any time
Time only happens once. Time is precious because it cannot be reproduced. Time is irrevocable. We try to make good use of time, but maybe …
Artists
Jacqueline Schoemaker
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Time only happens once. Time is precious because it cannot be reproduced. Time is irrevocable. We try to make good use of time, but maybe time tries to make good use of us. What would happen if you tried to escape from the clutches of time? Or if you let yourself be led by a structure that allows you to lose yourself in time?
Participate in a walking tour created from a concept by Jacqueline Schoemakers. Participants receive a topographic map and have to do their utmost to follow the straight line that is drawn on it. The tour starts at the Paradiso, but where it ends is anybody’s guess. There is no meaningful movement from A to B in this walk; there is no urgency to get anywhere. You can enjoy the walk at any time during the day or night, even after the festival – and it is best experienced alone. At 17:30 each day during the festival there is a get together to exchange thoughts about Time Travelled and Time Lost with others who have done the walk.
A map for Time Travelled and Time Lost and an information leaflet can be obtained at the festival desk. Informal get together each festival day at 17:30 in De Balie. Start is at Paradiso.
10:30 - 12:45
How to approach time in sound? How to go beyond the conception of time as a simple sequence of events? Inhabiting sound, working with infinite …
Artists
Pauline Oliveros
Ellen Fullman
Barbara Hammer
Joel Ryan
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Featured image: Long String Instrument, Ellen Fullman, Headlands Center for the Arts © Judy Dater.
Photo © Pieter Kers.
Long String Instrument, 2002, Ellen Fullman, Other Minds Festival, San Francisco © John Fago.
How to approach time in sound? How to go beyond the conception of time as a simple sequence of events? Inhabiting sound, working with infinite sound… approaching the infinity of sound. A detailed discussion of the work and ideas of four very different composers / sound artists; Joel Ryan (US), Barbara Hammer (US), Pauline Oliveros (US) and Ellen Fullman (US).
Joel Ryan
Knowing When
Music when looked at analytically is usually taken to be a system of rules. Yet the experience of listening and making music is one of freedom and spontaneity. The kind of judgment involved in making and applying rules doesn’t seem to match musical experience. Taking time as an epitome of music making, there seems to be an innate capacity for perceiving its quantity, outside of language and analytic thinking.
The fact is, I know when. I know when things are too fast or too slow, I know when timing is good, stiff or perfectly graceful. Before it happens I know when a beat should come and after if it was out of time or right on-time. Playing or listening to music this knowledge comes not in calculated reflection but in the moment, fast enough to make time happen without breaking the flow.
Barbara Hammer
Bent Time (1983, 22’00, 16 mm)
A one-point perspective visual path across the USA beginning inside a linear accelerator or atom-smashing device and travelling to such high-energy locations as the habitat of an ancient sun calendar in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; the site of Ohio Valley Mound cultures; and the Golden Gate and Brooklyn Bridges. Scientists have noted that light rays curve at the outer edges of the universe, leading them to theorise that time bends too. Inspired by this idea, Hammer used an extreme wide-angle lens and ‘one frame of film per foot of physical space’ to simulate the concept of bent time. The film is accompanied by Pauline Oliveros’ score for voice and accordion, Rattlesnake Mountain.
Pauline Oliveros & Ellen Fullman
In conversation
11:00 - 19:00
The exhibition at NIMk presents several installations, sound– and film works that explore different modalities of time. They seemingly halt the experience of time, deal with speed …
Artists
Joe Gilmore
Julien Maire
Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec
Philipp Lachenmann
Juliana Borinski
Mark Fell
Daïchi Saïto
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The exhibition at NIMk presents several installations, sound– and film works that explore different modalities of time. They seemingly halt the experience of time, deal with speed in the city, resist the sequential montage of classic cinema, or leave the visitor in suspension because action is continuously deferred. Immersive, pensive, scientifically precise or overwhelming, all these works tickle the brain and the senses.
The exhibition officially opens at 16:30, and will include public interviews with three of the featured artists: Daïchi Saïto, Juliana Borinski and Julien Maire.
Works by Joe Gilmore (UK), Julien Maire (FR), Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec (SI), Philipp Lachenmann (DE), Juliana Borinski (BR/DE), Mark Fell (UK) and (on show only for the duration of the festival) Daïchi Saïto (JP/CA) will be shown.
Joe Gilmore
-9.93450215762280319787e-1
(2012, installation)
The new generative sound piece by Joe Gilmore explores space, geometry and complexity through sound synthesis. The multi-speaker installation uses chaotic algorithms, and flocking / swarm synthesis. The sound ranges from short impulses scattered around the space in different configura- tions, to extended complex tones and chaotic noise signals.
Julien Maire
Perpendicular Cinema
(2011, installation, produced in collaboration with V2_lab)
Julien Maire’s Perpendiculair Cinema resists the directivity of the montage. A complex mechanical interface, made of blocks of reflective metal, inter- cepts, controls and models the clear and blurry areas of a projected slide. The slow scanning is similar to the assiduous attention of a researcher. This concentration resists the flow and focuses on details in an image and their conditions of appear- ance, looking for a grammar, a construction and a deconstruction of perspective and narrative. The three-dimensional effect and the materiality of the image and of the device that allows the development is accentuated. The installation reads a script that is perpendicular to the image in the optical space. The movement no longer appears in the equation of the difference between successive images but in the optical performance of a fluid, continuous real time.
Flip Dots Mirrors
(2011, installation)
Forty-eight flip-dots coated with first surface mir- rors (FS mirrors) reflect part of a slide image of people sitting on a tribune.
Tao Sambolec
City Velocities – Body Speeds
(2012, new work, commissioned by Sonic Acts, NIMk & STEIM)
City Velocities – Body Speeds focuses on the tactile experience of travelling at speed in an urban environment. It does not provide an inter- pretation; instead it embodies the phenomena of speed, re-creating the experience and thus con- fronting the visitor with its existence.
Philipp Lachenmann
Space_Surrogate I (Dubai)
(2000)
A half hour film made from a single image. A solitary airplane stands in the desert. Hot air, shimmering like a mirage, is the only perceivable sign of the passage of time. The 30’ film sequence was digitally produced from a one still picture.
Space_Surrogate II (GSG 9)
(2003)
A five seconds long film sequence from 1977 is transformed into an extremely slow moving still image of eight minutes. Nine men, members of the German anti terror squad GSG 9, cross the picture from left to right. The sequence was digitally produced by interpolating 11.000 artifi- cial images between 120 original film frames.
Juliana Borinski
Liquid Crystal Display
(2008–2009, installation)
In the expanded cinema installation Liquid Crystal Display a few drops of a crystalline solution are placed on an empty slide in a cus- tomised projector. The crystallisation process and all its associated movements are projected live. Using the projector’s heat, the reaction time varies from 20 minutes to a few hours (depending on the solution’s concentration and the temperature and humidity in the exhibition space). Each slide is replaced after the ‘image’ has stabilised.
Mark Fell
Factoid #3
(2011, installation)
Philosophy has investigated the linkage between the structure of consciousness and the structure of the present, but it has not taken sound into consideration. How does sound contribute to this linkage? Thinking of the repetitive temporal struc- tures of techno, or the prolonged tones of Tibetan music – some primary relationships between time, consciousness and sound could be imagined. Informed by recent studies in the psychopa- thology of time, Fell’s intense and confrontational installation Factoid #3 promotes a destabilised association between time, the self and sound. Phenomenological emphasis on flow, linearity, and the present as embedded in both the previous and the imminent, are rejected in favour of disas- sociated suprasequential nows. This work contains extremely bright flashing light, high intensity sound and generative temporal structures.
Screening from 23–26 February: Daïchi Saïto
Never a Foot Too Far, Even
(2011, double projection, 16 mm)
Appropriating a brief fragment from a 35 mm print of an old Kung Fu movie, Never a Foot Too Far, Even is an action movie without action. Presented in double-projection with two 16 mm film projectors and loopers, with images from two separate rolls overlaid to form a single image, the film focuses on an obscure figure who finds himself on a forest path, caught between perpetual motion and stasis.
During the festival, the exhibition is open from 24-26 February 11:00-19:00. Furthermore until 15 April 2012 the exhibition is open Tuesday through Friday 11:00-17:00, Saturday and Sunday 13:00-17:00.
14:00 - 16:30
The second session on Friday is dedicated to Siegfried Zielinski’s Variantology research group. Variantology research seeks to move from reflections on the deep-time history of …
Artists
Siegfried Zielinski
Joseph Chen
Amador Vega
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God himself seems to spend water in order to actuate the water-driven organ. 2nd volume of Robert Fludd’s great history of the macro- and microcosm: Tractatus secundus. De naturae simia seu technica macrocosmi historia, (Oppenheim: Johann Theodore de Bry, 1618).
Bronze set-bells (biānzhōng 編鐘) of the 5th century, unearthed in 1978 from the tomb of Marquis Y乙 of the Zēng 曾 State located at the present SuiÅL 隨 County, HuÅLbi 湖北 Province. Courtesy Joseph Chen.
Ars brevis, 14th. Century (Biblioteca El Escorial f-IV-12, latin), fol. 4r. Ramon Llull, courtesy Amador Vega.
The second session on Friday is dedicated to Siegfried Zielinski’s Variantology research group. Variantology research seeks to move from reflections on the deep-time history of the arts and sciences to speculations that extend into the present. The work on deep time relations between arts, sciences, and technologies opens up a new perspective on both media and the arts via their interactions with scientific and technological processes.
After an introductory keynote by Siegfried Zielinski, Amador Vega (ES) and Joseph Chen (US/CN) will reflect about the topic.
Amador Vega:
Lecture on Ramon Lull
Joseph Chen
The Sound from Deep Time: Tuning Revealed by Unearthed Playable Ancient Musical Instruments
In recent decades a number of ancient musical instruments have been unearthed in China. These instruments can be used to produce sounds from deep time. Chen will elaborate on studies of ancient tuning based on the sound of deep time produced by these ancient musical instruments.
17:00 - 18:30
A programme with films that relate in different ways to historical performance practices of colour music. It includes the gorgeous documentation of a performance by Charles …
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Still from Charles Dockum, 1969 Mobilcolor Projector film, 1969, 16mm, color, silent, 15′. Courtesy Center for Visual Music. Preserved with support from the NFPF.
A programme with films that relate in different ways to historical performance practices of colour music. It includes the gorgeous documentation of a performance by Charles Dockum on his ‘Mobilcolor’ instrument, the first recreation of Oskar Fischinger‘s multi-projector shows and a rare screening of documentation of the 1968 recreation by Kurt Schwerdtfeger of the very first light experiments at the Bauhaus.
This programme will mark the launch of the posthumous publication of the book The Academy of the Senses, Synesthetics in Science, Art and Education by Frans Evers, one of the founders of both the Sonic Acts festival and the ArtScience Interfaculty in The Hague. The programme will be introduced by Joost Rekveld.
This programme has been made possible with the kind support of Center for Visual Music.
Kurt Schwerdtfeger
Reflektorische Farblichtspiele
(1922/1968, 18’, 16mm colour)
Oskar Fischinger
R-1, ein Formspiel
(1926-1933/1993, 1993 recreation by Bill Moritz, 7′, 35 mm cinemascope, B&W and colour) (print from Center for Visual Music)
Jud Yalkut
Turn, Turn, Turn
(1966, 10′, 16 mm colour)
Charles Dockum
1969 Mobilcolor Projector film
(1969, 15’, 16 mm colour, silent)
Hy Hirsh
Come Closer
(1953, 7’, 16 mm, colour)
(Seperate tickets for Colour Music Recollections available.)
17:00 - 18:30
Immerse yourself in a subtle drone, which after a while opens the portal to a different space, with Catherine Christer Hennix + The Choras(s)an Time-Court …
Artists
Catherine Christer Hennix
Amelia Cuni
Franz Hautzinger
Paul Schwingenschlögl
Hilary Jeffery
Robin Hayward
No Time
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Immerse yourself in a subtle drone, which after a while opens the portal to a different space, with Catherine Christer Hennix + The Choras(s)an Time-Court Mirage. Hennix’s post-minimal drones elaborate on La Monte Young’s concepts and attempt to halt our experience of time. The Choras(s)an Time-Court Mirage will play three concerts, which are meticulously adapted for the performance space. The group gathers a week in advance to prepare and develop the composition. All the musicians are at the forefront of contemporary music, exploring micro-tonality, just intonation and the space of sound.
‘As deep and heavy as the 1960’s recordings of La Monte Young’s Theater of Eternal Music, but full of Hennix’ own musical and mathematical genius.’ – Marcus Boon
The Choras(s)an Time-Court Mirage consists of: Catherine Christer Hennix (US/SE), Amelia Cuni (IT), Franz Hautzinger (AT), Paul Schwingenschlögl (AT), Hillary Jeffery (UK)and Robin Hayward (UK).
There is limited seating in the SMART Project Space. If you have a passepartout, please reserve a ticket for the performance you would like to attend at: reservations@sonicacts.com.
16:00 - 23:00
Paul Sharits Shutter Interface (1975, 32’50, four-projector installation, colour) In the hypnotic work Shutter Interface – recently restored by Greene Naftali and Anthology Film Archives to its …
Artists
Paul Sharits
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Paul Sharits
Shutter Interface
(1975, 32’50, four-projector installation, colour)
In the hypnotic work Shutter Interface – recently restored by Greene Naftali and Anthology Film Archives to its long-unseen, four-screen version – a quartet of 16 mm projectors stand side by side, figure-like, on imposing pedestals facing a long wall. Four looped films of varying lengths are un-spooled and re-spooled in jewel-like swathes of colour interspersed with single black frames.
In the hypnotic work Shutter Interface – recently restored by Greene Naftali and Anthology Film Archives to its long-unseen, four-screen version – a quartet of 16 mm projectors stand side by side, figure-like, on imposing pedestals facing a long wall. Four looped films of varying lengths are un-spooled and re-spooled in jewel-like swathes of colour interspersed with single black frames.
20:00 - 23:00
On Friday, Sonic Acts pays homage to endless sound with a programme that includes music by the American composer Pauline Oliveros and her ideas about …
Artists
Pauline Oliveros
Eleh
Roland Kayn
Carl Michael von Hausswolff
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On Friday, Sonic Acts pays homage to endless sound with a programme that includes music by the American composer Pauline Oliveros and her ideas about fine-tuning our perceptions by means of Deep Listening to enhance our experience of sound. A pioneer in electronic music, Oliveros’ participation in Sonic Acts in Amsterdam is part of her 80th birthday celebrations. The evocative compositions by Eleh (who has released an LP with Oliveros) have never been performed live in the Netherlands. Roland Kayn’s (1933–2011) cybernetic music and Carl Michael von Hausswolff’s drones almost make sound four-dimensional.
The evening closes with a set by the godfather of Detroit techno Juan Atkins that includes a live performance by his legendary Model 500 project.
23:30 - 05:00
Paradiso’s Disco 3000 and Sonic Acts present a night with techno godfather Juan Atkins (US). In the 1980s Atkins was one of the driving forces …
Artists
Juan Atkins
Model 500
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CD-cover of Model 500′s 2007-album ‘Classics’
Paradiso’s Disco 3000 and Sonic Acts present a night with techno godfather Juan Atkins (US). In the 1980s Atkins was one of the driving forces behind the development of Detroit techno, a sound whose influence is still ubiquitous today. He will perform live under his famous Model 500 moniker and close the night with a DJ set.