ecoes_ from the [Sonic Acts webshop](https://shop.sonicacts.com/product/ecoes-6/)

Unboxing the Archive of Michel Waisvisz

_Soundsweird_ is the result of a two-year collaborative educational project, _Sound Experiments – New Approaches to Non-Formal Music Learning_, by three European organisations active in the fields of experimental music and sound art, as well as youth education:

- [KONTEJNER](https://www.kontejner.org/), bureau of contemporary art praxis from Zagreb (Croatia)
- [A4](https://a4.sk/en/), space for contemporary culture from Bratislava (Slovakia)
- [Sonic Acts](https://sonicacts.com/about) from Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

supported by the European Union’s [Erasmus+](https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/) programme.

_Sound Experiments'_ main goal has been to explore and develop alternative educational methods in experimental music, specifically for ages 13 to 20. Unlike conventional music schools with programmes based on teaching traditional music methods, starting with scores and classical harmony, the project puts an emphasis on listening, mutual sound research, and co-creation among young participants and their mentors. It strives to offer a wider understanding of music and what music can be by educating them in the fields of group improvisation, digital music creation environments, instrument creation, sound art, spatiality of sound, as well as the intersection of auditive and visual arts.

The educational programme encourages creative and artistic liberty, establishing an alternative approach to music education, broadening young peoples' auditive perception and encouraging otherness and difference. It has been divided into [six modules with workshops](https://soundsweird.org/#learn) designed and led by musicians and sound artists who have experience working with youth.

# [soundsweird.org](https://soundsweird.org/)

The key elements of each workshop have been translated and disseminated through [_soundsweird.org_](https://soundsweird.org/) – an online education platform with free teaching resources.

Each educational module comes with instructional literature and documentation for listening practices, mutual sound research and co-creation.

The programme strives to offer youth a wider understanding of music and encourage creativity and experimentation through group improvisation, instrument creation, live digital music, sound art, spatial sound, and field recording. 

The workshop manuals are freely accessible to encourage further experimentation in youth groups, classrooms or at home.

# Sonic Acts Youth Workshops

### Listening to Sampling

'Listening to Sampling' cultivates an understanding of the history and techniques of electronic music sampling. Said and Elshani wanted to create a sound and sampling workshop for everyone, especially young people and up-and-coming artists, offering them the space to experiment, learn and engage with the significant role sound plays in our daily lives. The workshop begins with sampling’s history as a ready-to-use form of instrumentalisation, a budget-friendly method possessing a rich history within electronic music making. It empowers participants with limited experience in sound design to create their own sound projects, helping them to prepare a basic studio setup and providing preliminary knowledge of the sound software Ableton. More experienced participants can get support in in-depth mixing and production techniques, such as working with delays, creating stereo depth in compositions, and importing and exporting audio files.

developed by **Yara Said** and **Zgjim Elshani**, in local collaboration with [IMC Weekendschool](https://www.imcweekendschool.nl/) and [Salwa Foundation](https://salwa.nl/)


### When I Sound, I am Speaking

'When I Sound, I am Speaking', 'Als ik klink, dan spreek ik', is an introduction to field recording and text foraging in an urban context. It aims to engage young people with their city spaces through the perspective of sound. Young people are encouraged to explore soundscapes as a space for expressing themselves, sharing ideas, stories and memories beyond the conventions of music and language. During the workshop, participants explore the margins of their surroundings and document their acoustic environment. They use on-site objects as instruments, tap into electromagnetic waves, capture tactile vibrations and forage memories, all of which they morph into their own soundscape.

developed by **Polina Medvedeva** and **Andreas Kühne** in local collaboration with [IMC Weekendschool](https://www.imcweekendschool.nl/) and [De Vrolijkheid](https://vrolijkheid.nl/)

Soundsweird 

This interview was originally published in [_Travelling Time_](https://sonicacts.com/archive/book--travelling-time--sonic-acts-2012) (2012) by Sonic Acts Press.

Composer, performer and humanitarian **Pauline Oliveros** is an important pioneer in American music and electronic music. She has explored sound for five decades, breaking new ground for herself and others. Through her Deep Listening Pieces and earlier Sonic Meditations, Oliveros introduced the idea of incorporating all environmental sounds into musical performance. She has created a body of work – using improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation – with such breadth of vision that it profoundly affects those who experience
it. music critic John Rockwell wrote in the _New York Times_: ‘On some level, music, sound consciousness and religion are all one, and she would seem to be very close to that level.’ In performance Oliveros plays an accordion, which has been re-tuned to two different systems of just intonation, and uses electronics to alter the sound of the accordion and explore the individual characteristics of each room she performs in. **Nick Cain** interviewed her online in January 2012 ahead of the Sonic Acts Festival.

**Nick Cain**: At Sonic Acts you’re performing _Occupy Music_. I’m assuming it links to Occupy Wall Street?

**Pauline Oliveros**: I’m very interested in the Occupy movement, and feel that I want to relate to it however I can. I have written a couple of pieces for the Occupy movement based on the ‘people’s microphone’, and I really feel like that was a very creative way of working together. I liked it a lot and so I made a piece based on that for the Occupy movement. It’s very simple. Basically the microphone check is called and everyone begins to sound using their voices, or whatever, and it moves throughout the entire crowd. So that’s part of the inspiration for using the title _Occupy Music_. They are forbidden to use any amplification. That’s why the people’s microphone is not amplified at all, but the people themselves are amplifying by reverberating. Occupy Music will be an improvisation. I always have a title, and the title somehow inspires me. I will be playing my Roland V-accordion, which is a digital instrument.

**NC**:  We have a similar thing in London, with the occupation of the area next to St Paul’s Cathedral. It’s an incredible swelling of public protest.

**PO**: Absolutely. Then there’s Occupy LA, where there are a couple of women artists who have started to elaborate a lot on my Deep Listening work. They did a beautiful thing: they showed up with placards in the shape of ears. Big ears. And then they had what they called a ‘listening parade’. [laughs]

**NC**: One of the things I wanted to ask you about was time, time travelling being the theme of this year’s Sonic Acts. How do the systems you have developed in the past – the delay systems you created in the 1960s and the more recent Expanded Instrument System – how do they relate to time? They often cause a hall-of-mirrors effect – did you conceive of them as a way of changing the listener’s perception of time?

**PO**: Of course what I hope is that people enter into a state of timelessness, where they’re not thinking about time, where they’re feeling space.

**NC**: The recordings use sophisticated electronic systems but have a natural, organic flow to them. Accordions are like a big lung – they have a very breath-like rhythm to them, they flow very organically...

**PO**: That’s what I work with. Breath rhythm is very important to me; the accordion is an extension of my own lung, as I feel it. The thing you said that I really liked is about the natural, organic flow. That’s the essence of the kind of the so-called ‘time’ – but it is really space-time – that I’m interested in bringing about, especially through these complex delay systems that I’ve used and am still using and developing. Right now
I’m very involved with a project that uses artificial intelligence, and it is beginning to be able to play very intelligently. [laughs] But the algorithms that I use for my Expanded Instrument System were specifically designed to create that kind of organic feeling. The algorithms themselves really come from the Sonic Meditations I did in the 1970s.

**NC**: How does the process of your Sonic Meditations work?

**PO**:  First of all, Sonic Meditations were a real break from the kind of work that was going on around me at the University of California San Diego at that time. There was a lot of interest in post-Webern-sounding work, and so on. And I started to do these kinds of meditations that came from my own exploration of listening to a long tone, and beginning to hear a whole universe of sound in a single tone, which you don’t hear when you’re thinking about sequences of tones. That was very important to me. And then I wanted to create experiences for people who didn’t have any musical training, because I had a large class of students, 150 of them, who weren’t musicians. They were just general students. I began to compose Sonic Meditations. These are recipes for making a sonic experience. A recipe is a group of instructions that produces a result. We know this in cooking – if you combine the ingredients in a certain way, you’ll get food, and hopefully it’ll be good. But we also know that the recipe and the cook can make a great difference. And so can the ingredients: where they come from and how fresh they are. There are a lot of variables. But nevertheless I think of recipes as algorithms, and then moving into or interacting with electronic systems or tape delay systems, whatever you want to call them.

**NC**: One of the fascinating things about your music is this tension or contrast between its natural flow, and that to some degree it’s created using artificial systems of sound manipulation.

**PO**: I’ve always been interested in creating an organic flow. And it’s been fairly natural to me, all my life, to be interacting with electronic systems. As a matter of fact I’m currently completing an article called ‘Music Technology Trails: Eight Decades – Reverberations’ (to be published in the _Jefferson Journal of Science and Culture_). I’ve discovered in the writing of this article the kinds of things that influenced me as a child. Of course there was radio. Radio was not very old when I was born, in 1932 [laughs]. There had only been 25 years of broadcasts.
I used to listen to the radio in a lot of different ways. One way was to listen to the artefacts, the static and the shortwaves on my father’s shortwave radio. I used to play with it, turning the dials, hearing the whistles and pops, thing like that.

I discovered that I had listened to the original _Buck Rogers_ radio serial and seen the movies in cinemas on Saturday mornings along with episodes of the _Popeye Club_ and the _Buster Crabbe Show_. There was Wilma Deering, who was Buck Rogers’s co-pilot. One of the main characters was Doctor Huer, the genius scientist. I was introduced to all these futuristic ideas very early. And I also wrote a piece for Merce Cunningham in 1969, which was called _In Memoriam Nikola Tesla, Cosmic Engineer_. I had read John O’Neill’s _Prodigal Genius: The Life Of Nikola Tesla_, and was basing the piece on the infamous experiment in his house and lab in New York, where he caused a kind of minor earthquake, testing for resonance with a mechanical oscillator – this was the core of the piece I wrote for Merce Cunningham.

What I discovered in writing that article was that Nikola Tesla was the prototype for Doctor Huer in _Buck Rogers_. So all of those ideas were with me from that time. Inventions and technology have never been foreign or unusual to me, and I’ve always been curious about people who are technophobic. Now I understand why I am not. As a kid, I got all of that information.

**NC**: Apart from being an investigation into the nature of hearing and into the idea of removing the participants from their everyday context and placing them in a new physical space, are the Deep Listening workshops you conduct also about giving the participants the time to hear in a different way?

**PO**: If you have the right space, [laughs] then you’re going to have the right time to work together. I have a hard time separating space and time. I have to pick up on one thing you said, that I was teaching about the nature of hearing. First of all, hearing is one thing, but listening is another. I do teach about the difference. Hearing is the process of taking in sonic information, through our ears. Listening takes place in the brain. More and more now with neuroscience, we are learning a lot of new things about listening. As far as I’m concerned the experience
of listening is rather mysterious. You can measure all kinds of things about hearing, physicists can measure the physics of hearing, but you can’t measure the physics of experience. There is no physics of experience. So the scientific community has had a very hard time with it. [laughs] That’s why some artists are doing this kind of thing now, and it is time for us to work together, so that a greater understanding can come about. And I think it is. I’m actually very excited about it.

> "Of course what I hope is that people enter into a state of timelessness, where they’re not thinking about time, where they’re feeling space."

**NC**: Are you referring to the project you mentioned involving artificial intelligence?

**PO**: Yes. It is based on the Expanded Instrument System. There’s a post-doctoral research association working with me, and another colleague who is an acoustician. There’s another one now on this particular project because the funding has been ongoing, from the National Science Foundation, actually, creative IT. This project started in 2008 and Doug van Nort, who was the research associate, was my student at RPI [Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute] in 2002 and 2003. He was interested in the Expanded Instrument System, and created his own system based on it called GREIS. He’s working on this project at the moment and has created a new system that goes
by the acronym FILTER. It can listen to our trio improvising, and then begins to play back with us. It hears the timbres and the densities, and the kinds of phrasing and so on, and it’s doing pretty well.

**NC**: I think of the Expanded Instrument System as an evolution of the systems you used in the 1960s. It sounds like FILTER is an evolution of the Expanded Instrument System.

**PO**:  Yes, it absolutely it, but I keep developing it further. I don’t see any end to it. [laughs]

**NC**: I was very sorry to hear of the death of David Gamper last year. Will you be continuing the Deep Listening group as a duo with Stuart Dempster?

**PO**: Stuart and I are continuing, but we don’t know exactly how it’s going to play out. We did a memorial concert for David in Wisconsin a couple of months ago. We’ll also perform together at my 80th birthday concert at RPI on 10 May. We’re going to be performing in a simulation of the cistern we played in for Deep Listening in 1988. Stuart introduced me to this incredible cistern at Fort Worden, Port Townsend, Washington State. It used to store the water supply for the army there when it was a port. It’s 14 feet deep and about 50 feet in diameter, made of reinforced concrete. The only entrance is a manhole cover. The reverberation time is 45 seconds, and when you play a sound, the direct sound and the reflected sound are equally balanced. So this space is definitely a hall of mirrors. Not only do you get that reflected sound, the indirect sound, sound travels around the cistern. Anyway, we made a recording there in 1988. That’s where Deep Listening was born. It was where I coined the term ‘deep listening’, partly as a pun, and partly because of the way we had to play. Performing in an environment like that obviously means you have to listen in a different way.

**NC**: One of the things that interests me about your drone-based compositions is the way that they collapse time. Can you say something about the relationship between continuous sound and time in your music?

**PO**: In _Variations For Sextet_, from 1960, for flute, clarinet, trumpet, cello, horn and piano, I was working out a very complex rhythmic structure that would defeat any sense of metre. And yet there would be that collapse you were talking about. Then there was a piece I wrote in 1961 called _Sound Patterns For Mixed Chorus_. Again, it was a really complicated rhythmic structure, and I was beginning to relinquish control of pitch – people following a contour rather than specific notated pitches, breaking that down, deconstructing it. There’s a deconstruction of pitch and time throughout those works, from the end of the 1950s into the 1970s. I was always interested in not having militaristic or metred time. This kind of time is time I don’t want. I don’t want to be marching. [laughs]

**NC**: Does this relate to just intonation?

**PO**: Just intonation is a beautiful sound, and it gives you wonderful consonant shifts. But the shifts I’m interested in are unequal intervals, when they get closer together and cause lots of very beautiful beat phenomena. People are interested in just intonation for the consonance and the rhythms, which I am as well, but I’m interested in those parts of the system that give you a very different kind of sound.

**NC**: When did you first start using just intonation?

**PO**: I had my accordion tuned to just intonation, I think in 1985.

**NC**: How do you use it on recordings like _The Roots Of The Moment_ (2006) and _Primordial Lift_ (1999)?

**PO**: It’s by ear. If it sounds good then you play it. [laughs] I’m not working systematically. I’m really not.

**NC**: How flexible a system is it for improvising?

**PO**: It’s as flexible as any system. Any system imposes limitations on what you can do. And so my strategy has always been to defeat the system as best I can. I can have a lot of different kinds of tunings on my V-accordion. I’ve been using Arabic tuning recently.

**NC**: It sounds like you’re working against these systems of tuning as much as with them.

**PO**: Exactly. I remember I was playing in my trio The Space Between. Dana Reason was playing piano in equal temperament, I was playing my just intonation accordion, and Philip Gelb was playing shakuhachi. So there were three systems. And we had a great time improvising together with these three systems, working out how we could reconcile them and make interesting music. But you’re right – working against the system is what I do. [laughs]

**NC**: But your music, particularly Deep Listening, also has a very powerful positive energy. It’s essentially a sharing music.

**PO**: Yes, that’s right, that’s what it is for me. It is about the embodiment of sound, the sentient nature of it, the way you feel it. It’s different from a hardcore intellectual approach to music.

**NC**: But there is an intellectual grounding to it.

**PO**: There is. But what I’m looking for or trying to do is to have homeostasis, to have an integration of both, so that you don’t leave out the sentient part. I’m still very enamoured of sound, and listening. There’s always more.

There Is No Physics of Experience

In February 2024, Sonic Acts launched the Listening Room at the arts venue Zone2Source in Amsterdam, along with the online [radio.sonicacts.com](https://radio.sonicacts.com/), to showcase multichannel sound works. Both projects, initiated as part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2024: The Spell of the Sensuous, were an experiment in attentive listening, presenting an embodied, ecological approach to sound.

In this article, Hannah Pezzack links these projects to the history of listening, drawing on, amongst others, Pauline Oliveros’ concept of deep listening. She reflects on the outcomes of research conducted with audiences of the Listening Room and [radio.sonicacts.com](https://radio.sonicacts.com/), noting that listeners not only valued attentive listening, but considered it essential to mental well-being.

On 2nd February 2024, the Listening Room – an 8.2-channel sound exhibition designed for attentive contemplation – opened at Zone2Source. Located in Amstelpark, Amsterdam, the arts venue is constructed out of floor-to-ceiling, glass-panelled windows which look out onto the surrounding gardens. Cushions were laid on the floor and visitors were invited to sit, stand, or walk through the room while the pieces were played. Without performers present, the focal point became the act of listening itself; deep, sensory submersion, conducted as part of an assembled group. In tandem with the Listening Room, radio.sonicacts.com was launched online. The portal streamed live concerts alongside broadcasting archival and new multi-channel pieces, some of which had been commissioned within the framework of Re-imagine Europe, utilising built-in spatial sound technology. 

These projects were initiated as part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2024: The Spell of the Sensuous – an intensive art, theory, and technology gathering motivated by changes in the ecological, political, technological, and social landscape. Founded in 1994, Sonic Acts is an interdisciplinary arts organisation based in Amsterdam. Its activities encompass research, projects, and producing new artworks, often working together with cultural incubators, universities, and kindred festivals.

Recently, Sonic Acts launched The Spatial Sound Platform (SSP), an initiative investigating the perception and conservation of spatial sound works through innovative and experimental formats. For over three decades, the organisation has been exploring spatial sound, delving into the latest technical developments, immersive experiences, and acoustic architectures. The SSP operates as an archive and seeks to transform the material through performances, research materials, workshops, masterclasses, new releases and more. Both the Listening Room and the Radio represent extensions of the SSP, with further plans currently being discussed by the curatorial team.  

For this case study, Hannah Pezzack analyses surveys and interviews administered by research intern Alice Dimastrogiovanni about the dual, immersive environments.[1](#footntoes) The feedback provided by visitors repeatedly referenced their physical sense of self; one person even mentioned doing a breathing exercise with a friend at Zone2Source, emphasising the significance of bodily awareness. Others mentioned tactile sensations, a comment that was prominent in relation to the radio.  

Referring to Pauline Oliveros’ practice of Deep Listening, this case study argues that audiences resonated with an embodied, ecological approach to sound, where the body, the sonic environment, and fellow listeners were integral. It seeks to question dominant conceptions of the autonomous subject, advocating for holistic and collective listening spaces. Furthermore, in the context of the attention economy – or the rapid, relentless exposure to information – attentive listening enacted slowly, over long durations, is highly valued and is essential to mental well-being. 

The listening room is not new – in the early 1920s, radio stations often created dedicated spaces for audiences to gather and tune into broadcasts together. This concept evolved over the decades, with designated rooms appearing in libraries and cultural centres. In recent years, the Japanese-style listening bar – or HiFi bars as they are called in the U.S. – have become popular worldwide. A ‘subset of the kissaten, the small and idiosyncratic coffeehouses dotting the side streets in Tokyo’, these venues stem back to the 1950s.[2](#footnotes) The original idea is simple: talk less, listen more. Sound is given priority, with the acoustics of the space designed so one can fully appreciate the music. 

Meanwhile, online radio follows a contemporary history of web platforms that emerged in the late 1990s. Frequently DIY affairs, pirate stations in particular revolutionalised how broadcast media was consumed. Sonic Acts has taken up these two formats to investigate novel ways of showcasing sound works, including historical pieces – live recordings of concerts and commissioned compositions – that have been sitting in the organisation’s vast vault. This case study does not name titles or artists (although full crediting can be found via the 2024 Biennial website) but instead follows the answers of the respondents who spoke subjectively about their emotions, mental states, and interactions.[3](#footnotes)

Re-imagining and adding new facets, Sonic Acts has incorporated spatialisation, which made the physicality of the sound all the more pronounced and rethought the traditionally darkened, often windowless listening bar into a porous glasshouse. These additions, as this case study illustrates, were instrumental to the overall positive, impactful reception. 




# Listening with Intent

In 1988, the pioneering sound artist, composer, accordionist, and educator Pauline Oliveros coined the term ‘Deep Listening’. The all-encompassing phrase, which Oliveros applied to various pedagogical, philosophical, and activist situations, explores ‘the difference between the involuntary nature of hearing and the conscious nature of listening’.[4](#footnotes) While we might be unconsciously ‘hearing' all the time, listening is a deliberate, purposeful action that cultivates a heightened apprehension of the external and internal sonic environment. 

This approach is irrevocably tied to the practitioner's acknowledgement of the social nature of sound. In her 1971 book, _Sonic Meditations_, Oliveros composed exercises for group participation that centred on community and the deconstruction of hierarchy. Within her work, sound is reimagined as a participatory activity: not a one-sided relationship between the performer and audience, but as an ever-expanding project of awareness. 

Notably, many visitors alluded to the alert and observant qualities of Deep Listening in their feedback. An individual remarked that they felt ‘focused’ because ‘this act of listening attentively is really grounding and pulls you into the present’. Another stated that they enjoyed a ‘meditative’ engagement with the pieces. 

Respondent P. continually used plural pronouns in their answers: ‘There was real attention and real stillness. Some people were lying, others were sitting, and we all had a collective experience.’ Here, the focus is on the sonic encounter as shared and connective, aligning with Oliveros’ vision of sound as inherently relational. Crucially, a central reason visitors came to the Listening Room was to, as one solo attendee put it, ‘listen with other people’, even strangers. The communal aspect was of major appeal. 




# Embodied Listening

In Western societies, aural processes (along with the non-visual senses such as smell and taste) have tended to be considered subordinate to rational knowledge. Within this framework, listening is also regarded as essentially disembodied. Traditional ‘computational models’ depict noises entering the ears before swirling around the brain, absorbed solely through the mental sphere. However, in recent years, the emergence of an embodied perspective in music studies has allowed listening to be rethought in relation to corporeality. Pauline Oliveros was a key, early proponent of this embodied approach.[5](#footnotes) Following one of her sonic meditations, for example, practitioners are encouraged to imagine that ‘the bottoms of your feet become ears’.[6](#footnotes) This playful exercise underscores the idea that the whole body enacts listening, a concept supported by both philosophers and neuroscientists.[7](#footnotes)

Artist and researcher Andrea Giomi has highlighted the sensorial nature of sound, pointing to its physical quality; the tactile sensation of vibrations against muscles and skin, and how we might dance, tap, or sway along to music. Drawing on the work of theorists and scientists, he proposes an ‘ecological’ understanding of sound, where the act of listening is implicated in a network of factors such as the space in which it occurs, biochemical responses in one's own body as well as the bodies of fellow audience members and performers.[8](#footnotes) According to this perspective, the previously separate categories of ‘the mind’ and ‘the body’ are integrated into a holistic vision that unites cognitive functions (thinking), bodily movements, and multi-sensory activity. This interpretation, which challenges the idea of the autonomous subject, applies well to the Listening Room, described by respondent K. as a ‘sharing space’; a place to ‘get more in my body […] where things were happening […] not being in a little isolated pod by yourself… but [with] a group.’ 

Moreover, the fact that Zone2Source was well-lit by sunlight and that trees and birds could be seen through the glass windows, seemed to deepen multi-sensorial interaction.[9](#footnotes) A dark, sealed-off venue would have prevented visitors from engaging with their surroundings and recognising one another, thereby limiting the sensory encounter. In the words of music journalist Anton Spice: 


>Listening spaces are often enclosed, self-consciously sealed from the bleed of the outside world, but at Zone2Source, you are reminded more of just how porous these boundaries are. What makes listening a fluid way of apprehending the world is not pure and focused attention to one discrete thing, but the possibility for overlap, for relations emerging between objects and processes.[10](#footnotes)

As Spice acknowledges, listening in this context is not simply a one-dimensional ‘ears-plus-noise’ equation, but a defuse latticework of stimuli that encompasses the architecture of Zone2Source and events going on outside the building. In Oliveros’ understanding, this constitutes an ‘openness’, allowing one to become receptive in an integrated manner.

Additionally, the setting was considered to be comfortable – or, as respondent G. articulated, ‘homey’ – with cushions and blankets available. The laid back atmosphere undoubtedly led to a sense of emotional security and well-being, which was notable in descriptors such as 'soothing' and 'relaxing'. In essence, a defining aspect of Zone2Source was the curators’ consideration of the listener as embodied, from the configuration of the speakers to just above head height to the warmth and comfort of attendees. Indeed, in future iterations of this project, attention should be paid to replicating these features, which put people at ease, enabling them to more meaningfully connect with themselves, others, the space and sound works. 




# Tactile Technology

It is interesting to note that feedback about Sonic Acts Radio also focused on palpable, multi-sensory engagement. This is despite the perceived immateriality and disembodied nature of broadcast mediums which, according to Carolyn Birdsall in her book _Radiophilia_, has only become more entrenched in the age of internet radio.[11](#footnotes) However, as she argues, such assumptions obfuscate factors such as material waste, servers that store digital information, urban space, intimacy, and embodiment. Radio has distinctive, tangible components, from the twiddling of knobs to reading programmes or, in the case of radio.sonicacts.com, a haptic, mediating interface that mapped and mirrored the listener’s head movements. This function is linked to the spatialised, ‘3D’ nature of the audio – the camera follows the listener’s position, re-adjusting and panning the music accordingly. Respondent I. commented on this, saying that they found the ‘very nice spatiality and articulation of the frequencies, which kind of resonate in the head’, to be ‘recharging’.

Others spoke about the pieces in textured terms, using words such as ‘bubbly’ or ‘harsh’. Remarkably, even when the audio was industrial, unnerving, or jarring, individuals still considered it positive and pleasant. This suggests that it was not so much the emotional tone of the track, but more the novelty of sound that is distinctively physical and interactive, moving in dialogue with the specific dimensions of their bodies.

Both Carolyn Birdsall and Andrea Giomi are optimistic about the potential of future technologies, including ‘experiments in 3D virtual representations and augmented reality.’[12](#footnotes) For Giomi, new musical interfaces are fundamental to recognising how the body figures in relation to auditory processes, an area he has explored in Feedback Loop Driver (2017–2019), a biophysical music performance which uses motion capture technologies.

In the cases of the Listening Room and radio.sonicacts.com, spatialisation through 8.2 channels and digital mapping created an ‘immersive experience’, underscoring that audiences resonate with a somatic mode of listening.[13](#footnotes) Even in the ‘ephemeral’ online radio, the pan-effect kept users grounded, with multi-dimensional, oscillating music generating what respondent U. called ‘neuropleasure’.




# Retreats, Rituals, and a Crisis of Attention

Scholars Graham Burnett and Justin E. H. Smith, in the introduction to the book _Scenes of Attention: Essays on Mind, Time, and the Senses_, describe the ‘attention economy’ as ‘the intensive “fracking” of human persons for the vaporous monetary value of their eyeballs and earholes’.[14](#footnotes) Some remedies for dealing with the information overload, such as the rising popularity of sensory deprivation tanks or mindfulness techniques, might relieve bombardment and burnout, but do so on an individual basis.[15](#footnotes) This case study instead points to the redemptive capacities of practising Deep Listening collectively, in an exhibition setting. 

In juxtaposition to the rapid, fractured, alienation of the attention economy, the practice of Deep Listening is instead orientated towards slow and sustained engagement. According to Jenny Odell, author of _How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy_, it operates as a ‘reversal of our usual cultural training, which teaches us to quickly analyse and judge more than to simply observe.’[16](#footnotes) Odell calls this a powerful ‘interruption’ of hegemonic rhythms, ‘Even if brief or momentary, these places and moments are retreats.’[17](#footnotes) 

In the context of a 'crisis of attention' that we all feel, to varying degrees, in the age of hypermediated multitaskery, finding time for deep, mediative listening may prove difficult – as respondent S. stated, ‘I don't really sit down a lot and take the time to listen’. In this sense, venues such as the Listening Room and radio.sonicacts.com carve out a vital space – a place to pause to become enveloped and attuned, both with oneself and others. These platforms provided, at least fleetingly, a pleasurable reprieve from the saturation of everyday life. 

The notion of ‘departing’ or ‘retreating’ was further emphasised by the fact that visitors had to travel away from the noise and bustle of the city centre to a large park in a quiet suburb, a place many found to be ‘peaceful’. Respondent K. said, ‘I do really appreciate [that the] listening room became more of […] a ritual. And that adds a lot to it for me.’ Meanwhile, respondent P. mentioned that they became absorbed into the longer pieces which played with the ‘elasticity of time perception.’ These observations speak to the philosopher Byung-Chul Han’s conception of rituals as 'exercises in attention’ that allow people to 'linger' and be mindfully present in the moment.[18](#footnotes) In a fast-paced, atomised world, Han emphasises the healing necessity of slowing down and becoming utterly absorbed in a shared activity. As an example, he refers to the Hungarian writer Péter Nádas, who describes a village with an ancient pear tree at its centre, where villagers gather and contemplate silently. Such places 'creates a community without communication’.[19](#footnotes) Similarly, at Zone2Source, where talking was gently discouraged, it was noticeable that a ritualised sense of commonality flourished, despite the lack of verbal exchange.  
 
 
 
 
# Conclusion

After long being neglected, the body and the physicality of sound are finally being recognised as essential tenets of listening. Of course, this realisation might seem obvious, especially to those who love to dance or enjoy music on a large sound system.[20](#footnotes) Yet, within more cerebral approaches and ‘ocularcentric’ cultures bias towards visual media, mental cognition has been paramount. As evidenced by this study’s findings, this model is lacking – a comprehensive understanding of listening as embodied and ecological is both necessary and desired. 

For its 2024 Biennial programme, which turned for inspiration to, and took its name from, David Abram’s 1996 book _The Spell of Sensuous_, Sonic Acts delved into the role of the senses. The curatorial framework sought to repair the epistemological rift between ‘the mind’ and ‘the body’ and put us back in touch – with art, each other, and the environment – in the face of alienation and devastating ecological crisis. Research conducted as part of the Biennial undoubtedly set the stage for the findings here regarding sensorial, sonic engagement. 

In various other fields, notably psychotherapy, there has been a shift towards the somatic with psychiatrists such as Bessel van der Kolk and Gabor Maté advocating for all-encompassing healthcare that connects our bodies and minds. This has dovetailed with the popular appeal of ambient music and collective listening activities – such as sound baths – as well as renewed interest in artists like Éliane Radigue whose steadily unfolding, drone-led works mirror the workings of the nervous system. 

The interconnectedness of the mind, body, and environment will undoubtedly continue to be a fascinating realm of study in relation to multi-channel sound art, especially as new technologies emerge and open up fresh possibilities for their dissemination. When it comes to audiences, it appears there is a longing to reconcile our individuated, distracted, and overwhelmed selves, and to find shared places of attunement. Listening, as a ritualised, tactile, multi-sensorial and relational activity, seems distinctively poised to bridge the gap, whether it takes place in the physical or digital sphere.

# CONTEXT
This text is one of the pilot studies of [_Re-Imagine Europe: New Perspectives for Action_](https://re-imagine-europe.eu/). In these contributions we explore and reflect on artistic practices and experimental approaches in the cultural field that can engage and activate audiences and communities to address ecological, social, and political challenges. The pilot studies provide an overview of practices of cultural organisations that can serve as models, recipes, or tools for transformation for current and future generations of cultural workers and artists.

_Re-Imagine Europe: New Perspectives for Action_ (2023&2027) is a four-year transnational co-creation and circulation project of fourteen interdisciplinary art organisations across Europe. The project aims to equip and empower young Europeans through artistic practices to better withstand societal challenges triggered by rapid climate change.

The Re-Imagine Europe partnership is a collaboration of: Paradiso (NL), Sonic Acts (NL), Elevate Festival (AT), INA grm (FR) , A4 (SK) , Borealis (NO) , KONTEJNER (HR), BEK (NO) , RUPERT (LT) , Disruption Network Lab (DE), Semibreve (PT), Parco Arte Vivente (IT), Kontrapunkt (MK), and Radio Web MACBA (ES).

Listening Together

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Work with us!

Marking a decade of pioneering cinematic experiences, Vertical Cinema travels to Lithuania's renowned Scanorama film festival. The special two-day showcase highlights the innovative approach of the curatorial and commissioning project that reimagines the dimensions of the screen.


Initiated by Sonic Acts, Vertical Cinema debuted at the 2013 edition of the Kontraste Festival in Krems, Austria. The project grew over the years, encompassing esteemed filmmakers and visual artists such as **Joost Rekveld**, **Susan Schuppli**, **Rosa Menkman**, **Makino Takashi**, **Lukas Marxt**, and **Hans Christian Gilje**, who were invited to create unique audiovisual works for a specially constructed, 90-degree rotated 35mm projector. The result is an impressive array of abstract films, formal experiments, found footage, chemically processed tapes, and a live laser show – all flipped sideways, echoing the now-ubiquitous framing of portable smart devices. Notably, Vertical Cinema was initiated before the advent of Instagram 'Stories,’ which popularised verticality as a standard format. Although Instagram launched in 2010, the Stories feature didn't appear until 2016, positioning Sonic Acts' early investigations as an anticipatory gesture. 

Since its world premiere, the project has been featured at numerous prestigious festivals and museums worldwide, becoming a celebrated, globally recognised achievement.

[Scanorama](https://scanorama.lt/en), one of Lithuania's largest and most prominent international cultural events, brings together over 40,000 film enthusiasts each year. In 2024, the festival presents titles from Vertical Cinema, alongside highly regarded European films and top global picks.

On 6 and 7 November, 18:30–19:30 EET (17:30 CEST), Vilnius' industrial culture and art space, Kablys+Kultūra, will host a rotating collection of these experimental films, showcased on a 10-metre-high monolithic screen. Amongst many others, catch Rekveld's _#43_ , which explores the intersection of art, biology, and mathematics, drawing inspiration from concepts that gained prominence during the development of cybernetics in the 1950s and 1960s. There’s also Schuppli’s _Atmospheric Feedback Loops_, focusing on an open-air laboratory near Amsterdam that distinguishes climate change signals from meteorological noise, and Gilje’s _Rift_, consisting of more than 10,000 images of plastic packaging filmed under a microscope.



→  Find the full list of films and purchase tickets (if you are in Vilnius) [via the Scanorama website ](https://scanorama.lt/en/vertical-cinema)

10 Years of Vertical Cinema: Screenings in Vilnius 

Broadcast via **Elena Colombi**'s monthly NTS residency slot, this 2-hour mix celebrates three decades of sonic exploration, guiding listeners on a journey through Sonic Acts' rich archive and blending the past into a genre-blurring experience. 

As part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2024 – and in celebration of our 30th anniversary – DJ/producer **The Social Lover** (aka Ruben Verkuylen) was invited to delve into our extensive archive, collaging its content through a hybrid DJ set with live manipulation and processing. Spanning a grand array of material (concerts, lectures, and conversations), he focuses on the period between 2003 and 2006 — a pivotal epoch for electronic music, computing cultures, and digital art forms.

The set, which was captured live at Het HEM during [Sediments](https://sonicacts.com/news/Sediments-at-Het-HEM) – a day of talks, concerts, and workshops – aired as a guest slot via NTS resident **Elena Colombi**'s monthly radio show on Monday 28 October. 

→ listen back to _30 Years of Sonic Acts: From Booting Up to Fully Installed_, now available on [the NTS radio website](https://www.nts.live/shows/elena-colombi/episodes/elena-colombi-28th-october-2024), [SoundCloud](https://soundcloud.com/user-643553014/elena-colombi-w-the-social), and [Mixcloud ](https://www.mixcloud.com/NTSRadio/elena-colombi-w-the-social-lover-30-years-of-sonic-acts-28th-october-2024/)

Associatively collaging sonic textures to display two points (or pixels) in time, The Social Lover traverses back and forth, from booting up to fully installed. The performance features never-before-broadcast audio by **alva noto**, **Ryuichi Sakamoto**, and **Frank Brentschneider**, as well as interviews with **Lillian Schwartz**, a female pioneer of computer art, and **Ken Knowlton**, a forefather of animation. You can hear **Jaap Blonk**’s rendition of **Kurt Schwitters**'s _Ursunography_, **Venetian Snares** getting into an argument with a sound technician, and processed field recordings by **Cabaret Voltaire**’s **Chris Watson**. 

Utilising statements and serendipitous errors as narrative vehicles, the mix playfully and philosophically re-renders the archive. The historical snippets were also juxtaposed with other songs and sounds, such as the babbling, fictional language from The Sims; a neural network homage to **Walter Ruttmann**’s 1930 radio composition _Wochenende_, **Senyawa**’s vocalist **Rully Shabara** exploiting voices, evolving Xbox start-up sounds from 2001 to 2020, and birds mimicking device notifications. From machines and algorithms being set into motion, eventually crashing and rebooting, The Social Lover captures a transition to a new 'nature,' where technology seamlessly blends into its surroundings. 

Many thanks to Elena Colombi for the opportunity to collaborate. Airing every month, [their NTS show](https://www.nts.live/shows/elena-colombi) platforms a diverse range of avant-garde and left-field music, occasionally spotlighting like-minded artists.

This performance is embedded in a larger project surrounding the Sonic Acts archive including new commissions based on its content, created by artists such as **KMRU**, with more plans on the horizon. The archive is a fascinating source, containing insights into the early internet, the democratisation of new technologies at the turn of the century, and the key figures from the digital/sound art scene worldwide. 

The Social Lover on NTS Radio: 30 Years of Sonic Acts 

Sonic Acts is thrilled to reveal that Jurel Bakker, Joseph Rouhana, and Hanchen Zhang have been selected for the 2024 Underexposed Mentorship Programme.

Now in its fifth iteration, [Underexposed](https://sonicacts.com/archive/underexposed) is a free programme that supports young artists in conceptualising their work, mostly in text or writing, helping them improve the way they present artistic concepts, projects, plans, and budgets in grant applications and other (public) presentations. Over the course of six weeks, starting this November, the selected artists will be working directly with members of the Sonic Acts curatorial team in weekly online sessions where the team provides feedback, support, and insight specific to each artists’ needs.

After the mentorship sessions are completed, participants come together with Sonic Acts curators and various stakeholders in the cultural sector to present their projects and discuss the outcomes of their work. Since 2021, the Underexposed programme has helped with the establishment of many young artists: [Angeliki Diakrousi, Yara Said](https://sonicacts.com/archive/selections-underexposed-2021), [Erik Peters, Anguille Vannamei (Noam Youngrak Son and Sarah Fitterer)](https://sonicacts.com/archive/selections-underexposed-2022), [Lance Layoan, Sandipan Nath, and Yeon Sung](https://sonicacts.com/archive/selections-underexposed-2023).

Working at the intersection of ecology, art and technology, **Jurel Bakker** is an artist that transforms the natural into digital frameworks. She has a background in Crossmedia Design and Interdisciplinary Studies from ArtEZ and graduated from the Ecology Futures Master’s programme at the St. Joost Institute of Visual Cultures. Creating art in a time of planetary crisis for her begins with careful observation of her surroundings, driven by a deep curiosity and love for the more-than-human world. By working with bio-indicators like lichens and plants, Jurel reveals invisible forms of environmental pollution. Through installations, video art and data visualisation, she uncovers the complex relations between agricultural and capitalistic practices, and their impact on the environment, while reflecting on the role of technology in these processes. Her video work evokes curiosity and reflection, encouraging viewers to critically engage other worlds. Her theoretical approach offers a framework for visualising and analysing the complex dynamics of pollution's influence on ecological systems.

[jurelbakker.nl](https://www.jurelbakker.nl/)

**Joseph Rouhana**, aka jojo24, is a Lebanese filmmaker and media artist whose practice spans media art installations, net art, and film. The concept of decentralisation is at the heart of their practice, where they examine existence through a posthumanist lens, questioning truth and myth-making. Their most recent research on natural fibres, textiles, and bodily interfaces asks how identity, consumption, and storytelling shape our understanding of reality. Rouhana holds a Master of Arts in International Media Cultural Work from Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and another Master’s in Film Directing from the Lebanese University, Faculty of Fine Arts, in Beirut, where they previously earned a degree in Audio-Visual Arts for Cinema and TV. Rouhana received the Prince Claus SEED Award (2022) and was a resident with Zoukak Theatre Company in 2023. Their work has been exhibited in Dieburg, Amsterdam, Beirut, and online, with short films showcased across the Middle East.

Research-based designer **Hanchen Zhang** graduated cum laude with a Master’s in Geo-Design from Design Academy Eindhoven. His practice embraces sensorial interventions across sound, moving images, objects, and installations. Hanchen’s research explores the entanglements between emerging innovations, ecology, and social forces, focusing on how data infrastructure shapes social structures and accessibility. He investigates systematic value theories and design logics within both natural and built environments, offering a nuanced reflection on technoculture through an assemblage of aesthetic, historical, and philosophical frameworks. His work generates polyphonic narratives, weaving together theories, fiction, field recordings, and poetry to amplify or offset one another. Images, sounds, and data transcend their original forms, embodying new materialities–from digital fractures to architectural artefacts.

[sitehanczhang.com](https://sitehanczhang.com/)

Announcing the 2024 Underexposed Mentorship Participants

Sonic Acts is looking for a Producer for 30 hours per week (0.8 FTE). The deadline for applications is before Tuesday 3 December and the position starts in early February 2025.

# About us
Sonic Acts is a leading platform for new developments in electronic and digital art and sound art. Along with a year-round programme, the organisation is notable for its Biennial, which takes place at a variety of locations in Amsterdam. Sonic Acts supports research, development and presentation of cutting-edge music, visual art, science, and technology in concerts, lectures, club music, film screenings, workshops, exhibitions, and more. Based in Amsterdam, Sonic Acts works with national and international artists, partners, and kindred cultural and academic institutions.

# Tasks and responsibilities
- Supervising, executing and monitoring productions from start to finish, including planning, pre-production, in-situ realisation, and post-production.
- Recruiting, coordinating and managing the production team for the relevant programmes, including technicians, support staff, assistants, and interns.
- Budget management and monitoring financial arrangements: preparing budgets, keeping them up-to-date, and following up on settlement.
- Researching venues for exhibitions, concerts, workshops, club nights, and film shoots, managing the agreements or collaborations with these venues.
- Logistical organisation of travel, accommodation, and transport for artists and performers, along with their art and materials.
- Coordination of catering and hospitality for events.
- Evaluating the quality of production.

# Requirements
- 3 years of relevant work experience in a similar position.
- A proactive, flexible, stress-resistant, and ambitious attitude. 
- The ability to work well as part of a team and to manage people effectively.
- A sense of responsibility not limited to office hours.
- Excellent communication skills in both Dutch and English.
- Living in or close to Amsterdam.
- Affinity with contemporary art, audiovisual culture, avant-garde film and/or electronic music.
- Basic knowledge of and experience with A/V technology is a plus.
- Possession of a valid driving license B is also a plus.

# Offer
- A creative and challenging job for 30.4 hours per week in an ambitious organisation where creativity and innovation are key.
- A friendly training period, guided by experienced colleagues, working together with inspiring artists and curators, in a cosy office shared with Paradiso.
- The possibility to work partly from home outside of our festival season. 
- The opportunity to exchange Christian holidays for non-Christian holidays each year.
- A salary, depending on knowledge and experience, between €2,767 and €3,233 gross per month based on full-time employment (set according to [De Zaak Nu](https://www.dezaaknu.nl/) guidelines). Freelancing is negotiable.

# Apply now

Apply for this position via [Homerun](https://sonicacts.homerun.co/producer/en/apply?&step=1) before 3 December, uploading a cover letter and CV written in Dutch or English. 

If you have any questions, you can contact vacatures@sonicacts.com (please do not send us your application by e-mail).

New Job Vacancy: Producer at Sonic Acts

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Ecoes #3

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Ecoes #5

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All Thoughts Fly: Monster, Taxonomy, Film

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Vertical Cinema

The Social Lover

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Joseph Rouhana

Jurel Bakker

Hanchen Zhang

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Sally-Jane Norman

Maud Seuntjens 

Tarek Atoui

Instrument Designer, Archive Researcher & Professor 

Kristina Andersen

Michel Waisvisz

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Ecoes #6

Soundsweird

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When I Sound, I am Speaking – Als ik klink, dan spreek ik

Listening to Sampling

Pauline Oliveros

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Travelling Time

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Hannah Pezzack

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Re-Imagine Europe

Hanchen Zhang is a Research-based designer, recently graduating cum laude from the Master’s in Geo-Design programme at Design Academy Eindhoven.

His practice embraces sensorial interventions across sound, moving images, objects, and installations. Hanchen’s research explores the entanglements between emerging innovations, ecology, and social forces, focusing on how data infrastructure shapes social structures and accessibility. He investigates systematic value theories and design logics within both natural and built environments, offering a nuanced reflection on technoculture through an assemblage of aesthetic, historical, and philosophical frameworks. His work generates polyphonic narratives, weaving together theories, fiction, field recordings, and poetry to amplify or offset one another. Images, sounds, and data transcend their original forms, embodying new materialities–from digital fractures to architectural artefacts.

[sitehanczhang.com](https://sitehanczhang.com/)

Hanchen Zhang Portrait.jpg

Working at the intersection of ecology, art and technology, Jurel Bakker is an artist that transforms the natural into digital frameworks.

She has a background in Crossmedia Design and Interdisciplinary Studies from ArtEZ and graduated from the Ecology Futures Master’s programme at the St. Joost Institute of Visual Cultures. Creating art in a time of planetary crisis for her begins with careful observation of her surroundings, driven by a deep curiosity and love for the more-than-human world. By working with bio-indicators like lichens and plants, Jurel reveals invisible forms of environmental pollution. Through installations, video art and data visualisation, she uncovers the complex relations between agricultural and capitalistic practices, and their impact on the environment, while reflecting on the role of technology in these processes. Her video work evokes curiosity and reflection, encouraging viewers to critically engage other worlds. Her theoretical approach offers a framework for visualising and analysing the complex dynamics of pollution's influence on ecological systems.

[jurelbakker.nl](https://www.jurelbakker.nl/)

JurelBakker Portrait.jpg

Rouhana, aka jojo24, is a Lebanese filmmaker and media artist whose practice spans media art installations, net art, and film.

Their work explores characterisation and narration across multiple mediums, investigating how digital culture and physical reality intersect. Central to their practice is the concept of decentralisation, where they examine existence through a posthumanist lens, questioning, truth, and myth-making. Their most recent research, on natural fibres, textiles, and bodily interfaces, extends this inquiry, exploring how identity, consumption, and storytelling shape our understanding of reality.

Rouhana holds a Master of Arts in International Media Cultural Work from Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and another Master’s in Film Directing from the Lebanese University, Faculty of Fine Arts, in Beirut, where they previously earned their Bachelor's in Audio-Visual Arts for Cinema and TV. Rouhana is the recipient of the Prince Claus SEED Award (2022) and was a resident with Zoukak Theatre Company in 2023. Their work has been exhibited in Dieburg, Amsterdam, Beirut, and online, with short films showcased across the Middle East. They have also acted in films featured at Cannes and Sundance.

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Open Call: Insurgent Learning Workshop

Pedagogy of the Surveilled: Performance

**Ghenwa noiré** is a performer and multimedia installation practitioner based in Amsterdam and Beirut. 

Drawing on Lebanon's social structure, she employs her body as a vocal and movement instrument. noiré explores oral history, gossip, and nonverbal cues in her performances, accompanied by music to channel social and domestic structures. Investigating semantic satiation, she delves into how daily expressions expand in function through repetition. In her work, she questions how one could deal with everyday mental struggles and routines, or with the notion of the ‘self’. 

In collaboration with Hackers and Designers collective, Amsterdam, she developed the Hacked Orchestra project, which was featured at Muziekgebouw in collaboration with Sonic Acts and during Society 5.0 Festival at The Social Hub. She has performed at the Van Gogh Museum (2024), Radion (2024), Worm Rotterdam (2024), W139 (in collaboration with Brackish collective) during Sonic Acts Biennial (2024), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2023), Subbacultcha (2024), documenta fifteen (2022), Radio Alhara (2023), Framer Framed (2022), etc. 

[Website ](https://ghenwanoire.com/)

[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/ghenwa_noire/) 

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Performer & Multimedia Installation Practitioner

Ghenwa noiré

**Marshall Trammell** is a self-styled Music Research Strategist based in the US. 


As an experimental/creative music percussionist, composer, sound installation artist,
Trammell performs with In Defense of Memory (IDOM), featuring Laura Ortman & Carlos Santistevan, White People Killed Them (SIGE Records), featuring Raven Chacon & John Dietrich, Rob Magill (Weird Cry Records), MurderMurder, and an array of international improvisers and participants in his community engagement Insurgent Learning Workshop (ILWs) and Black Fighting Formations (BFF) series.

Some of his works include _The Moon Is Down: The Status Quo Is My Enemy_ (performance developed for the Borealis Festival, Bergen, Norway), _Eleven Postures: for Burn the Temples/Break Up Bells_ (performance and film, directed by Matt Volla), and _Performing Political Education: For Friends_ (installation at the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum).

[Instagram ](https://www.instagram.com/musicresearchstrategies/)

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Instagram 

Marshall Trammell

Based on photography and its extension in the medium of film, Alina Schmuch (born 1987, Munster) uses artist's books and video installations to investigate the interaction between the visual medium and reality.

Schmuch studied Media Arts at the HfG Karlsruhe and was a fellow of the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. Her work has been presented internationally in exhibitions and screenings including: Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (2023), Urbane Künste Ruhr (2022), Akademie der Künste (Berlin 2022), Bureau Europa (Maastricht 2019), Künstlerhaus Bremen (2018), MAK-Center (Los Angeles 2017), ZKM (Karlsruhe, 2016) and together with Forensic Architecture at the 15th Architecture Biennale in Venice (2016). Among other awards she received the Visual Arts work stipend of the Berlin Senate 2022, the 27th Bremen Award for Video Art in 2021, the MAK Schindler Scholarship Los Angeles 2017. At the moment she is part of the artistic research program Hydromedia and was selected for the Rupert x Sonic Acts ALTERLIFE residency. 


[Website](http://www.alinaschmuch.de/)\
[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/alina_schmuch/?hl=en)