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Billy Roisz & Dieter Kovačič – Bring Me the Head of Henri Chrétien!

Billy Roisz and Dieter Kovačič explore the world of cinematic formats based on the genre that experimented with the width of the screen to display spectacular landscapes: Western movies and their wide span of (male) heroism between life and death. Commissioned for Vertical Cinema

Esther Urlus – Chrome

Chrome is inspired by the autochrome process, a colouring technique for black-and-white photographs invented by the Lumière brothers in 1903. Commissioned for Vertical Cinema

Save the Date: Sonic Acts 2013

Yes, there will be a Sonic Acts festival from 21 - 24 February 2013!   More details and information to follow soon. Keep an eye on the website for more news, or if you want to be the first to kno...

According to Gonzo (circus), Kontraste is the best festival of 2012 so far!

REVIEW: Kontraste (Krems) – The Best Festival of 2012    We took some time thinking about this, but the conclusion seems unavoidable: even though this year has not yet drawn to close, we would...

Tina Frank – Colterrain

Colterrain, the title of this film, refers to a colourful landscape, a terrain described by lines similar to geographic mapping – in this case a mapping of sound. Commissioned for Vertical Cinema

Makino Takashi & Telecosystems – Deorbit

Deorbit was a work by Makino Takashi & Telecosystems, commissioned by Sonic Acts and developed for Vertical Cinema (2013). Commissioned for Vertical Cinema

Sonic Acts - tentoonstelling

Het Sonic Acts festival opende dit jaar vroeg, op 12 januari, met de tentoonstelling die tot en met de laatste dag van het festival (24 februari) te zien is. Voorheen werd de tentoonstelling altijd...

Bitcaves and The Dark Alphabet

The visual identity of The Dark Universe could very well be a festival event; it’s equally mysterious, layered and well researched as any of the lectures or performance at the Sonic Acts festival. I...

Dark Ecology Interview Tim Morton

RESEARCH SERIES #6 During the first Dark Ecology journey, which took place from 9 to 12 October 2014, a group of artists, researchers and theorists travelled the border zone between Norway and Russia. On the last day we sat down with Timothy Morton, author of amongst others The Ecological Thought and Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World.

Björn Kämmerer – Louver

‘What are we watching?’ is the first thing viewers of Louver might ask themselves. Commissioned for Vertical Cinema

Johann Lurf – Pyramid Flare

Pyramid Flare is the second in a series of experimental films about modern pyramids all over the globe.

Tickets Sonic Acts Festival

GIL, Know V.A., Zaïre Krieger and more confirmed for Progress Bar on 20 March

After Sonic Acts Academy 2020, a new edition of Progress Bar takes place at OT301 on Friday 20 March, with performances, DJ sets, films and presentations by artists and speakers including Chooc Ly, GIL, Ifeoluwa, Know V.A., pía ío luuuz, Yantan Ministry and Zaïre Krieger.

Rosa Menkman – Lunar Storm

The surface of the Moon seems static. Though it orbits the Earth every 27.3 days, with areas of it becoming invisible during this rotation, it is always (visibly or invisibly) above us, reassuringly familiar. Commissioned for Vertical Cinema

Manuel Knapp – V~

The vertical plan of V~ demonstrates – in the sense of presenting evidence as well as in the sense of a projection – the process of creation from forces of numerical matter. Commissioned for Vertical Cinema

New names for Sonic Acts Festival

John Foxx & Steve D‘Agostino, Shxcxchcxsh, Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit, Murcof & Rod Maclachlan, Le Révélateur (Roger Tellier-Craig and Sabrina Ratté), Robert Curgenven, and Grischa Lichtenberger

Tim Maughan interviews Liam Young

RESEARCH SERIES #7 One of the speakers at the next Sonic Acts Festival is speculative architect Liam Young. Together with Kate Davies he runs the Unknown Fields Division, ‘a nomadic design studio that ventures out on annual expeditions to the ends of the Earth exploring unreal and forgotten landscapes, alien terrains and obsolete ecologies’.

Mirna Belina Interviews Kurt Hentschläger

RESEARCH SERIES #8 Kurt Hentschläger’s latest audiovisual installation, Measure (2014) reflects on nature as filtered through communication channels and media. It will be exhibited daily during the Sonic Acts Festival.

Gert-Jan Prins & Martijn van Boven – Walzkörpersperre

Light and sound engraving on weathered concrete created by scanning the architectural elements of a bunker wall. Commissioned for Vertical Cinema

Contact

⁄S⁄O⁄N⁄I⁄C⁄ ⁄Z⁄O⁄N⁄E⁄S⁄

- in English and Russian - Anna Ceeh and Franz Pomassl will give an insight into their artistic research and book project ⁄S⁄O⁄N⁄I⁄C⁄ ⁄Z⁄O⁄N⁄E⁄S⁄ .

An interview with Hillel Schwartz

RESEARCH SERIES #9 During Dutch Design Week, on Saturday 25 October 2014, Sonic Acts presented ‘A Day of Noise’ in Temporary Art Centre (TAC) in Eindhoven. The keynote speaker was cultural historian Hillel Schwartz, undoubtedly one of the world’s foremost experts on noise.

A Day of Noise - Hillel Schwartz, Remco van Bladel, Gijs Gieskes and Andre Avelas

During Dutch Design Week, on Saturday 25 October, Sonic Acts presents A Day of Noise in Temporary Art Centre (TAC) in Eindhoven. The programme dives into noise in design, daily life and music, and pro...

Alvin Lucier Masterclass - 19 October 2014

Sonic Acts and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam are proud to host a masterclass with the composer Alvin Lucier on Sunday the 19th of October 2014. The masterclass provides a unique opportunity to gain in-de...

Interview with Noam Elcott on Verticality

RESEARCH SERIES #12 In February 2014 the Vertical Cinema programme was screened at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The programme was accompanied by four long lectures by experts on cinema, video, new media, and contemporary art. The American scholar Noam M. Elcott gave an impressive lecture-presentation which also sketched a possible genealogy of 'vertical cinema'.

Interview with Bart Rutten on Verticality

RESEARCH SERIES #13 In February 2014 the Vertical Cinema project was presented in the Stedelijk Museum. The programme was accompanied by lectures by experts on cinema, video, new media, and contemporary art, one of which was Bart Rutten, at that time still curator of modern and contemporary art at the Stedelijk Museum.

Sonic Acts Academy 2018 Unpacking the Processes of Artistic Knowledge

Interview with Don Foresta

RESEARCH SERIES #14 In June 2014 Sonic Acts invited research artist Don Foresta to give two presentations in the Netherlands. Before his lecture presentation at STEIM in Amsterdam, Arie Altena sat down with him to talk about his experiences, working with Nam June Paik, Woody and Steina Vasulka, and other pioneers of video art, and his involvement in the first experiments with network art.

HC Gilje – Revolver

Revolver is a new work by HC Gilje. Commissioned for Sonic Acts Festival 2013.

Justin Bennett – Spectral Analysis WG

Justin Bennett’s soundwalk Spectral Analysis WG (2013) attempted to reveal energy phenomena in and around the WG Terrain while investigating the healing properties of sound and electricity. Commissioned for Sonic Acts Festival 2013

Naut Humon: Transitions of the Spacial Station (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Director of Recombinant Media Labs (RML) Naut Humon (USA) speaks on the formation, deployment and current activities of California’s Recombinant Labs and their West Coast affiliates. RML is an experimental mobile facility for the experiential engineering of surround cinema and immersive arts. Recombinant is a term derived from the field of genetics. Springing from this elastic media grid is a process which illustrates how an electronically strained ‘offspring’ comes to possess cultural characteristics not always present in either ‘parent’.

Joost Rekveld – #43

The images in the film #43 are generated by systems in which the pixels are agents that are, in some respects, comparable to organic cells. Commissioned for Vertical Cinema

Hildegard Westerkamp: What’s in a Soundwalk? (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

This presentation will be a reflection on seven years of public soundwalks put on by the Vancouver Soundwalk Collective within the cultural context of Vancouver New Music’s concert and performance seasons. It will trace how this continuity of soundwalk activities over time and with increased involvement may have shifted and deepened experiences in listening and relationships to space and place. Have they altered cultural, political and ecological attitudes within the Collective, changed and inspired daily life activities, work, studies, creative processes?

Tickets

Dark Matters: an interview with Susan Schuppli

RESEARCH SERIES #21 Dark Ecology Keynote speaker Susan Schuppli spoke with Lucas van der Velden and Rosa Menkman about what it means to be an artist and theorist working in the field of practice-based research and her concept of the Material Witness.

Daniel Teruggi: The Fifth Element (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Positioning sound sources in space permitted new perspectives and conceptions of the effects space could exert on music. At the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) musique concrète evolved alongside the sound systems and carriers that were used to compose the music. This multiple approach has important implications for the composition of music, as well as for the tools and environments needed for it.

Panel Spatial Perception: Jacob Kirkegaard, Hans Christian Gilje and Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

How do we perceive space? How do artists reflect on the experience of space and heighten the sense of space using sound and vision in sometimes radical or radically reduced ways?

Ralf Baecker: Rechnender Raum (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Rechnender Raum (2009) is a light-emitting geometrical sculpture made of sticks, wires and small pieces of lead that is simultaneously a fully functioning neural network. The functioning of the machine is completely transparent, but it carries out its computations only for itself, concealing the results.

Edward Shanken and Yolande Harris: Tuning In and Spacing Out: The Art and Science of the Presentness of Sound (Sonic Acts XIII,2010)

A presentation that explores sound and space as modes of understanding environmental phenomena. Drawing on a variety of examples from sound art, visual art, and science, Harris and Shanken weave together extreme ideas from the mythic and scientific significance of marine mammals to the surprising interconnectedness of the sea andouter-space.

Save the date: Sonic Acts Festival 2017

We’ll be back next year with a festival edition, mark these dates in your calendar now: 23 - 26 February 2017.

Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag: raum-Arbeiten – The Space of Sound and Acoustic Architectures (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

In 1993 I realized, on an IRCAM Workstation, together with programmer Jörg Spix, the first endlessly rising and falling movements in noise to create a paradoxical situation of perception by a simulated volume movement in the space. The main problem of talking about the acoustic space is, that what we call hearing happens in our brain and not only with the ears, with the space of our body too, and also combined with all the other senses. Sonntag will talk about the theoretical background and the development of his raum-Arbeiten and sonic architectures.

Hans Christian Gilje: Conversations with Spaces (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

HC Gilje researches how audiovisual technology can be used to transform, create, expand, amplify and interpret physical spaces. In his own work he works with real-time environments, installations, live performance, set design and single-channel video to make this research tangible.

Steven Connor: Auscultations (Listening In) (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

A lecture which rethinks listening through tinnitus and other internal body sounds, touching on quietness, inaudibility, and other kinds of incipient or concealed sound, which have a bearing on the poetics of sound space.

Marcos Novak: 21st Century Invisible Architectures: The Poetics of Transactivated Space (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Spaces are the lightest of media, demanding the greatest subtlety in both sensibilities and poetics. Initially trained as a physicist, Gaston Bachelard used phenomenology to build a philosophical bridge between the science of space and the poetics of making significant places.

Robert Whitman: On Experiments in Art and Technology (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

In his lecture Robert Whitman discusses the way that he has used space as part of the vocabulary of his installation and performance pieces. In 1966 Whitman was one of the New York artists who worked with Billy Klüver and more than 30 engineers and scientists from Bell Telephone Laboratories to create works for the now legendary 9 Evenings.

Christopher Salter: Immersion, Absorption and Dissolution in Cross-modal Environments (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

This talk will examine the repercussions of Turrell’s and Irwin’s proposal to investigate the thresholds of perception in an experiential environment. Specifically, I will focus on the conception of the self and body in both contemporary artistic practices with media coupled with recent concepts arising from enactive cognition. What role does spatiality play in these synchretic perceptions? What happens to the ‘sensing self’ and its embodiment in audio-visual environments that overload or reduce our perception and how does this self expand or dissolve through such encounters?

Annea Lockwood (Interview by Arie Altena) (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Annea Lockwood has been involved in the recording of environmental sounds for a long time, her A Sound Map of the Hudson River (1989) and A Sound Map of the Danube can be considered as classics of the genre. An informal interview with her will touch on her views on field recording, composition, and sound mapping. Hildegard Westerkamp, Edward Shanken & Yolande Harris will also join the conversation.

Q&A with Heather Davis, #Additivism and Katrina Burch

SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Q&A with Heather Davis, #Additivism and Katrina Burch 28 February 2016 - De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, the Netherlands...

Fred Worden: When Worlds Collude (Lecture & Screening) (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Relations among time, space and motion have befuddled thinkers since at least the time of Zeno and his paradoxes. With the invention of cinema came a promiscuous new tool for staging various thought experiments on how best to understand the complex and often slippery interrelations among these terms.

Philip Beesley: Responsive Environments (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

This lecture was part of Sonic Acts XIII within a session called Gardeners of the Future. This session was about the following: In order to survive the near future, humans need to rapidly adapt to the challenges ahead. Artists will play an important role in ‘gardening’ the future, not only by shifting from computer technology to biology and genetic engineering, but also by starting to understand the universe as a single, large natural algorithm that needs gardening in order to function in a sustainable way.

Roger Malina: Intimate Science; Or Artists in the Dark Universe (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

This lecture was part of Sonic Acts XIII within a session called Gardeners of the Future. This session was about the following: In order to survive the near future, humans need to rapidly adapt to the challenges ahead. Artists will play an important role in ‘gardening’ the future, not only by shifting from computer technology to biology and genetic engineering, but also by starting to understand the universe as a single, large natural algorithm that needs gardening in order to function in a sustainable way.

Raviv Ganchrow: Sense of Ambiguity (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

This lecture was part of Sonic Acts XIII within a session called Architectures of Sound, in which the following questions were asked: How do composers work with spatial sound using arrays of loudspeakers? How is space constituted in music? How do we listen to the sound-space?

Looking Back on The Noise of Being

A shortish report touching on some of the highlights of the 2017 Sonic Acts Festival, written by a biased insider.

The Noise of Being: Lectures and Panel Discussions – Day One

RESEARCH SERIES #29 This Research Series edition is a collection of lectures and panel discussions that were recorded during Sonic Acts Festival 2017.

The Noise of Being: Lectures and Panel Discussions – Day Two

RESEARCH SERIES #30 This Research Series edition is a collection of lectures and panel discussions that were recorded during Sonic Acts Festival 2017.

Keynote Derrick de Kerckhove: Beyond Perspective, From the Point of View to the Point of Being (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

We may be traversing a Neo-Baroque era where the effects of a dominantly visual episteme are reversed in multimedia, 3D and VR. In the global environmental perception that is developing, the point of being, that is a proprioceptive sensation of the world, may be doubling if not replacing the point of view as the principal referent of my position in space.

Jacob Kirkegaard, Labyrinthitis (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Labyrinthitis (2007) relies on a principle that when two frequencies of a certain ratio are played into the ear, additional vibrations generated in the inner ear, so-called ‘distortion product otoacoustic emission’ or ‘Tartini tone’, will produce a third frequency…

Jacob Kirkegaard: Sabulation (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Kirkegaard's "Sabulation" was part of "Acoustic Spaces", a more than four-hour-long programme devoted to various approaches to soundscape composition. It featured works produced by several generations of composers and musicians – from acoustic ecology to extreme field recordings.

The Noise of Being: Lectures and Panel Discussions – Day Three

RESEARCH SERIES #31 This Research Series edition is a collection of lectures and panel discussions that were recorded during the third day of the conference programme of the festival.

Duncan Speakman: On Subtlemobs (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

This lecture was part of Sonic Acts XIII within the session The Poetics of Hybrid Space. In this session, a panel will explore the new conditions of experience emphasized by the concept of Hybrid Space through the prism of a series of artistic and interventionist projects drawing on the increased hybridity of the contemporary spaces of everyday life. The concept of Hybrid Space does away with misleading spatial dichotomies that have accompanied the rise of digital and networked media; real versus virtual; physical versus immaterial; flows versus places (Manuel Castells).

Peter Westenberg: On Urban Interventions (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

This lecture was part of Sonic Acts XIII within the session The Poetics of Hybrid Space. In this session, a panel will explore the new conditions of experience emphasized by the concept of Hybrid Space through the prism of a series of artistic and interventionist projects drawing on the increased hybridity of the contemporary spaces of everyday life. The concept of Hybrid Space does away with misleading spatial dichotomies that have accompanied the rise of digital and networked media; real versus virtual; physical versus immaterial; flows versus places (Manuel Castells).

Monolake and Tarik Barri: Monolake Live Surround (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

This performance by Monolake and Tarik Barri was part of Sonic Acts XIII: The Poetics of Space and took place in 2010. Founded in 1995 by Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles, Monolake (DE) is an open project dedicated to computer-generated music. Robert Henke was born 1969 in Munich, moved to Berlin in 1990 and studied sound engineering and computer science. His works use multi-channel audio to explore how sound can redefine physical and mental spaces, and how much time is required for the structure of a musical idea to emerge.

Looking back at Sonic Acts Academy 2018

From 23 to 25 February, Sonic Acts took up residence in Amsterdam-Noord for the second edition of Sonic Acts Academy – a new platform geared towards unpacking the processes of artistic knowledge.

Acousmonium: Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

German electronic music legend Hans-Joachim Roedelius (AT) has been active in music for over thirty years. Over his prolific career, Roedelius’ musical output has covered a great deal of sonic territory and emotional range: from deeply introspective to very rhythmic, from experimental improvisations to heart-felt vignettes.

Acousmonium: Kasper Toeplitz (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Bass player Kasper Toeplitz convinced the composer Eliane Radigue to write Elemental II for him. In this piece the bass is plugged directly into the computer, running a MaxMSP patch.

Vacancies at Sonic Acts

Interested in working with Sonic Acts? Sonic Acts is currently looking for two new members for our Supervisory Board. Visit our Homerun page for more details about the positions and how to apply.

Content Creator (20-24 hours)

First names confirmed for 25th anniversary edition of Sonic Acts

First names confirmed for 25th anniversary edition of Sonic Acts

Sonic Acts is pleased to reveal the first batch of names for Sonic Acts Festival 2019. Under the heading Hereafter, the 25th anniversary edition of the festival reflects on some of the pressing topics of our time.

More names confirmed for Sonic Acts Festival 2019

More names confirmed for Sonic Acts Festival 2019

Sonic Acts is pleased to reveal the second batch of names for Sonic Acts Festival 2019. The complete programme will be revealed at the end of January. Festival Passes are now on sale for €100 (€80 for students).

Describing the Indescribable, Sonic Acts and Gonzo (Circus) workshop on critical writing

The critical writing workshop takes place during the Sonic Acts festival from 21-24 February 2013. It starts with an introductory meeting, followed by a series of working sessions on each festival day...

Ulf Langheinrich: Drift (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

With 'Drift' Ulf Langheinrich (D) brings abstract images and sounds from both art and music into the cinematic space. A stream of abstract, deep and dense images and sounds evolves from a realistic image. The images are transparent, high in resolution and fine in detail. A process of multiple metamorphoses in several parallel spaces and time-layers constantly transforms their consistency, viscosity and transparency.

Introducing the OVEREXPOSED home-based residents

Sonic Acts is proud to announce six artists and researchers for the OVEREXPOSED home-based residency. OVEREXPOSED is the new residency programme from Sonic Acts investigating pollution and its effects on everything living and non-living.

Progress Bar on 1 November: Nazar, SUUTOO, TAYHANA, Fossil Free Culture NL and more

A new season of Progress Bar kicks off on Friday 1 November 2019 at OT301, with DJ sets by Nazar, SUUTOO, TAYHANA, a talk by Fossil Free Culture NL, and a screening of the film Zombies by Baloji.

First names announced for Sonic Acts Academy 2020

Today we announce the first wave of artists, thinkers and com­mis­sioned works for Son­ic Acts Acad­e­my 2020. Tak­ing place in Ams­ter­dam from 21 to 23 Feb­ru­ary 2020, the Academy is the 20th edi­tion of Son­ic Acts.

More artists, speakers and commissioned works announced for Sonic Acts Academy 2020

Sonic Acts is excited to now reveal the second wave of artists, thinkers and commissioned works for Sonic Acts Academy 2020, taking place in Amsterdam from 21 to 23 February 2020 at Paradiso, De Brakke Grond, Stedelijk Museum and OT301.

Ryoichi Kurokawa (Excerpt) (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Ryoichi Kurokawa (JP) is an audiovisual artist living in Osaka. His work takes on multiple forms: projections, recordings, installation and live performance. He composes time-based sculptures with digital generated materials and field recording in which minimalism and complexity coexist. He treats sound and imagery as a unit, not separately. He constructs exquisite, precise computer-based works with his audiovisual language that shortens the distance between sound and visual composition.

End of Year Sale at the Sonic Acts shop

Christmas time is gift time. Until the end of the year lots of Sonic Acts items such as books, t-shirts and bags will be sold for special discount prices in the Sonic Acts webshop.   For example:...

Sonic Acts presents Space Debris on 18 January 2014

New Year’s Reception & Book Launch The Dark Universe   On 18 January Sonic Acts and Gonzo (circus) would like to invite you to celebrate the start of the new year with us. Sonic Acts launches t...

Vertical Cinema at Stedelijk Amsterdam 20 to 23 February

At the end of this month, Vertical Cinema will move on to Stedelijk Amsterdam. Early bird tickets for a reduced price now on sale at the Sonic Acts shop.   During the four days, expanded lectur...

Lineup announced for online season finale of Progress Bar

Sonic Acts presents the Season 4 finale of Progress Bar on 19 June 2020, 20:00–01:00 (CET), as a live-streamed online event. Update: We regret to announce the unfortunate cancellation of this online edition of Progress Bar.

Vertical Cinema: Friday screening sold out, get your tickets now

The first Vertical Cinema screening was sold out, and in front of the packed stairs of Dan Flavin Hall the visitors could experience both the monumental hall of the Stedelijk Museum and the 'monolith'...

Performance Volta at Age of Wonder festival

This coming weekend, March 28-30, the festival Age of Wonder takes place in the 100-year-old Natlab in Eindhoven. Part of their programme is the remake of Dick Raaijmakers’ performance Volta, which ...

Sonic Acts at Donaufestival

The Sonic Acts/Kontraste team is proud to present two works as part of the Donaufestival, which takes place on 25 and 26 April and from 30 April to 3 May 2014 in Krems, Austria.   Finnbogi Peturs...

Anthony McCall Masterclass - 29 September 2014

In close collaboration with EYE Film Institute, Sonic Acts will host a masterclass with Anthony McCall on Monday 29 September 2014.   The masterclass provides a unique opportunity for professiona...

Sonic Acts presents Exhaust on 27 February

How are the twinned commodities of oil and data enmeshed within contemporary human landscapes? Sonic Acts is proud to present Exhaust, an online roundtable produced by resident artist and theorist Maryam Monalisa Gharavi on 27 February.

Sonic Acts presents Night Air: The Smog Event

On Saturday 27 March, The Smog Event brings together artists, theorists and film in an online programme about smog, initiating a new series of Sonic Acts transmissions under the banner of Night Air.

An Evening With Don Foresta

Sonic Acts presents research artist and art theoretician Don Foresta. He will be giving a talk in Amsterdam on Wednesday, 4 June and a talk in Arnhem on Thursday, 5 June. Foresta’s talk in Amsterdam...

Dark Ecology programme online

The full programme for the first Dark Ecology journey (9–12 October 2014) is now online. The journey offers a packed programme with lectures, installations, performances, guided walks, concerts and ...

For Lula, Mississippi – 
Elemental Mixtape: EM002

Sonic Acts presents Night Air: Soil Samples

Sonic Acts continues its Night Air series on 24 April, with Dorsey Kaufmann, Felicity Mangan, Kunal Palawat, Martin Howse and Red Brut, alongside screenings of Mined Soil by Filipa César and You Think The Earth Is a Dead Thing by Florence Lazar.

Night Air: Water Resistance brings together stories about water on 22 May

Water Resistance brings together ongoing stories on water bodies as sites contaminated by power relations. It aims to embed ecological struggles within the narratives of nation-building, development and modernisation.

Alvin Lucier Masterclass - 19 October 2014

Sonic Acts and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam are proud to host a masterclass with the composer Alvin Lucier on Sunday the 19th of October 2014. The masterclass provides a unique opportunity to gain in-de...

Night Air series continues on 22 June with Nuclear Unknowns

For the next Night Air transmission on 22 June, Nuclear Unknowns takes us down the complex path of radioactive pollution, exploring the subject’s ecological, artistic and geopolitical tangles, moderated by Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou.

A Day of Noise - Hillel Schwartz, Remco van Bladel, Gijs Gieskes and Andre Avelas

During Dutch Design Week, on Saturday 25 October, Sonic Acts presents A Day of Noise in Temporary Art Centre (TAC) in Eindhoven. The programme dives into noise in design, daily life and music, and pro...

First Dark Ecology Journey in photos and videos

After many months of preparation and four incredible days, the first Dark Ecology journey is over. With a group of 45 artists and theorists we visited sites on both sides of the border between Arctic ...

Photos Alvin Lucier Masterclass

Sonic Acts and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam hosted a masterclass with composer Alvin Lucier on Sunday 19 October. The masterclass was part of the Alvin Lucier Festival in the Stedelijk Museum. Much of L...

Report on A Day of Noise: Everything is designed, the rest is noise

Last Saturday Sonic Acts and ArtEZ Academy for the Arts presented A Day of Noise in Eindhoven as part of the Dutch Design Week (see for more photos our Flickr page). Dutch artist Rosa Menkman reports ...

Vertical Cinema UK premiere at Leeds International Film Festival

Vertical Cinema - the large-scale, vertically projected works by internationally renowned experimental filmmakers and audiovisual artists, commissioned by Sonic Acts – will have its UK premiere at t...

Travelling Time exhibition at NIMk

For those of you who didn’t have time to see the Travelling Time exhibition at Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk) during the festival- no disappointment here, it’s still open! The Sonic Acts...

KindaMuzik’s liverecension of Sonic Acts XIV

Sven Schlijper from KindaMuzik attended Sonic Acts – Travelling Time and reviewed, among others, the exhibition at NIMk, “Shutter Interface” by Paul Sharits, the performances of Mark Fell and Em...

Sonic Blog: Colour Music Past, Colour Music Future

‘Colour Music Recollections’ was the name of the screening that took place on the afternoon of the festival’s second day at De Balie. It was introduced as “A programme with films that relate i...

Sonic Acts says Thank You

We look back on a very successful and well attended festival. Highlights included the three concerts by CC Hennix & The Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage, the concert by Pauline Oliveros, the keynote...

Kontraste 2012 was great!

We look back on a very successful Kontraste festival in Krems!   As the program was very sharply curated this year, we're really proud of everything that took place and all the people that helped...

Out now: Cahier Kontraste #2 - A Ray of Darkness

‘Most of the universe is dark’, writes Roger Malina in his essay for A Ray of Darkness. It is because, as he writes, ‘We now know that the human senses are very efficient filters, and that almos...

12 January 2013 Opening exhibition of Sonic Acts at NASA

Sonic Acts –The Dark Universe opens early next year, starting five weeks before the actual festival with the extensive Sonic Acts exhibition at New Art Space Amsterdam (NASA) - former SMART Project...

Theme: The Dark Universe

Festival: 21 – 24 February 2013 Sonic Acts – The Dark Universe   The fifteenth edition of Sonic Acts, entitled The Dark Universe, takes place from 21– 24 February 2013 at several different...

The Dark Universe exhibition

Sonic Acts –The Dark Universe opens early next year, starting five weeks before the actual festival with the extensive Sonic Acts exhibition at New Art Space Amsterdam (NASA). With installations tha...

Website The Dark Universe online

As Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe approaches, the new website has launched on 2013.sonicacts.com. The latest news, updates and info on the coming edition of the Sonic Acts festival will be posted t...

Thank you so much

It’s over. This year’s Sonic Acts festival has come to an end after four days of exploring, experiencing and immersing.   The Sonic Acts Team would like to thank everyone who made this Soni...

A chicken, black holes, the second law of thermodynamics and kittens

The danger of a boundary-breaking, mind boggling, interdisciplinary festival such as Sonic Acts is that you might at some point reach your personal event horizon. The point where you lose grip and dis...

Video impressions

Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe Day 1 Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe Day 1 from Sonic Acts on Vimeo.     Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe Day 2 Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe Day ...

Takashi Makino's [2012]3D

  After a day of talks from eminent scientists about the vast impersonal and hidden forces shaping our universe, it is strangely reassuring to have the minute intricacies of human perception put...

The Dark Universe publication - Now Available!

  The Dark Universe publication The lavishly illustrated publication The Dark Universe is an accompaniment to and an extension of the fifteenth edition of Sonic Acts. The book includes essays b...

Bow, then silence

The process behind perception has been a key subject of ceaseless attention and study. In many ways, the concept can be understood as a boundary object [1] that mediates between our epistemological fr...

Kontraste Festival 2013 – Dark As Light - 10 - 13 October 2013

Kontraste Festival 2013 – Dark As Light   As you probably know we – the Sonic Acts team – also programme the yearly Kontraste Festival. We would like to invite you for the tenth edition of ...

Looking back: Kontraste 2013

Dark As Light, the final edition of the Kontraste Festival took place from 11 to 13 October 2013 in Krems, Austria. Curated by Sonic Acts, the festival was almost sold out and a truly memorable experi...

Vertical Cinema

  ‘You hear it everywhere: Cinema is tipping over – its epic and dramatic forms are spilling over into television, avant-garde and experimental films have fled to the galleries, and all the i...

Takashi Makino's [2012]3D

  After a day of talks from eminent scientists about the vast impersonal and hidden forces shaping our universe, it is strangely reassuring to have the minute intricacies of human perception put...

Book Fair for Extraordinary Publishers / books for fans

€ 3,- Ticket price includes 1-day membership fee

Yamila Ríos & Joris Strijbos – COVEX

In this audio visual performance the duo researches the relations between electro-acoustic sound and diffracted light-patterns in a diagonal mixage between the two media. Commissioned for Sonic Acts Festival 2013

Gert-Jan Prins, Bas van Koolwijk, Justin Bennett, Tina Frank, Jerome Noetinger and Billy Roisz – The Synchronator Orchestra

The Synchronator Orchestra is a live performance project in which several artists produce sound as well as visuals, using a Synchronator device. Commissioned for Kontraste Festival Krems in 2012

Meet Artist in Residence Maryam Monalisa Gharavi

Maryam Monalisa Gharavi is an artist, poet, and theorist based in Brooklyn, New York. For her OVEREXPOSED residency with Sonic Acts, Monalisa takes up “exhaust” as a concept of depletion and mass industrialisation.

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Sonic Acts XV - 2013 - The Dark Universe

Impression of the fifteenth edition of the Sonic Acts festival 2013, entitled The Dark Universe. Starting points for the theme The Dark Universe are recent developments in science. These developments show that our world is more unfamiliar and weirder than we imagine. We know that in all likelihood ...

Vertical Cinema at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, IFFR & Kontraste Festival

"Vertical Cinema," the most ambitious and promising show in the entirety of the Rotterdam festival" "Yet simply the readjustment necessary to watch this program was something tremendous to experience, an exhausting craning upward at the skyscraper-like white tower of screen which asked for an up-and...

Tim Maughan: Watching Paint Die (Sonic Acts XV, 2013)

About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird universe that draws us in and enfolds us in its shroud, blacker than burned black. Seekers of the unknown and the undiscovered must be able to...

Frank Swain: Leave Nothing to the Imagination: Maps, Monsters, and the Importance of Uncharted Lands (Sonic XV, 2013)

About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird universe that draws us in and enfolds us in its shroud, blacker than burned black. Seekers of the unknown and the undiscovered must be able to...

Alastair Reynolds: White Noise (Sonic Acts XV, 2013)

About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird universe that draws us in and enfolds us in its shroud, blacker than burned black. Seekers of the unknown and the undiscovered must be able to...

Simon Ings: Cupid's Dart (Sonic Acts XV, 2013)

About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird universe that draws us in and enfolds us in its shroud, blacker than burned black. Seekers of the unknown and the undiscovered must be able to...

COLTERRAIN

COLTERRAIN BY TINA FRANK 10'20'' 35MM VERTICAL CINEMASCOPE COLOUR SOUND: COH AUDIO TO VIDEO: GREGOR GÖTTFERT my tv has no picture, just vertical colour lines… sound is fine… Colterrain, the title of this film, refers to a colourful landscape, a terrain described by lines similar to geographic...

CHROME

CHROME BY ESTHER URLUS 7'40'' 35MM VERTICAL CINEMASCOPE COLOUR SOUND: HUIB EMMER Chrome is inspired by the autochrome process, a colouring technique for black-and-white photographs invented by the Lumière brothers in 1903. In the autochrome process, microscopic grains of potato starch dyed red-ora...

#43

#43 BY JOOST REKVELD 10'30'' 35MM VERTICAL CINEMASCOPE COLOUR The images in the film #43 are generated by systems in which the pixels are agents that are, in some respects, comparable to organic cells. These systems are bumped into motion by disruptions that cause a difference between some pixels a...

PYRAMID FLARE

PYRAMID FLARE BY JOHANN LURF 5’30’’ 35MM VERTICAL CINEMASCOPE COLOUR SILENT Among the most mysterious man-made structures ever built, the pyramids still challenge scholars and provoke pseudo-scientific theories. Most architects have abandoned the idea of recreating a pyramid in modern times:...

DEORBIT

DEORBIT BY MAKINO TAKASHI & TELCOSYSTEMS 17'30'' 35MM VERTICAL CINEMASCOPE COLOUR DRUMS: BALÁZS PÁNDI The myth of Icarus whose waxed feather wings melted away because he flew too close to the sun is an early record of an object falling back to Earth. A more recent atmospheric entry is that of the...

BRING ME THE HEAD OF HENRY CHRÉTIEN!

BRING ME THE HEAD OF HENRY CHRÉTIEN! BY BILLY ROISZ & DIETER KOVAČIĆ 8’17’’ 35MM VERTICAL CINEMASCOPE COLOUR SOUND MASTERING: MARTIN SIEWERT There’s no sentiment as bold as the one in a duel shot in cinemascope. There’s no emotional drop height as big as in abstract vertical movies. ...

LOUVER

LOUVER BY BJŐRN KÄMMERER 10'30'' 35MM VERTICAL CINEMASCOPE COLOUR ‘What are we watching?’ is the first thing viewers of Louver might ask themselves. Connoisseurs of Kämmerer’s work are aware that we are possibly witnessing a perceptual illusion caused by the mysterious hypnotic ‘two-dime...

LUNAR STORM

LUNAR STORM BY ROSA MENKMAN 6’00’’ 35MM VERTICAL CINEMASCOPE COLOUR The surface of the Moon seems static. Though it orbits the Earth every 27.3 days, with areas of it becoming invisible during this rotation, it is always (visibly or invisibly) above us, reassuringly familiar. The Moon is the...

V~

V~ BY MANUEL KNAPP 9’20’’ 35MM VERTICAL CINEMASCOPE B&W The vertical plan of V~ demonstrates – in the sense of presenting evidence as well as in the sense of a projection – the process of creation from forces of numerical matter. Geometric objects constantly create and destroy themselves...

WALZKÖRPERSPERRE

WALZKÖRPERSPERRE BY GERT-JAN PRINS & MARTIJN VAN BOVEN 11’11’’ 35MM VERTICAL CINEMASCOPE COLOUR Light and sound engraving on weathered concrete created by scanning the architectural elements of a bunker wall. Verticality as a concept of resistance. The freezing of time to its absolute limit,...

SAXV Day04

Video impression of the fourth day of Sonic Acts festival XV - The Dark Universe. Explorations in music, art and science. 21 - 24 February 2013 in Amsterdam. 2013.sonicacts.com/new-programme/?type=date&day=sunday-24-february sonicacts.com...

Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe Day 3

Video impression of the third day of Sonic Acts festival XV - The Dark Universe. Explorations in music, art and science. 21 - 24 February 2013 in Amsterdam. http://2013.sonicacts.com/new-programme/?type=date&day=saturday-23-february www.sonicacts.com...

Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe Day 2

Video impression of the first day of Sonic Acts festival XV - The Dark Universe. Explorations in music, art and science. 21 - 24 February 2013 in Amsterdam. http://2013.sonicacts.com/new-programme/?type=date&day=friday-22-february www.sonicacts.com...

Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe Day 1

Video impression of the first day of Sonic Acts festival XV - The Dark Universe. Explorations in music, art and science. 21 - 24 February 2013 in Amsterdam. http://2013.sonicacts.com/new-programme/?type=date&day=thursday-21-february www.sonicacts.com...

Opening Sonic Acts exhibition The Dark Universe

With works by: Matthew Biederman, Félicie d’Estienne d’Orves, HC Gilje, Ivana Franke, Matthijs Munnik, Semiconductor, Yolanda Uriz Elizalde, Jürgen Reble, Justin Bennett The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird, dark ...

SONIC ACTS 2012 Travelling Time

Sonic Acts XIV is a four-day festival of concerts, performances, lectures, presentations and exhibitions. Titled Travelling Time, this year’s festival offers an intense experience of time and explores radical ideas relating to time. Music and the other arts enable us to investigate the nature of t...

Monolake & Tarik Barri: Monolake Live Surround (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. This performance by Monolake and Tarik Barri was part of Sonic Acts XIII: The Poetics of Space and took place in 2010. www.monolake.de/ Founded in 1995 by Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles, Monolake (DE) is ...

Peter Westenberg: On Urban Interventions (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/peter-westenberg-on-urban-interventions-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Peter Westenberg (NL) is a visual artist and filmmaker producing short films and urban interventions, ...

Karen Lancel & Herman Maat: Tele-Trust (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/karen-lancel-herman-maat-tele-trust-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Karen Lancel and Hermen Maat (NL) create ‘meeting places’ in public spaces. These performances and ins...

Duncan Speakman: On Subtlemobs (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/duncan-speakman-on-subtlemobs-sonic-acts-xiii-2010-2/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Duncan Speakman (UK) examines how we use sound to locate ourselves in personal and political environments, cre...

Sonic Acts XIV

Sonic Acts – Travelling Time 23 to 26* February 2012, Amsterdam *exhibition to 30 April 2012 www.sonicacts.com More information on the theme, the programme and locations will follow soon through the usual channels: http://www.sonicacts.com/...

Jacob Kirkegaard: Sabulation (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. ‘He tried thinking of something else. When he closed his eyes, a number of long lines, flowing like sighs, came floating toward him. They were ripples of sand moving over the dunes. The dunes were probably...

Jacob Kirkegaard, Labyrinthitis (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Labyrinthitis (2007) relies on a principle that when two frequencies of a certain ratio are played into the ear, additional vibrations generated in the inner ear, so-called ‘distortion product otoacoustic ...

Ralf Baecker: Rechnender Raum (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Rechnender Raum (2009) is a light-emitting geometrical sculpture made of sticks, wires and small pieces of lead that is simultaneously a fully functioning neural network. The functioning of the machine is co...

Keynote Derrick de Kerckhove: Beyond Perspective, From the Point of View to the Point of Being (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/keynote-derrick-de-kerckhove-beyond-perspective-from-the-point-of-view-to-the-point-of-being-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Between the Renaissance and Cézanne, the poetics...

Raviv Ganchrow: Sense of Ambiguity (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/raviv-ganchrow-sense-of-ambiguity-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. There is no single ‘sonic-spatiality’. Each approach to sound can yield diverse, yet distinct materialit...

Roger Malina: Intimate Science; Or Artists in the Dark Universe (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/roger-malina-intimate-science-or-artists-in-the-dark-universe/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Humans were designed very badly to understand the universe they live in. Our senses filter out almost...

Philip Beesley: Responsive Environments (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/philip-beesley-responsive-environments-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Beesley presents a detailed tour through his recent interactive immersive environments. Discussion of i...

Robert Whitman: On Experiments in Art and Technology (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/robert-whitman-on-experiments-in-art-and-technology/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. In his lecture Robert Whitman discusses the way that he has used space as part of the vocabulary of his install...

Christopher Salter: Immersion, Absorption and Dissolution in Cross-modal Environments (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/christopher-salter-immersion-absorption-and-dissolution-in-cross-modal-environments-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. In 1968, an unrealized proposal developed in 1968 by visua...

Panel Spatial Perception: Jacob Kirkegaard, Hans Christian Gilje & Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. How do we perceive space? How do artists reflect on the experience of space and heighten the sense of space using sound and vision in sometimes radical or radically reduced ways? This panel was part of "Ses...

Fred Worden: When Worlds Collude (Lecture & Screening) (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/fred-worden-when-worlds-collude-lecture-screening-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Lecture: After Hours in the Cerebral Kitchen Relations among time, space and motion have bef...

Jacob Kirkegaard: Acoustic Spaces and Unheard Sounds (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Jacob Kirkegaard’ works focus on the scientific and aesthetic aspects of resonance, time, sound and hearing. His installations, compositions and performances deal with acoustic spaces and phenomena that us...

Hans Christian Gilje: Conversations with Spaces (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/hans-christian-gilje-conversations-with-spaces/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. HC Gilje researches how audiovisual technology can be used to transform, create, expand, amplify and interpret physi...

Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag: raum-Arbeiten – The Space of Sound and Acoustic Architectures (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/jan-peter-e-r-sonntag-raum-arbeiten-the-space-of-sound-and-acoustic-architectures/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology Since the Renaissance the visual sense in our Western civilisation dominates our o...

Steven Connor: Auscultations (Listening In) (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/steven-connor-auscultations-listening-in/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. A lecture which rethinks listening through tinnitus and other internal body sounds, touching on quietness, inaudibility, a...

Marcos Novak: 21st Century Invisible Architectures: The Poetics of Transactivated Space (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/marcos-novak-21st-century-invisible-architectures-the-poetics-of-transactivated-space-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Spaces are the lightest of media, demanding the greatest...

Annea Lockwood (Interview by Arie Altena) (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/annea-lockwood/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Annea Lockwood has been involved in the recording of environmental sounds for a long time, her A Sound Map of the Hudson River (1989) and A Sound Ma...

Edward Shanken&Yolande Harris: Tuning In and Spacing Out: The Art and Science of the Presentness of Sound (Sonic Acts XIII,2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/edward-shankenyolande-harris-tuning-in-and-spacing-out-the-art-and-science-of-the-presentness-of-sound-sonic-acts-xiii2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. A presentation that explores sound and s...

Daniel Teruggi: The Fifth Element (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/daniel-teruggi-the-fifth-element-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Positioning sound sources in space permitted new perspectives and conceptions of the effects space could exert on music. At the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) musique concrète evolved alongside ...

Hildegard Westerkamp: What’s in a Soundwalk? (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. This presentation will be a reflection on seven years of public soundwalks put on by the Vancouver Soundwalk Collective within the cultural context of Vancouver New Music’s concert and performance seasons....

Panel The Hot Space in Music (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology Steven Connor (UK) is a writer, cultural critic and the Academic Director of the London Consortium. He is the author of books on Dickens, Beckett, Joyce, ventriloquism, skin, flies, and other topics, and is n...

Dirk Hebel & Jörg Stollmann: Misuse/Technology/Architecture (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/dirk-hebel-jorg-stollmann-misusetechnologyarchitecture-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Strategies of misuse reveal the challenges and potential of space and can be turned int...

Barry Truax: Composing Music with the Environment (Lecture) (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/barry-truax-composing-music-with-the-environment-lecture-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Barry Truax was one of the members of the World Soundscape Project in 1973 at SFU whe...

Naut Humon: Transitions of the Spacial Station (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/index.php/naut-humon-transitions-of-the-spacial-station-sonic-acts-xiii-2010/ Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Director of Recombinant Media Labs (RML) Naut Humon (USA) speaks on the formation, deployment an...

Paul Prudence: Generative Spaces: The Spatiotemporal Subroutines of Runtime Planet Earth (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. From the global to the microscopic, the Earth runs subroutines that generate a multiplicity of complex patterns & emergent spaces – their runtime(s) lasting from anywhere between a few milliseconds to mill...

Keynote Michael J. Morgan: Representation of Space in the Brain (Sonic Acts XIII, 2010)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. As Descartes realized, there is no obvious reason why an image has to represented as another image in the brain. Yet, it is, at least in the early stages of representation. Reasons that have been advanced fo...

Panel The Dream Machine, Part 2: Kurt Hentschläger: Flicker, Feedback, Void (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. "The Dream Machine" broached the issue of time and senses in cinema. In the past and the present, artists using the flicker effect conceive of cinema as a dream machine - sometimes literally. Henschlägers t...

Panel The Defeat of Time, Part 3: Joachim Nordwall (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. "The Defeat of Time" was a talk with Joachim Nordwall and CM von Hausswolff‭, ‬moderated by Mike Harding. Following their respective performances in Paradiso on Thursday night,they discussed drone music

Panel Real Cinema, Part 1: Arjen Mulder: What's real about film (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Film bears a specific relation to reality‭, ‬but the reality effect of film is not necessarily connected to the fact that film is‭ ‬a record or reality‭. ‬A theorist and a filmmaker present their...

Panel The Dream Machine, Part 1: TeZ - PV868 (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. PV868 is an experimental performance by TeZ (IT), aimed at producing an audiovisual feed/stimulus which allows moving visual patterns to emerge directly in the brain of the viewer/listener. This stimulus is ...

Panel The Defeat of Time, Part 1: Introduction by Mike Harding (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. "The Defeat of Time" was a panel talk with Stephen O'Malley, Joachim Nordwall and CM von Hausswolff, moderated by Mike Harding. Following their respective performances in Paradiso on Thursday night, February...

Acousmonium: Kasper Toeplitz (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Bass player Kasper Toeplitz convinced the composer Eliane Radigue to write Elemental II for him. In this piece the bass is plugged directly into the computer, running a MaxMSP patch. Kasper T Toeplitz (D) i...

Acousmonium: Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. German electronic music legend Hans-Joachim Roedelius (AT) has been active in music for over thirty years, has . He is a pioneer in electronic music, not least for his collaborations with musicians and compo...

Ryoichi Kurokawa (Excerpt) (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Ryoichi Kurokawa (JP) is an audiovisual artist living in Osaka. His work takes on multiple forms: projections, recordings, installation and live performance. He composes time-based sculptures with digital ge...

Panel Perception and Illusion: Ulf Langheinrich: Interference Moments (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Cinema creates an illusion through the projection of 2D-images and sound‭. ‬But what if we go beyond the audiovisual illusion‭? ‬And what are the tricks that cinema can use to affect how the brain pr...

Panel Real Cinema, Part 2: Gerard Holthuis: The Art of Chatter (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Film bears a specific relation to reality‭, ‬but the reality effect of film is not necessarily connected to the fact that film is‭ ‬a record or reality‭. ‬A theorist and a filmmaker present their...

Panel The Defeat of Time, Part 2: Carl Michael von Hausswolff (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. "The Defeat of Time" was a talk with Joachim Nordwall and CM von Hausswolff‭, ‬moderated by Mike Harding. Following their respective performances in Paradiso on Thursday night,they discussed drone music

D-Fuse: Latitude (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Inspired by the idea of drifting through the city, Latitude 3110N /12128E follows the emotive qualities of the space that surrounds us. Fragments of conversations, crowds, journeys, lights, deserted spaces a...

Cluster live (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Legendary German band, consisting of Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Since the early 1970s, the duo have produced exceptional instrumental music, floating somewhere between Krautrock, improvisatio...

Acousmonium: Christian Fennesz (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. Christian Fennesz (AT) uses guitar and computer to create shimmering, swirling electronic sound of enormous range and complex musicality. His lush and luminant compositions are anything but sterile computer ...

Ulf Langheinrich: Drift (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. With 'Drift' Ulf Langheinrich (D) brings abstract images and sounds from both art and music into the cinematic space. A stream of abstract, deep and dense images and sounds evolves from a realistic image. Th...

Keynote Erkki Huhtamo: The Diorama Revisited (part 1) (Sonic Acts XII, 2008)

Sonic Acts is a biannual festival at the intersection of arts, science, music & technology. The word ‘diorama’ is widely used in contemporary culture, but its origins remain obscure. Erkki Huhtamo’s lecture provides an archaeology of the fascinating history of the diorama, its cultural backgr...

Looking Back: Sonic Acts Book Launch

Sonic Acts and Gonzo (circus) celebrated the start of the New Year last Saturday in a packed De Balie Salon. Sonic Acts officially launched their new book with an afternoon filled with Geologic Imagination.

The meditative collage of the session Earth Magnitude and the World Beyond Humans

Accumulating knowledge is the collective crystallization of our sensory information. The drive for knowledge is the urge to make contact, to grasp, to touch, to understand. Yet, crystalized information over generations also provides insights into the mechanism of our sensory machines. And the more we investigate, the bigger the gap between what’s known and what’s unknown.

Interviews with Noam Elcott and Bart Rutten on Verticality

On the occasion of the Australian premiere of Vertical Cinema, we present two interviews with Noam M. Elcott and Bart Rutten as #12 and #13 in our Research Series.

Thomas Ankersmit – Homage to Dick Raaijmakers

For this electronic music performance, sound artist and composer Thomas Ankersmit delves into the ideas and instruments of a Dutch titan of electronic music, Dick Raaijmakers (1930–2013).

Sonic Acts Academy

Sonic Acts Academy: Early Bird Tickets Available

Get your early bird tickets for the Sonic Acts Academy 26-28 February 2016 now. The Academy will take place every two years, alternating with the bi-annual Sonic Acts festival. The Academy is offering thought-provoking new perspectives on the research into art, the research needed for art and especially research through art.

Save the Date: Progress Bar - 16 January 2016

We're happy to announce that a new series of events, brought to you by Brighton’s Lighthouse and Amsterdam’s Sonic Acts and Viral Radio, will launch in Amsterdam next year.

Call for Applicants: #Additivism Workshop

3D printing promises to become a widespread material language, allowing anything that can be stored as a digital template to be realised. During the 2-day #Additivism workshop Morehshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke explain how 3D fabrication can be thought of as the critical framework of #Additivism: a movement that aims to disrupt material, social, computational, and metaphysical realities through provocation, collaboration, and ‘weird’ / science fiction thinking.

Field Recording Workshop with Jana Winderen & BJ Nilsen

From 10–13 February 2016, Sonic Acts hosts a four-day field-recording workshop by renowned sound artists Jana Winderen and BJ Nilsen.

About

From 26 to 28 February 2016, Sonic Acts hosts a new programme at the intersection of art, music and science at several locations in Amsterdam. Over the course of three days, Sonic Acts Academy will invite artists, theorists, and scientists to expand on their research through lectures, concerts, film programmes, work presentations, masterclasses and workshops.

Sonic Acts Summer Sale! Sale Ends 1 July

Summer is upon us, and what better way to spend it than to delve into one of our many publications. For that reason, we're offering various discounts at the Sonic Acts webshop.

Re-Imagine Europe

Q&A with Nick Axel, John Palmesino, Natasha Ginwala

Support us

Sonic Acts Academy: First Names Announced

Sonic Acts is pleased to announce the first names for the Academy: Morehshin Allahyari & Daniel Rourke, Maryanne Amacher Archive, Thomas Ankersmit, Louis Henderson, Ewa Justka and many more.

Anthea Caddy – Long Throw: An Exploration of an Expanded Energetic System for Cello and Loud Speaker

Long Throw: An Exploration of an Expanded Energetic System for Cello and Loud Speaker is a live performance that expands the physical properties of projected sound energy via amplified cello. The piece premiered at Sonic Acts Academy 2020 as part of Sounding Provocations programme at Stedelijk Museum.

First names for Sonic Acts Academy 2016 & last chance to buy early bird tickets

Sonic Acts is pleased to announce the first names for the Academy: Morehshin Allahyari & Daniel Rourke, Maryanne Amacher Archive, Thomas Ankersmit, Louis Henderson, Ewa Justka and many more.

Progress Bar: Brood Ma, Fis, ITAL TEK, Lafawndah & PYUR

On Saturday 26 March, we will bring you yet another Progress Bar filled with a lively mix of talks, performances and a clubnight. This edition will feature performances by Lafawndah (Warp, US), Brood Ma (Tri Angle, UK), Ital Tek (Planet Mu, UK), FIS (Tri Angle, NZ) and PYUR (Unsigned, DE).

Looking back on first edition Sonic Acts Academy

The first edition of Sonic Acts Academy has ended. We look back proudly on an opening night with performances at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, five workshops and two days of presentations celebrating today’s artistic practices at de Brakke Grond, and an invigorating line-up at Paradiso that had visitors dancing into the early hours.

Sonic Acts Academy publication now for sale

In context of the Sonic Acts Academy, Sonic Acts published a 64-page ’zine’, which contains a beautifully designed and printed collection of short essays, manifestos, statements and visual contributions that provide invaluable insights into the exploration conducted and during the Academy.

Tatjana Gorbachewskaja icw Katya Larina – Nikel Materiality

Nikel Materiality by Tatjana Gorbachewskaja, in collaboration with Katya Larina, seeks to explore Nikel through the prism of the unique material substances that this city has created.

Sonic Acts at EYE Filmmuseum with Tatsuru Arai and Red Brut

On 6 November, Sonic Acts presents an evening of audiovisual wonders at EYE Filmmuseum, with performances by sound and visual artist Tatsuru Arai and tape musician Red Brut.

Secret Chamber / Тайная Комната (Tainaya Komnata) – Anya Kuts & Ivan Zoloto

Anya Kuts and Ivan Zoloto from Petrozavodsk curated two so-called ‘Secret Chambers’. ‘Secret Chamber’, in Russian Тайная Комната (Tainaya Komnata) is the name they use for the audiovisual events they curate in unexpected, ‘secret’ locations.

Progress Bar Amsterdam: Second Edition

On 26 March, the second edition of Progress Bar, a new collaboration between Sonic Acts, Lighthouse and Viral Radio takes place at Paradiso Noord, Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam. Described as ‘cutting edge thinking and dancing’ by FACT Magazine, the event presents a lively mix of talks, screenings, li...

Femke Herregraven – Staring into the Ice

For her Dark Ecology commission, Staring into the Ice, Femke Herregraven examines the relations between the financial world and global warming, and how the melting Arctic ice now opens up new investment opportunities and trading routes for financial markets by making it possible to lay submarine cables on the Arctic seabed.

Sonic Acts Academy 2016: Impressions

From 26 - 28 February the first edition of Sonic Acts Academy took place in Amsterdam. For this three-day event artists, theorists, and scientists were invited to expand on their research through lectures, concerts, film programmes, work presentations, masterclasses and workshops. The Academy relate...

Katrina Burch: Paradigm patching in the analogic cockpit — Presentation on Dust Synthesis with/by Yoneda Lemma

SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Katrina Burch: Paradigm patching in the analogic cockpit — Presentation on Dust Synthesis with/by Yoneda Lemma 28 February 2016 - De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- The coming techno-sapiens’ living body never listens alone. It traverses cosmically low. And wide ...

Louis Henderson: “Animism is the only sensible version of materialism”

SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Louis Henderson: “Animism is the only sensible version of materialism” 27 February 2016 - De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- For some time I have been working towards an archaeological cinema that investigates political problems inherent within institutional archi...

Heather Davis: The Queer Futurity of Plastic

SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Heather Davis: The Queer Futurity of Plastic 28 February 2016 - De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Plastic is often thought of as a malleable material; its metaphorical connotation, plasticity, implies movement and shape shifting. However, plastic is actually one of t...

J.G. Biberkopf

SONIC ACTS ACADEMY J.G. Biberkopf 27 February 2016 - Paradiso, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- J.G. Biberkopf’s club- and grime-referencing collage compositions, which he classifies as ‘audio theatre’, float between intense ambience and slamming rhythmic constructions that are cinematic in scop...

Michael Doser: Does the Universe Have a Dark Side?

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Michael Doser: Does the Universe Have a Dark Side? 22 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- The universe we see with our eyes is only a small fraction of what is out there... and what we think should be there, doesn’t appear to be. The...

Raphael Bousso: The World as a Hologram: Black Holes, Information, and the Quest for a Unified Theory of Nature

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Raphael Bousso: The World as a Hologram: Black Holes, Information, and the Quest for a Unified Theory of Nature 22 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Black holes are among the most enigmatic phenomenon in nature. Forged from the gravi...

Joris Luyendijk: Everything you always wanted to know about bankers and finance, but were too angry to ask.

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Joris Luyendijk: Everything you always wanted to know about bankers and finance, but were too angry to ask. 23 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- After two major financial crises in less than five years democracy is looking more and ...

Goodiepal: Closing Lecture

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Goodiepal: Closing Lecture 24 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Goodiepal (Gæoudjiparl) (FO DK) is a controversial musician and composer of his own kind of radical computer music. He declared intellectual war against the stupidity i...

Ewald Engelen: Parasitic Banking

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Ewald Engelen: Parasitic Banking 23 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- A lecture on the most current affairs in the dark world of banking. Ewald Engelen (NL) is a Professor of Financial Geography at the University of Amsterdam and col...

Tim Maughan: Watching Paint Die

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Tim Maughan: Watching Paint Die 24 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Groundbreaking science fiction writer Tim Maughan has been exploring augmented reality for several years now, particularly in his critically acclaimed collection Pa...

Keller Easterling: Extrastatecraft

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Keller Easterling: Extrastatecraft 23 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- The free economic zone has become a contagious world city paradigm. While in the 1960s there were a mere handful of such zones around the world, today there are ...

Honor Harger: The Dark Arts

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Honor Harger: The Dark Arts 22 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Artists and musicians have been active in producing some of the most powerful and persistent ideas about the possibilities of the invisible universe that surrounds us. ...

Alastair Reynolds: White Noise

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Alastair Reynolds: White Noise 24 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird univers...

Simon Ings: Cupid’s Dart

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Simon Ings: Cupid's Dart 24 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird universe that...

Geoff Manaugh: Terrestrial Psychosis and the Rise of a Surrogate Earth

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Geoff Manaugh: Terrestrial Psychosis and the Rise of a Surrogate Earth 23 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Beginning with a brief survey of noteworthy or provocative discoveries in archaeology – from artificial mounds in Europe an...

Saskia Sassen - In the Shadows of Powerful Systems

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Saskia Sassen: In the Shadows of Powerful Systems 23 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- A powerful explanation is like a sharp circle of light on a dark street. But the more powerful that light, the more difficult it is to see what li...

Frank Swain: Leave Nothing to the Imagination: Maps, Monsters, and the Importance of Uncharted Lands

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Frank Swain: Leaving Nothing to the Imagination: Maps, Monsters, and the Importance of Uncharted Lands 24 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the unive...

David P.D. Munns: A Single Sky

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE David P.D. Munns: A Single Sky 22 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Humanity now sees the universe with far more than merely its eyes. The last half-century has exploded the once comfortable notion of astronomy as a science centred o...

Raviv Ganchrow: Listening Sites

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Raviv Ganchrow: Listening Sites 22 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- In the panel Dark Signals the focus shifts towards the arts, and how they explore unknown behaviours of sound and electromagnetic signals. Raviv Ganchrow sheds ligh...

Pascale Ehrenfreund: Space Exploration and the Search for Life in the Universe

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Pascale Ehrenfreund: Space Exploration and the Search for Life in the Universe 22 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Several nations are currently engaging in, or planning for, space exploration programmes that target the Moon, Mars a...

Trevor Paglen: The Last Pictures

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Trevor Paglen: The Last Pictures 23 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Trevor Paglen will discuss his own work, including his project The Last Pictures, a collection of 100 images etched onto a gold silicon disc orbiting the Earth and...

Gerard ‘t Hooft: Human Expansion into Outer Space?

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Gerard t' Hooft: Human Expansion into Outer Space? 22 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Human presence in the universe is now a fact, although we can hardly speak of a physical human presence. Man-made robots have sniffed at all the ...

Andrew Pickering: Varieties of Cybernetics: Ontology, Critique, Politics

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Andrew Pickering: Varieties of Cybernetics: Ontology, Critique, Politics 24 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- What is the allure of cybernetics, what draws people to it? We teach our children to think of the world as a predictable pl...

Andrew Blackwell: Visit Sunny Chernobyl

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Andrew Blackwell: Visit Sunny Chernobyl 23 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Experts agree: humans are ruining the planet. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth visiting. For his book Visit Sunny Chernobyl, Andrew Blackwell set ou...

Interview Raviv Ganchrow - The Geologic Imagination Book Launch

Interview with Raviv Ganchrow about his new work: Long Wave Synthesis 17 January 2015 at De Balie Amsterdam Long Wave Synthesis is a land-art scale sound installation that investigates infrasound, and probes the relations between how we perceive the landscape and long-wave vibrations. The piece cre...

Hillel Schwartz Interview

During Dutch Design Week, on Saturday 25 October 2014, Sonic Acts presented A Day of Noise in Temporary Art Centre (TAC) in Eindhoven. The keynote speaker Hillel Schwartz, was interviewed by Sonic Acts on this occasion. Hillel Schwartz (US) is currently the Holtzbrinck Fellow at the American Academ...

Third Edition of Progress Bar Amsterdam ft. Nkisi, GAIKA, Crystallmess, Ling and Abyss X

Don't miss the third edition of Progress Bar Amsterdam on 23 April featuring Nkisi, GAIKA, Crystallmess and Ling.

Published on Vimeo: Sonic Acts Academy Plastic Futures

The first edition of Sonic Acts Academy has ended. If you missed (parts) of the Sonic Acts Academy conference or would like to refresh your memory, keep an eye on the Sonic Acts Vimeo channel.

Vertical Cinema at GEGENkino in Leipzig

Vertical Cinema will make its German debut as part of the upcoming edition of GEGENkino with a screening at the Paul Gerhardt Church in Leipzig on 28 April.

Ana Vaz: i prefer not to be but to Tupi: the age of the earth

SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Ana Vaz: i prefer not to be but to Tupi: the age of the earth 28 February 2016 - De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- The Work in itself does not exist, there is no whole or wholesomeness, what exists is a series of gestures, a multiplicity of perspectives, an anthropop...

Yoneda Lemma & Anna Mikkola

SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Yoneda Lemma & Anna Mikkola 27 February 2016 - Paradiso, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Yoneda Lemma (aka You Need a Lemon, sometimes Yoni Dilemma) is a quasi-causal brainchild for abstract exploration, experimental research, and a platform for productions, plotted by Canadian-bor...

Ewa Justka

SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Ewa Justka 27 February 2016 - Paradiso, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Ewa Justka is an electronic noise artist, self-taught instrument builder and electronics teacher, originally from Poland and now based in London. In her artistic work Ewa explores the concept of the materiality...

Anton Kats: Radio Sound System

SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Anton Kats: Radio Sound System 28 February 2016 - De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Artist and researcher Anton Kats’ history with radio is a long one, spanning from his early memories of growing up in Ukraine, to recent projects in Jamaica. Anton’s fascination w...

Ewa Justka: Odd DIY Spectacle

SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Ewa Justka: Odd DIY Spectacle 27 February 2016 - De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Ewa Justka reflects on her current trajectory as a noise and performance artist in an academic research and learning environment. Her approach could best be described as research throu...

Published on Vimeo: Research through Practice

A new Vimeo album is now online. Titled Research through Practice the album contains talks and presentations by Ewa Justka, Louis Henderson, Anton Kats and Ana Vaz,

Into The Great Wide Open invites Joris Strijbos

Into The Great Wide Open 2016, the annual festival on the island of Vlieland, starts tomorrow (1-7 September). They invited Rotterdam-based artist Joris Strijbos to present his kinetic sound-and-light

Sonic Acts & Radio Web MACBA Podcast on Dark Ecology

Before he left for the Dark Ecology Journey, Arie Altena contributed to Radio Web MACBA’S fourth episode in the OBJECTHOOD podcast series. This episode is about what lies beneath the surface: where development clashes with strange hyperobjects, where geology meets politics, where horror meets daily life. Altena talks about superstitions surrounding the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia.

Dark Ecology Video Diaries

In collaboration with Fridaymilk Sonic Acts published a series of video diaries of the Dark Ecology Journey, including interviews with the artists and about the journey itself.

Cecilia Jonsson – Prospecting: A Geological Survey of Greys

Prospecting: A Geological Survey of Greys is an interdisciplinary, site-specific art project that appropriates the scientific geological methods of extracting, analysing and categorising mineral specimens. The work consists of drilling residue, fragments from inside the rock. These residues serve to identify the bedrock’s various grey tones and visualise a temporary juxtaposition; a massive cylindrical column of rock core sample shadowed by its negative – the adjacent 5-centimetre-wide hole in the basement rock.

Justin Bennett – Vilgiskoddeoayvir: Wolf Lake on the Mountains

At 12 kilometres deep, the Kola Superdeep Borehole is one of the deepest man-made holes on Earth. The Borehole was a Soviet geology research project that started during the Cold War. Justin Bennett created a soundwalk for this abandoned site.

Nickel van Duijvenboden – Echolocation (Session)

Nickel van Duijvenboden gave a performative reading inside a disused communal space belonging to the Kirkenes mine. He blended speech with sound recordings and live instruments in a loosely arranged setting, creating a parallel narrative based on a prior visualization of the location and a psycho-geographical exploration of the surroundings.

Homage to Dick Raaijmakers at ICMC

After thirty years, the internationally renowned conference on computer music ICMC (International Computer Music Conference) is returning to the Netherlands. On Tuesday September 13 ICMC invites Thomas Ankersmit & Tarik Barri for a special performance of 'Homage to Dick Raaijmakers' and 'Versum' at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht.

Signe Lidén & Espen Sommer Eide – Altitude and History

Espen Sommer Eide and Signe Lidén took participants on an evening trek in the mountains above Nikel, where they investigated the acoustic phenomena in relation to the topography of the area while relating them to the local history. Eide and Lidén had their specially developed mobile, meteorological music instruments with them, which they installed and activated at various places during the trek.

Sonic Acts part of VPRO Tegenlicht

The prize-winning Dutch television documentary series, VPRO Tegenlicht, joined Sonic Acts on the last Dark Ecology Journey in June this year and interviewed Timothy Morton.

Justin Bennett and HC Gilje – Mikro

Mikro is a series of improvised collaborative performances between HC Gilje (video) and Justin Bennett (sound) that draws its raw material from the immediate surroundings. On the last day of the Dark Ecology Journey, Bennett and Gilje performed the latest version of Mikro using material gathered over the course of the Journey.

Sonic Acts Idenity Survey

Studens from the Willem de Kooning Academie in Rotterdam conducted a study on the identity of Sonic Acts. Please help them by completing the survey.

Workshop by Joost Rekveld as part of UNFOLD

Sensory Augmentation and Obstruction As part of UNFOLD, organised by LIMA & Sonic Acts 29 November – 1 December 2016 in Amsterdam

The Maryanne Amacher Listening Session

The Listening Session on 13 December at de Appel offers a live-annotated audio-outline of moments throughout Maryanne Amacher’s 50 year career, comprised entirely of unpublished audio.

UNFOLD #3: Reinterpreting the digital

On 1 December, the third public event within the framework of UNFOLD continues with the research line mediation by reinterpretation. The evening will start with the workshop 'Sensory Augmentation and Obstruction', organised by Joost Rekveld and LIMA together with Sonic Acts.

First artists announced!

We are very excited to announce the first batch of artists in the 17th edition of Sonic Acts Festival.

Progress Bar on 21 January

Before Sonic Acts Festival 2017 begins, Progress Bar on 21 January will feature performances by Bonaventure, Embaci, J. G. Biberkopf, Juha, s a r a s a r a and Traxman.

Early Bird Tickets on sale!

A limited number of Early Bird Festival Passes are available at a discount price of €75 (regular price: €90). Group Festival Passes are also available at €65 for groups of 5 or more. Regular Festival Passes will go on sale in January.

This week: Taste The Doom at OT301

On 8 February, as a precursor to the main Sonic Acts Festival programme, two of the most delightful things in life will combine for Taste The Doom at OT301: excellent whisky and a splendid mix of doom metal.

Exhibition now open!

One part of the Sonic Acts Festival is The Noise of Being exhibition at Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam. The exhibition opens on Wednesday 1 February at 19.00, admission is free and the programme will continue until midnight.

Excursion: Vertical Studies in Sint Jansklooster

In this new collaborative work by Eide and Lidén, participants are invited on a journey to a 46 meter high former water tower in Sint Jansklooster.

15 Feb: AN EVENING WITH JOEY HOLDER

As part of the Sonic Acts' pre-festival lineup, The Noise of Being exhibition artist Joey Holder will present her work and have a public conversation with fellow artist Nicky Assmann the evening of 15 February at Spui 25 in Amsterdam.

Sonic Acts Academy 2018

Following its inception in 2016, the second edition of Sonic Acts Academy will take place from 23 to 25 February 2018 at various locations in Amsterdam.

Share your feedback!

What did you think of Sonic Acts Festival 2017 - The Noise of Being​? Share your thoughts while they're still fresh! If you attended The Noise of Being, help us evaluate the festival by participating in our online survey.

Luke Fowler – Electro-Pythagorus: A Portrait of Martin Bartlett

Electro-Pythagorus: A Portrait of Martin Bartlett is commissioned by Sonic Acts & Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. With the film Luke Fowler pays tribute to the work and musical ideas of Martin Bartlett (1939–93).

Jana Winderen – Spring Bloom in the Marginal Ice Zone

The listener experiences the bloom of plankton, the shifting and crackeling sea ice in the Barents Sea around Spitsbergen, towards the North Pole.

Signe Lidén and Espen Sommer Eide – Vertical Studies: Acoustic Shadows and Boundary Reflections

In Vertical Studies: Acoustic Shadows and Boundary Reflections, a collaborative work with Espen Sommer Eide, Eide and Lidén wish to invite the participants on a journey to a 46 meter high former water tower in Sint Jansklooster.

HC Gilje – rift

rift is flickering petrochemical microscope textures: deep-time crude oil is violently transformed into colourful plastic wrappers for consumer goods.

Lukas Marxt – Persistence of the Vacuum Without Grounding Definitions

This film is a survey of the industrial landscape of the Russian harbour city Murmansk and the surrounding Arctic tundra. It is both a documentation and an investigation of perception.

Supreme Connections presents Maryanne Amacher's 'Mini Sound Series'

Sonic Acts and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam commissioned Supreme Connections to create a new interpretive, episodic iteration of Maryanne Amacher's 'Mini Sound Series'.

Maryam Monalisa Gharavi - Face/Less: Human, Inhuman, Abhuman

Nina Power - Decapitalism, Anticapitalism, Postcapitalism

Isabell Lorey - Precarization und Care-Citizenship

Peter Frase - Socialisms and Barbarisms: Speculative Fiction and Post-Capitalist Imaginaries

John Palmesino - Anthropocene Tipping Points

Nick Axel - Tipping Points

Natasha Ginwala - Planetary Records as Documents toward Addressing Justice

Announcing the Re-Imagine Europe project

We are very pleased to announce that our project Re-Imagine Europe has been selected for funding by the European Commission’s programme Creative Europe.

Videos: The Noise of Being Conference

If you missed the conference (or would like to refresh your memory) you can now watch videos of the presentations and discussions on the Sonic Acts Vimeo channel.

Karl Klomp – Sonic Acts Festival 2017 light design

For Sonic Acts Festival 2017, media artist Karl Klomp designed the lighting for Progress Bar and the evening in Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ.

ANBI Informatie

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Watch videos from the archive and subscribe to the channel to stay updated about new work and new ideas from renowned artists and thinkers.

Available now: The Noise of Being publication

The Noise of Being attempts to piece together the dissonance that was produced and gathered at the 2017 Sonic Acts Festival.

'Electro-Pythagoras (a Portrait of Martin Bartlett)' at the 55th New York Film Festival

Luke Fowler's lovingly constructed biographical essay of Canadian composer Martin Bartlett will be screened at the 55th New York Film Festival on 8 October.

Book Presentation at Stedelijk

On 29 September the Stedelijk Museum’s Friday Night is all about books. As part of the programme, Sonic Acts will present The Noise of Being, a new book that offers a chance to continue speculating about the strange and anxious state of being human in the present day.

HC Gilje's 'Barents (Mare Incognitum)' at Screen City Biennial 2017

Commissioned by Sonic Acts and Hilde Methi for Dark Ecology, HC Gilje's video installation Barents (Mare Incognitum) is part of Screen City Biennial 2017 in Stavanger, Norway.

Early Bird tickets for the Academy on sale 7 November

Early Bird tickets for Sonic Acts Academy 2018 will be on sale from 7 November. Tickets will be available at a discount price of €50 (regular price: €65) until 31 December.

Early Birds for Sonic Acts Academy now on sale

Sonic Acts Academy will take place from 23 to 25 February 2018 at various locations in Amsterdam. Early Bird Passes are available for €50 until Sunday 31 December.

Book Launch: The Noise of Being

We are pleased to invite you to the launch of our new publication, The Noise of Being, on Saturday 4 November at Paradiso Noord (Tolhuistuin) in Amsterdam.

New podcasts in collaboration with Ràdio Web MACBA

Ràdio Web MACBA has published two new podcasts in collaboration with Sonic Acts, featuring educators and theorists Irit Rogoff and Ramon Amaro, who both gave lectures at Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

Continuum study programme in Shenzhen, China

Continuum is a Pre-Master's programme founded by the Interaction Design, Product Design and Graphic Design departments of ArtEZ Arnhem and developed in collaboration with Sonic Acts.

Special projects and Early Birds for Sonic Acts’ 25th anniversary festival

As we count down to our upcoming celebratory festival edition, we are proud to reveal a few of the special large-scale projects and performances we have been working on. Early Bird festival passes are available until 31 December.

Animism is the Only Sensible Version of Materialism

RESEARCH SERIES #32 Referencing Arthur Rimbaud and Derek Walcott, Louis Henderson’s poetic text presents his animistic materialist cinematic practice, which focuses on the critical reading of colonial histories.

'Sensing the Shipyard' at Damen Shiprepair

Sonic Acts is currently working together with several educational institutes in the Netherlands and abroad. As part of the upcoming Sonic Acts Academy 2018, we are collaborating with the ArtScience Interfaculty in The Hague on Sensing the Shipyard: A Sensorial Journey.

First names announced for Sonic Acts Academy 2018

Sonic Acts Academy 2018 is pleased to announce the first confirmed artists and thinkers. The Academy takes place from 23 to 25 February 2018 at various locations in Amsterdam North, including Dansmakers and Paradiso Noord – Tolhuistuin.

Apply for the Critical Writing Workshop

Following the success of the previous Critical Writing Workshops, a new edition will take place during Sonic Acts Academy 2018, from 23 to 25 February, facilitated by Jennifer Lucy Allan.

First names announced for Sonic Acts Academy 2018

Winter Sale at Sonic Acts webshop

We're having a winter sale at our webshop with great deals on books, t-shirts and bags. You'll also receive a free bag with every purchase! The sale ends 31 January 2018.

Vertical Cinema at Göteborg Film Festival and Inversia

On 31 January and 3 February Sonic Acts' internationally acclaimed Vertical Cinema project will be screened as part of the Göteborg Film Festival and Inversia – an international audiovisual festival over the Polar circle.

Call for Applications: Speculation as Interface with Mario de Vega and Victor Mazón Gardoqui

From 21 to 23 February 2018, Sonic Acts hosts a three-day workshop on disruptive technologies by r-aw.cc artists Mario de Vega and Victor Mazón Gardoqui. The deadline for applications is 30 January.

Full programme announced for Sonic Acts Academy 2018

The second edition of Sonic Acts Academy takes place from 23 to 25 February 2018 at various venues in Amsterdam. The complete programme and time schedule are now online.

Order the new Sonic Acts Academy publication

To accompany Sonic Acts Academy 2018, we have published a collection of short essays, maps, interviews, stories, speculations, and visual contributions.

Sonic Acts and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam present: Catherine Christer Hennix

On 16 and 17 February 2018, Hennix will present the world premiere of her new composition Blue(s) in Green to the 31 Limit, as part of a long-term research trajectory initiated by Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Sonic Acts.

Thank you for being a part of Sonic Acts Academy 2018

Sonic Acts Academy 2018 has passed and we are immensely grateful to everyone involved in making it a success.

Programme revealed for Sonic Acts Festival 2019

Sonic Acts is thrilled to reveal the programme of its 2019 festival edition, HEREAFTER! From 21 to 24 February, Sonic Acts Festival 2019 takes place at various locations in Amsterdam.

Videos of the 2018 symposium are now online

If you missed the Sonic Acts Academy symposium (or would like to refresh your memory) you can now watch videos of the presentations and discussions.

What did you think of Sonic Acts Academy 2018?

Help us to evaluate the event and improve future editions of Sonic Acts by taking part in our online survey and sharing your thoughts and experiences.

Vacature Hoofd Marketing en Communicatie (32 uur)

Als hoofd Marketing en Communicatie van Sonic Acts ben je verantwoordelijk voor de marketing en communicatie van alle jaaractiviteiten, waaronder het Sonic Acts Festival. Invulling van de functie start per 1 september 2018.

Summer Sale: Discounts on publications at the Sonic Acts shop

Summer is upon us, and what better way to spend it than to delve into the many Sonic Acts publications. For that reason, there are various discounts and package deals on offer at the Sonic Acts webshop.

Experimental documentary FUTURELAND emerges out of Sonic Acts Academy 2018

Produced by MA students in Conflicts & Negotiations (Goldsmiths, University of London), FUTURELAND emerges out of fieldwork conducted as part of Sonic Acts Academy 2018.

Thomas Ankersmit's Homage to Dick Raaijmakers released by Shelter Press

Thomas Ankersmit's Homage to Dick Raaijmakers, which was commissioned by Sonic Acts and premiered live at Sonic Acts Academy 2016, has been released by Shelter Press.

Jana Winderen's Spring Bloom in the Marginal Ice Zone in Toronto

An adaptation of Spring Bloom in the Marginal Ice Zone, commissioned by Sonic Acts, will be exhibited from 14 to 23 September, presented by the Blackwood Gallery.

Early Bird tickets for Sonic Acts’ 25th anniversary festival edition

Karl Klomp - Spatial Media Design

Media artist Karl Klomp designed the lighting and video elements of Progress Bar at Sonic Acts Academy 2018

Sign up for workshops, seminars and guided tours at Sonic Acts Festival 2019

Sonic Acts is pleased to announce a special educational programme for Sonic Acts Festival 2019, with workshops led by artists and theorists including Christina Kubisch and Arie Altena, as well as seminars and guided exhibition tours.

Okkyung Lee – 틈 / Teum (The Silvery Slit)

틈 / Teum (The Silvery Slit) is an acousmatic piece written for computer-generated sounds, pre-recorded materials and cello that was developed for the Acousmonium sound diffusion system during a residence at Ina GRM, Paris, in January 2019. It premiered at Paradiso, Amsterdam, at the opening of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

Call for applications: Critical Writing workshop

Following the success of previous Critical Writing workshops, a new edition will take place during Sonic Acts Festival 2019. Hosted by Arie Altena with support by Katía Truijen.

Hugo Esquinca – Deformation Studies on Dimension and Structure for Fifteen Point Three

Deformation Studies on Dimension and Structure for Fifteen Point Three is a mediation on the acoustic resonances of space. The work was developed during a residency at STEIM (organised by Sonic Acts) and presented at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

Call for applications: The Hidden City workshop with Christina Kubisch

Pioneering sound installation artist Christina Kubisch leads a three-day workshop for Sonic Acts Festival 2019, in which participants explore an otherwise imperceptible urban soundscape.

Ryoko Akama – Kosetsu

Kosetsu is a new sculptural work by Ryoko Akama, examining accidental aural properties. The work is part of STEIM’s microTONE series – a collection of 'sound art works in boxes’ – and was presented at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

Call for applications: Seminar on Contemporary Theory, Creativity, The Earth and Us

Led by Rick Dolphijn, the seminar comprises a close reading session, a workshop with prominent guests – among others, Rosi Braidotti and Susanne Winterling – and a Sonic Acts festival visit and intervention.

Karl Klomp – Sonic Acts Festival 2019 spatial media design

For Sonic Acts Festival 2019, Karl Klomp developed an extensive spatial media installation comprising a monumental LED structure suspended from the ceiling and LED screens on stage displaying live video footage of the performances. The spatial media design was presented at Paradiso, Amsterdam, as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

Nina Pixel – Bias Loop

Bias Loop is a sonic poem about reconnecting with the self. The work was developed during a residency at STEIM (organised by Sonic Acts) and presented at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

HC Gilje – Radiant (live)

Radiant is an audiovisual work comprising a white laser beam moving over a large surface covered with phosphorescent pigment. The laser draws lines and curves that are only visible for a short moment before disappearing. The live performance of Radiant was presented at Paradiso, Amsterdam, as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

Ji Youn Kang – Untitled

Untitled plays with two customised bamboos and a small Korean gong, with analogue devices that connect the instruments for further real-time processing. The work was developed during a residency at STEIM (organised by Sonic Acts) and presented at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

Sam Rolfes – Progress Bar Video Design

As an accompaniment to the third season of the Progress Bar club night, Sam Rolfes developed episodic videos that re-appropriate and recast pop culture figures and experiment with emergent internet performance formats.

Rana Hamadeh – Étude #1: On Recitation

Étude #1: On Recitation is a composition-in-progress with organ book, organ book machine, Disklavier, Sony cube monitor and horn speakers, and is a stepping stone towards a future compositional work by the artist. The work was presented at Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

HEREAFTER publication available at the Sonic Acts shop

The full scope of issues discussed during Sonic Acts Festival 2019 is very much represented and palpable in the tone of this year's festival publication, a coalescing of contributions from some of the festival's participants.

Joost Rekveld – #71.1

#71.1 is a generative audiovisual composition for radar display tube and analogue chaotic circuit. The work is part of STEIM’s microTONE series – a collection of 'sound art works in boxes’ – and was presented at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

Summer Sale: Discounts on Sonic Acts publications and more

Summer is upon us, and what better way to spend it than to delve into one of the many Sonic Acts publications. For that reason, we are offering discounts on many of our books at the Sonic Acts webshop.

Phoebe Collings-James and Last Yearz Interesting Negro – Sound as Weapon, Sounds 4 Survival

Charting psycho-emotional landscapes and mapping them on to the physical, Phoebe Collings-James and Jamila Johnson-Small work with their multi-dimensional bodies as the primary technology and source material for a collaborative live performance. Sound as Weapon, Sounds 4 Survival was presented at Paradiso, Amsterdam, as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

Save the dates: Sonic Acts Academy 2020 takes place 21–23 February

Sonic Acts Academy 2020 will take place in Amsterdam from 21 to 23 February. Stay tuned for more information to be announced over the coming months.

Introducing the next OVEREXPOSED home-based residents

Sonic Acts is proud to announce three artists and researchers for a new round of OVEREXPOSED residencies – the new home-based residency programme from Sonic Acts that investigates pollution and its effects on everything living and nonliving.

The Rodina – Accidental Geopoetics

Accidental Geopoetics is a design intervention that takes revealing and hiding as two basic principles of design practice. At Sonic Acts Festival 2019, the work took the form of a navigational infrastructure at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, engaging the visitors while occupying the museum’s hallways.

Sonic Acts Podcast: Listen to the 2019 conference talks

The conference talks from Sonic Acts Festival 2019 are now available to listen to as a series of audio episodes at the Sonic Acts SoundCloud page or your preferred podcast platform.

Christina Kubisch – Electrical Walks Amsterdam

Electrical Walks Amsterdam continues a series of works by the artist that trace the electromagnetic fields of urban environments. The work takes the form of a city walk and enables a new experience of Amsterdam, uncovering its hidden electromagnetic phenomena. The work is No. 74 in Kubisch's Electrical Walks series and was presented as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

HEREAFTER identity nominated for Dutch Design Awards 2019

The visual identity for Sonic Acts Festival 2019 has been nominated for the Dutch Design Awards! The multi-layered visual identity was designed by The Rodina to shape the festival’s HEREAFTER theme

Filipa César and Jin Mustafa – Meteorisations: Reading Amílcar Cabral's Agro-Poetics of Liberation

Meteorisations: Reading Amílcar Cabral's Agro-Poetics of Liberation is a performative lecture by Filipa César with sound by Jin Mustafa and images from Sana na N’Hada and Flora Gomes, 1974, Cape Verde. The work was presented at De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

Polina Medvedeva and Andreas Kühne – The Informals / Неформалы

The Informals / Неформалы is a part-autobiographical work and a universal statement on the notions of decentralisation, collectivism, and non-conformist ways of living in the digital age. The European premiere of The Informals / Неформалы was presented at Paradiso, Amsterdam, as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

Thank you for making Sonic Acts Festival 2019 a success!

A big THANK YOU goes out to our speakers, artists and funders, to all who contributed their time and energy, and to all of you who came to experience and participate in Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

Videos of the 2019 conference are now online

This year, Sonic Acts celebrated its 25-year history with a festival edition dedicated to the topic Hereafter. Videos of the conference talks are now online on the Sonic Acts YouTube and Vimeo channels.

Sonic Acts co-commission TIME TIME TIME in Oslo and London

Jennifer Walshe and Timothy Morton’s operatic work TIME TIME TIME, which was co-commissioned by Sonic Acts, will be presented on 13 September 2019 in Oslo and 14 December 2019 in London.

Podcast in collaboration with Ràdio Web MACBA: Nora Sternfeld

Sonic Acts is happy to share another podcast in collaboration with Ràdio Web MACBA, in which Nora Sternfeld problematises the educational turn and talks about the crisis of the museum model and more.

Limited number of Blind Bird tickets available for Sonic Acts Academy 2020

Sonic Acts Academy is a three-day festival of innovative audio-visual and performative art and critical thinking, taking place from 21 to 23 February 2020 in Amsterdam. A limited amount of Blind Bird festival passes are now available for €50.

Sonic Acts and Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee podcast: Sadaf speaks to Ivan Cheng

Sonic Acts and Ja Ja Ja Née Née Née are collaborating on a series of podcasts for the upcoming Sonic Acts Academy. In the first episode, Sadaf speaks to Ivan Cheng and discusses the processes of making music, her work and the inspiration behind it all.

First artists announced for Progress Bar on 20 December

After an exhilarating first edition of the new season, Sonic Acts is excited to announce the first artists for the next edition of Progress Bar, taking place on 20 December 2019 at OT301, including Hesska and Oli XL.

Apply for the Critical Writing workshop at Sonic Acts Academy 2020

Following the success of previous Critical Writing workshops, a new edition will take place during Sonic Acts Academy, from 21 to 23 February 2020. The workshop is hosted by Arie Altena and Katía Truijen, as well as guests from different journalistic fields.

Authentically Plastic, Nahshi, Thoom and more confirmed for Progress Bar on 17 January

Before Sonic Acts Academy 2020, a new edition of Progress Bar takes place at OT301 on Friday 17 January. The evening opens with a screening of Beatrice Gibson’s 2018 film I Hope I’m Loud When I’m Dead.

Apply for ATTENTION! workshop with Ben Russell

ATTENTION! is a three-day workshop exploring perceptual engagement, that seeks to re-orient the audiovisual attention of its participants towards the present. Participants will be led by artist, filmmaker and curator Ben Russell.

Hugo Esquinca and Yuk Hui – On 'A Psychedelic Becoming'

Hugo Esquinca’s live multichannel intervention On ​‘A Psychedelic Becoming’ at Sonic Acts Academy 2020 confronts recursion and its openness to the necessity of contingency. The work follows that of his collaborator, philosopher Yuk Hui, who outlines these notions in his book Recursivity and Contingency (2019).

Apply for the Creative Spatial Design workshop with Heleen Blanken and Karl Klomp

The workshop Creative Spatial Design will be an introduction to the artistic practice of conceptual stage design, led by spatial media artists Heleen Blanken and Karl Klomp. It focuses on the basic artistic and technical skills necessary for developing stage scenography for live performances.

Sonic Acts podcast with Lukáš Likavčan in collaboration with Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee

Sonic Acts and Ja Ja Ja Née Née Née are collaborating on a series of podcasts for the upcoming Sonic Acts Academy. In the second episode, Lukáš Likavčan and Leonardo Dellanoce discuss how the future influences the present.

bod [包家巷] and Schwestern Sisters (SwS)– What If We Made A Video Game And It Was Like Dark Souls And All The Characters Were Artists (WIWMAVGAIWLDSAATCWA)

What If We Made A Video Game And It Was Like Dark Souls And All The Characters Were Artists (WIWMAVGAIWLDSAATCWA) is an enclosure of the audiovisual inputs of reality into the space of art that formally unifies performance and exhibition with the practices of organised interpersonal relationships.

Lag OS – Drasland Stretch

Drasland Stretch is a secret synthetic soundwalk premiering at Sonic Acts Academy 2020. Based on an outdoor collective listening experience, the work investigates the relationship between imaginary soundscapes and night-time dew from a specific location in Amsterdam.

Sonic Acts Academy 2020

Sonic Acts podcast with Speaker Music (DeForrest Brown Jr.) in collaboration with Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee

Sonic Acts and Ja Ja Ja Née Née Née are collaborating on a series of podcasts for the upcoming Sonic Acts Academy 2020. In the third episode, Speaker Music (DeForrest Brown, Jr.) speaks about the origins of techno and (un)​available historical nostalgia.

Philip Vermeulen – More Moiré²

Philip Vermeulen’s sensorially powerful audiovisual installation More Moiré² premieres at Sonic Acts Academy 2020. In a panoramic Ganzfeld environment, with no horizon or anchor, the immersive cinematic experience puts visitors’ senses to the test. The tension between the experience of bodyless digitality and material physicality is palpable in More Moiré², which resets the senses in stimulating the awareness of one’s own material existence.

Karl Klomp – Sonic Acts Academy 2020 spatial media design

For Sonic Acts Academy 2020, Karl Klomp developed an extensive spatial media infrastructure for the festival's night programme at Paradiso. The work – an innovative spatial setup utilising various media – created an intense visual experience, complementing the presentations of performing artists and the progressive club environment.

Tomoko Sauvage, xin and Judith Hamann fill out Sonic Acts Academy 2020 opening programme

Sonic Acts Academy 2020 officially opens on 21 February at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the programme now fills out with new additions Tomoko Sauvage, xin and Judith Hamann.

Murmansk Prospekt

Living Earth

Living Earth was a collaboration between Sonic Acts, Fridaymilk, Hilde Methi and several Norwegian and Russian partner organisations that was conceived as a follow-up to the successful Dark Ecology-project (2014–2017). Living Earth aimed to further develop conversations around the topics addressed through Dark Ecology and increase the impact of the thoughts and ideas behind the project.

AV impressions of Sonic Acts Academy 2020 now online

Complete photo reports of the Academy will be published in the coming week, but you can already browse through a selection of first impressions on our social channels. Festival aftermovies and videos of the entire conference programme will also be online soon.

MÆKUR's CONDITIONS : 1218-0719 now available as limited edition vinyl

Released as part of Sonic Acts Academy 2020 and now available for digital download and as limited-edition vinyl, CONDITIONS : 1218 – 0719 is the first release by MÆKUR, the collaborative project of Maiа Urstad, Eva Rowson and Anton Kats.

Free PDF download of the Academy 2020 Magazine

The impulse to listen, talk and learn with one another now hinges on the need to stay at home, and many of us have more time than ever to read. For that reason, we’re giving away a free digital edition of our latest publication, the Academy 2020 Magazine.

Thank you for contributing to an unforgettable Academy

Sonic Acts Academy 2020 is a wrap! As always, we are extremely grateful to everyone involved in making this year’s edition another great success. Thankfully, our incredible team of photographers and videographers were on hand to capture every moment.

Magazine – Sonic Acts Academy 2020

Watch the 2020 conference talks and performances

In light of the difficult circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are working on ways to move future activities online. In the meantime, videos of the Sonic Acts Academy 2020 conference and performances can be watched over the weeks and months ahead.

Sonic Acts Academy 2018

Sonic Acts Festival 2019 – Hereafter

Book – Hereafter – Sonic Acts 2019

Sonic Acts Festival 2017 – The Noise of Being

Book – Sonic Acts Academy 2018 Reader

Sonic Acts Academy 2016

Book – The Noise of Being – Sonic Acts 2017

Book – Living Earth: Field Notes from the Dark Ecology Project 2014-2016

Sonic Acts collaborates with Ràdio Web MACBA on new podcast with Terike Haapoja

In a new podcast on Ràdio Web MACBA co-produced by Sonic Acts, Finnish artist Terike Haapoja invites us to imagine a hybrid, expansive, empathetic 'we', with room for ambiguity and difference and for interspecies political understanding.

Dorian Concept and Zanshin – Half Chance

Dorian Concept and Zanshin perform Half Chance to the live audience on the Max Brand synthesizer. In their performance, Dorian Concept stepped on the foot pedals and played the keyboards, while Zanshin worked with the manual controls for the electrical production of sound.

Ljubavnice – I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess

I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess is an audiovisual installation created by Croatian female artist group Ljubavnice (lovers). They introduce their seventh member: the virtual persona THE SEVENTH.

Zine – Sonic Acts Academy Volume 1 – Sonic Acts 2016

Book – The Dark Universe – Sonic Acts 2013

Book – Travelling Time – Sonic Acts 2012

Book – A Ray of Darkness: Kontraste Cahier #2 – Sonic Acts 2012

Book – Unsorted – Sonic Acts 2004

Book – The Art of Programming – Sonic Acts 2001

Philip Vermeulen’s More Moiré² nominated for the NFF Gouden Kalf award

Philip Vermeulen’s immersive installation More Moiré², which is co-commissioned by Sonic Acts and premiered at Sonic Acts Academy 2020, has been nominated for the prestigious Gouden Kalf award by the Nederlands Film Festival.

New digital release by Hugo Esquinca available via Bandcamp

As Bandcamp waives its fees for the day on 5 June, the artist has committed all of his proceeds to the direct distribution of ear protection against potential LRAD deployment within an undisclosed network in the US and the MX/US border.

Become the listener in new podcast with political geographer and sound artist Anja Kanngieser

In a new Ràdio Web MACBA and Sonic Acts podcast, we become the listeners as political geographer and sound artist Anja Kanngieser reflects on expanded listening, the inaudible, and our anthropocentrism.

Sonic Acts presents commissioned works by Anthea Caddy and Hugo Esquinca in Zagreb

Sonic Acts-commissioned works by Anthea Caddy and Hugo Esquinca will be presented at the upcoming Touch Me Festival in Zagreb, Croatia, organised by Sonic Acts' Re-Imagine Europe partner KONTEJNER.

Listen to new Ràdio Web MACBA and Sonic Acts podcast with composer Jennifer Walshe

In a new podcast produced in collaboration with Sonic Acts, Ràdio Web MACBA talks to Jennifer Walshe about writing, annotating, teaching, collecting, eavesdropping, performing, faking, and a touch of machine learning.

Open Call: OVEREXPOSED – Sonic Acts Home-Based Residency

Sonic Acts invites you to apply for the OVEREXPOSED home-based residency, part of a research programme on the materiality of pollution and systemic and political issues related to the contamination of our environment. Apply by 1 November 2020.

Vacature Raad van Toezicht

Volunteer with Sonic Acts in 2021

Like every year, Sonic Acts relies on the support of its volunteers. While we are still determining the scale of help needed in 2021, volunteer opportunities cover a range of roles including hospitality both before and during events.

Open Call: Underexposed – Mentorship Programme for Young Artists

Sonic Acts invites young artists to apply for Underexposed, an online mentorship and training programme. The programme is part of a Sonic Acts talent development initiative focussed on supporting artists at the beginning of their career.

Read online: Sensititve States of Perception with Kali Malone

From Colorado to Stockholm and from sound technician to organ tuner: Kali Malone highlights artistic journeys, both physically and intellectually and what it means to her to combine her musical experience in vocal music with theoretical practices.

New book from Sonic Acts Press by Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner

All Thoughts Fly: Monster, Taxonomy, Film is a new book by Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner that continues the authors’ inquiry into the curious presence of taxonomies of monsters at the heart of Early Modern European science.

Interview: Marja Ahti's soundscapes

Presenting her new era of abstract and elusive sounds, Marja Ahti tells us about working solo, performing live and her stance on clutter in her performances.

Artist in Residence Arjuna Neuman presents For Lula, Mississippi

For Lula, Mississippi by Sonic Acts resident artist Arjuna Neuman is a two-part radio show and audio companion to a forthcoming book. Produced as part of the Sonic Acts residency programme Overexposed.

Experience the interactive audio walk Plastic Hypersea by Sissel Marie Tonn

Plastic Hypersea is an interactive, site-specific work by artist Sissel Marie Tonn that invites the listener to contemplate a more expanded sense of self. The work can be experienced at the NDSM Wharf in Amsterdam from the end of April.

Ecoes – an independent magazine about art in the age of pollution

Ecoes is a new periodic magazine from Sonic Acts about art in the age of pollution. The magazine features a number of artists and thinkers that propose alternatives to the anthropocentric view that sees Earth and the non-human world as an endless resource.

Introducing OVEREXPOSED resident Devin Hentz

OVEREXPOSED artist-in-residence Devin Hentz is an independent researcher and writer based in Dakar, Senegal, who is interested in the experience of embodiment in what we choose to wear and the surrounding global currents at play.

Sissel Marie Tonn – Plastic Hypersea

Site-specific sound walk Plastic Hypersea by Sissel Marie Tonn invites the listener to explore and imagine the environment as an extension to their immune system and to contemplate the many ways in which their bodies are entangled with microplastics in the sediments of Amsterdam’s waterways.

Overexposed Podcast with Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee featuring Devin Hentz

In the third episode of the Overexposed Podcast – a collaboration between Sonic Acts and Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee – artist in residence Devin Hentz about data thieves, trash and its role in the archive of history, and the death of clothes.

Book – All Thoughts Fly: Monster, Taxonomy, Film – Sasha Litvintseva & Beny Wagner

Magazine – Ecoes

Sonic Acts stands in solidarity with Palestine

As an arts organisation presenting programmes that stand against the colonial exploitation of people and resources, we feel the need to make explicitly clear our support for those resisting decades of Israeli settler-colonial occupation in Palestine.

Artists in residence MELT look at different approaches to time

MELT (Loren Britton & Isabel Paehr) are arts-design researchers who work together on games, technology and critical pedagogy. During their 'residency time', MELT look at climate change and pollution in relation to different approaches to time.

Open Call: Sonic Acts continues its OVEREXPOSED home-based residency programme

Sonic Acts is proud to announce the continuation of the OVEREXPOSED residency programme. With this renewed open call, we invite applications from artists and researchers working across the fields of environmental humanities.

OVEREXPOSED

OVEREXPOSED is a residency programme from Sonic Acts investigating pollution and its effects on everything living and non-living, through which we aim to create awareness about pollution both in local surroundings and on a planetary scale. Using artistic research as an exploration of the connections between aesthetics, historical materiality and politics, the programme intends to stimulate thought and imagination about necessary steps – both locally and globally – and of course, direct action. The outcomes of the research will be presented in a variety of formats, including text publications, visual journals, and performative or discursive presentations.

Anthea Caddy – Projection #3: The Wharf, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Projection #3: The Wharf, Amsterdam, Netherlands is the continuation of a long-term research project by Australian artist Anthea Caddy that harnesses projected sound energy to interrogate the physicality of environments.

Overexposed Podcast with Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee featuring Angela Chan

In the fourth episode of the Overexposed Podcast – a collaboration with Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee – Sonic Acts artist-in-residence Angela Chan goes over her artistic research practice as a ‘creative climate change communicator’.

Water Resistance now available to watch online

The full recording of Water Resistance, a panel discussion about bodies of water and power relations, is now available on YouTube and Vimeo.

Secret Chamber I

The first Secret Chamber concert features performances by Chikiss, one of the most versatile artists on the Russian electro-indie scene; slow ambient techno by Sergey Suokas; and a set by electronic master Andreas Nordenstam.

Geologic Imagination

Welcome by the Geologic Imagination Blog. This blog will be used for content written by participants of the Critical Writing Workshop: Describing the Indescribable.

geomancy-and-earth-codes

Secret Chamber II

The second ‘Secret Chamber’ event features live performances by Phonophani, Pomassl, Love Cult and a collaboration between Mnogoznaal and TILMIL, who represent the flowering cloud wave generation from Komi (Russia).

Long Wave Synthesis

Prototype, work-in-progress and research presentation by Raviv Ganchrow.

Dark Ecology Journey from 25-29 November 2015

Nikel — The City as a Material

RESEARCH SERIES #27 Tatjana Gorbachewskaja is an architect who grew up in the Russian town Nikel, located in the far North near the Russian border with Norway. For Dark Ecology she researched the materials of her hometown together with Katya Larina.

Vertical Cinema: Synchronator Workshop at STEIM 21 Feb

The Synchronator device converts electronic audio signals into composite video signals. Designed by Bas van Koolwijk and Gert-Jan Prins in 2009, it has seen a steady growth in the number of users si...

Vertical Cinema's North American Premiere at SXSW Festival

Vertical Cinema at SXSW Festival

Vertical Cinema will have its North American premiere at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas (USA), as part of both the Music and the Film programme. A double screening will take place on the 17th of March 2015.

Dark Ecology Critical Writing Academy

On 9 and 10 October 2015, Dark Ecology and Fridaymilk will organise a two-day Critical Writing Academy, in Murmansk, Russia. This workshop is aimed at emerging and mid-career writers, critics, bloggers, theorists and journalists in arts and culture from the Barents Region

Vertical Cinema at Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF)

Vertical Cinema is in Melbourne for its Australian premiere at Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). A special feature within the MIFF film programme, Vertical Cinema will be screened twice at Deakin Edge theatre in Melbourne on 14 August.

Dark Ecology Journey: First Journey Report

We are back home from a successful second Dark Ecology Journey. Over the course of five days, we travelled with a group of more than 50 artists, researchers, curators, writers and organisers to Kirkenes in Northern Norway from where we took a bus to Murmansk in Russia, to Zapolyarny and Nikel, and back to Kirkenes.

Susan Schuppli: 'Dark Matters - Bearing Material Witness to Climate Change'

DARK ECOLOGY Susan Schuppli: Dark Matters 28 November 2015 - Aurora Cinema, Murmansk, Russia --- In her keynote lecture Dark Matters: Bearing Material Witness to Climate Change Susan Schuppli introduces a new operative concept, that of the ‘Material Witness’. This is an exploration of the eviden...

Young Echo Sound confirmed for Progress Bar on June 4

We've teamed up with Subbacultcha! and invited Bristol’s Young Echo collective to join Progress Bar on June 4!

Looking back on Progress Bar in Amsterdam: More than Music

Looking back on the first four editions of Progress Bar Amsterdam which took place at Paradiso Noord / Tolhuistuin between January and June of this year, the event series' resident interviewer Jo Kali recounts her experiences and positions these nights, which are characterised by the combination of talks and performances, within the contemporary (cultural) landscape.

Progress Bar 15 October

After a summer break Progress Bar returns to Amsterdam on October 15th with special performances by Amnesia Scanner (live), Malibu (live), Toxe (dj), alx9696 (dj), Mechatok (dj) and Juha (dj).

Progress Bar on 1 April

Progress Bar is a regular night for cutting-edge thinking and dancing, showcasing urgent sounds and voices while offering insight into the artistic practice of the most exciting contemporary artists.

29 April: Progress Bar S02E07

The only political party you can dance to. Progress Bar is a regular night for cutting-edge thinking and dancing, showcasing urgent sounds and voices while offering insight into the artistic practice of the most exciting contemporary artists

Progress Bar is back on 4 November

Progress Bar is back for a third season at Paradiso Noord (Tolhuistuin) on Saturday 4 November with Bbymutha, Bonaventure, Eaves, LSDXOXO, Lyzza, Nina Power and more.

GAIKA to be joined by a stacked line-up at Progress Bar

On 2 December Progress Bar presents 'The Spectacular Empire' with GAIKA and more. Full line-up: 808INK, Aaron Bastani, /aart, City, Cõvco, Gage, GAIKA, Gloria, Kojey Radical, Madam X, Rachel Rose O'Leary and S4U.