Annual Report 2016

ANNUAL REPORT 2016

1 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 3

1. SONIC ACTS ACTIVITIES IN 2016 6

1.1 SONIC ACTS ACADEMY 6

1.2 DARK ECOLOGY 8

1.3 PROGRESS BAR 11

1.4 COMMISSIONS & CO-PRODUCTIONS 13

HOMAGE TO DICK RAAIJMAKERS 14

VILGISKODDEOAYVINYARVI: WOLF LAKE ON THE MOUNTAINS 14

PROGRESS BAR SPATIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 14

ECHOLOCATION (SESSION) 14

ALTITUDE AND HISTORY 15

MIKRO 15

PROSPECTING: A GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF GREYS 15

SOUND WORK FOR PROSPECTING: A GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF GREYS 16

LESOPHON 16

1.5 WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS 16

1.6 OTHER ACTIVITIES 18

1.7 DISTRIBUTION 19

1.8 PUBLISHING 20

SONIC ACTS ACADEMY VOLUME 1 20

LIVING EARTH 20

RESEARCH SERIES 20

DARK ECOLOGY FIELD NOTES 21

LIVESTREAM & VIMEO CHANNEL 21

2. PR, COMMUNICATION & MARKETING 23 Workshop by Susan Schuppli at Schuppli Susan by Workshop 3. SONIC ACTS 2016 IN NUMBERS 26

4. SONIC ACTS TEAM, PARTNERS & FUNDERS IN 2016 27

4.1 SONIC ACTS 27

4.2 DARK ECOLOGY 27 Atmospheric Feedback Loops Feedback Atmospheric Cover: der Velden. van Lucas Photo by Observatory. CESAR

2 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 INTRODUCTION

With this annual report Sonic Acts presents the results of its activities in 2016.

The first edition of the Academy was held in February; this 3-day event focused on the 'Sonic Acts is unstoppable!' current practice and research methodologies of artists and the connections to theory and science. It comprised a well-attended and packed programme with workshops, lectures, - Hilary Jeffery presentations, performances and screenings. With the Academy, Sonic Acts strengthens its role as a platform for research, talent development, commissioning, presentation and critical reflection.

Internationally Sonic Acts was predominantly active with the acclaimed Dark Ecology project. In June Sonic Acts took more than 50 researchers and artists on a journey through the Barents Region as part of the third edition of Dark Ecology for an explorative programme of new commissioned works, lectures, discussions and research reflecting on the Anthropocene and related issues.

The interest, enthusiasm and engagement of artists, theorists, scientists, audience, as well as journalists resonated not only with the immediate participants but also with an extended network of partner organisations and media that further spread the results and inspired a larger audience. Even VPRO’s Tegenlicht participated in the Journey and featured Sonic Acts and Dark Ecology extensively in a documentary on the future of art – broadcast on national television in October.

Throughout the year Sonic Acts also initiated a new series of events in Amsterdam, under the moniker of Progress Bar, combining a discursive programme of talks, screenings, performances and a club night. With this new programme series Sonic Acts aims to present young makers and to promote new connections and cultural diversity. Progress Bar has rapidly gained recognition as one of the most exciting events in the club circuit – combining pressing and thrilling developments in art, music, politics and society – and the events attract a diverse and steadily growing audience.

Sonic Acts furthermore organised a two-day research seminar on the legacy of Maryanne Amacher and a series of workshops, masterclasses, and presentations attended by local and international artists, makers, designers, writers and cultural professionals. Especially fruitful was the collaboration with the TU Delft at their Atmospheric CESAR observatory near Lopik. They hosted a workshop by Susan Schuppli and this inspired new commissioned works by Susan Schuppli and by Signe Lidén & Espen Sommer Eide.

Sonic Acts published the book Living Earth, Field Notes from the Dark Ecology Project 2014–2016, a comprehensive publication filled with ideas, conversations, lectures, and documentation related to commissioned installations, soundwalks, concerts and performances made for and during the Dark Ecology project. Sonic Acts also produced a zine-style publication to accompany the Academy, providing insights into the practices of the participating artists. Throughout the year many more dossiers were published online through our digital Research Series, consisting of interviews, essays, videos and other research-related materials.

The Living Earth publication was presented both in the Netherlands and internationally. Invited by the Van Gogh Museum Sonic Acts curated a Dark Ecology inspired programme to launch the book, with lectures, performances and screenings.

3 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 Cecilia Jonsson, Prospecting: A Geological Survey of Greys Photo by Lucas van der Velden. 4 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 INTRODUCTION

For the development and presentation of the new commissioned works new collaborations with both local and international partners were set up, and existing collaborations were strengthened. The international activities were reinforced with presentations of commissioned works and projects such as Vertical Cinema, and by the ongoing collaboration with international cultural partners, among others through the European Commission-funded collaborative project Changing Weathers.

Alongside its activities, Sonic Acts increased professionalisation on an organisational level and invested additional effort in the development of talent within its organisation. The communication department was strengthened by introducing two positions (head of communication & marketing, and online communication assistant). Within the production department, two additional junior positions and a 6-month internship position ensure that the high production standards of the organisation can be maintained throughout the year. The new programme series Progress Bar provided opportunities to involve emerging talents in curation, moderation and critical writing, with the possibility of further involvement in the Sonic Acts organisation. Sonic Acts thus strives to equip its organisation to ensure the continuous production and realisation of high-quality and cutting-edge works and activities at the intersections of art, science and technology, with a strong focus on some of the most urgent topics of our time.

Daïchi Saïto ft. Jason Sharp, Engram of Returning. Sonic Acts at Paradiso. Photo by Pieter Kers.

5 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 1. SONIC ACTS ACTIVITIES IN 2016

1.1 SONIC ACTS ACADEMY

From 26 to 28 February 2016 Sonic Acts organised the first edition of Sonic Acts Academy, ‘The works of art and research an extensive programme of workshops, lectures, presentations, performances and are neither just art, nor screenings highlighting the multifaceted field of artistic research. just research and it is in The Academy is a bi-annual event that alternates with the Sonic Acts Festival. It creates this intersection that new space for a more focused and research-oriented programme, and offers thought- connections can be drawn. This provoking new perspectives on the research into art, the research needed for art and is the power of the Academy: especially research through art. Showcasing the varied forms of artistic research and the current dialogue between theory and practice, Sonic Acts aims to focus on the many artistic-academic widely varying practice of makers and artists, and the great interest from artists and assemblies will emerge that we audiences for the first edition clearly demonstrated the need for such a programme in the Netherlands. are eagerly looking forward to.’ - Niels Tubbing, Gonzo Circus The programme took place at various locations in Amsterdam: the opening was at the Stedelijk Museum and attracted over 1100 visitors. This was followed by two days of well- received lectures, presentations and film screenings at De Brakke Grond, drawing a great crowd both off- and online (with over 600 people following the programme via the live stream on both days). On Saturday evening the symposium was followed by a packed night of concerts and performances at Paradiso. In the weeks preceding and following the Academy, there was a programme of engaging workshops for artists, curators, theorists and cultural practitioners.

THE PROGRAMME

Opening at the Stedelijk The opening event of the Sonic Acts Academy took place at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Outside on the Museumsquare, Joris Strijbos’ large-scale kinetic sound and- light installation IsoScope functioned as an eye-catcher. Sonic Acts commissioned IsoScope for the Academy and the Dark Ecology project in Norway and Russia. The installation consists of twelve robotic wind objects that interact with each other and their surroundings to perform a generative composition, providing a sensorial experience in Thomas Ankersmit, opening Sonic Acts which the audience could wander around. Academy at Stedelijk. Photo by Pieter Kers. Inside the Stedelijk, a multitude of performances took place throughout the building. Thomas Ankersmit premiered his new piece, a Sonic Acts commission, titled Homage to Dick Raaijmakers. Ankersmit only used analogue electronic sounds, and mainly employed the tone and noise generators, modulators, and filters – using his Serge synthesizer – that were also available to Raaijmakers in the 1950s. The performance explored the spatiality and physicality of sound, and the interference of sound waves with each other. When entering the Stedelijk, visitors first encountered two icons of the Dutch improv and sound art scene, Jos Smolders and Frans de Waard, performing a new quadrophonic composition as WaSm. Upstairs, one of the rising stars of the new electronic avant- garde, guitarist Raphael Vanoli, played solo, using a unique technique that exaggerated the tiniest sounds from his instrument, making them audible in an often-overwhelming fashion. Raphael Vanoli, opening Sonic Acts Academy at Stedelijk. Photo by Pieter Kers.

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Another highlight were two powerful solo improvisations by cellist Okkyung Lee surrounded by paintings by Mangold in a room that was overcrowded with concentrated listeners. Using extended techniques and viscerally extracting non-standard sounds from her instrument, it sounded as if she was turning the cello inside out.

The opening also marked the first presentation of theMaryanne Amacher Archive (Bill Dietz and Robert The) in the Netherlands. Maryanne Amacher (1938–2009) was an American composer known for her rigorous research and groundbreaking sound concepts. Sonic Acts has presented her works several times in the past 15 years, and plans a longer Okkyung Lee, opening Sonic Acts collaboration with the Maryanne Amacher Archive. At the Stedelijk Dietz and The presented Academy at Stedelijk. Photo by Aisha Amacher’s Tone and Interval Studies that document her experimental investigation of Pagnes. otoacoustic emissions and psycho-acoustic dimensions of human tone perception.

The performance programme was complemented by a selection of works from the Stedelijk collection, which gave a historical context to the programme. Carefully selected for this occasion were a prototype of Dick Raaijmakers’ Ideophone, as well as compositions by Terry Riley and LaMonte Young (resp. Poppy No Goods All Night Flight and Drift Study), both closely related to the Amacher’s work. The event in the Stedelijk succeeded in combining different generations of electronic music and noise in a gesture of intergenerational programming.

Symposium The symposium on 27 and 28 February was held at De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam, a new location for Sonic Acts. Each day consisted of a series of presentations plus a closing session. Each presentation had its own moderator from the Sonic Acts curatorial team who introduced the presentation and mediated the Q&A. Sally Jane Norman – an expert on artistic research – opened the symposium with a lecture sketching the current state of artistic research and its challenges, and acted as a central respondent for the programme as a whole.

The first day sawLouis Henderson showing his films, and discussing animism in the context of the Internet and Ghanaian (Internet) culture, history, mining, and e-waste recycling. Susan Schuppli delved into the concept of the material witness and forensics, referring, among others, to the 18-and-a-half minutes of machined silence from the Watergate tape, and the mysterious case of Uranium-235. Ewa Justka performed with her self-made noise- creatures and was interviewed about her methods. Bill Dietz and Robert The presented the work of the research-oriented American composer Maryanne Amacher and discussed their endeavours to set up the Amacher Archive, which will keep her ideas alive. Ewa Justka, Sonic Acts Academy. Photo by On the second day, Heather Davis speculated on the reshaping of ecologies, on toxicology, Pieter Kers. and the strange new mixes of plastics and natural materials (viruses, bacteria, stones), called the plastisphere. Davis made clear that the changes in the global ecology not only raise environmental concerns: we ourselves are already ‘becoming plastic’ through the absorption of micro-particles and soluble additives in plastic products. #Additivism presented their ideas on the use of 3D printing for social change, also showing Morehshin Allahyari’s work on the Roman and Assyrian sculptures in Iraq which were destroyed by ISIS. Katrina Burch mixed computer sound with mathematics and archaeology to speculate on, among others, the role cognition plays when listening to sound. Ana Vaz, a filmmaker who has worked with Bruno Latour, presented her films, and used the idea of anthropophagy – a central concept in the Brazilian avant-garde – to reflect on her artistic ideas and methods. Anton Kats explored different uses of community radio and narrowcasting to give a voice to the site-specific, the everyday and the political.Sally Jane Norman rounded up both #Additivism, Sonic Acts Academy. Photo by days, bringing together the richness of this choice of artistic research practices. The large Gustavo Velho. auditorium in De Brakke Grond had an excellent live streaming set-up. Together with the continuously projected Twitter feeds, this added a large and engaged online audience to the symposium. On Saturday and Sunday more than 600 people watched the live stream. With a live audience of more than 200 people each day, the first edition of the Academy symposium was a success.

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Sonic Acts Academy at Paradiso The Saturday programme at Paradiso featured more than 20 performances and continued until the early hours. The programme was multi-faceted, and consisted of bass-heavy dance sets and immersive audio-visual performances and experimental films. Compiled in collaboration with Juha van ’t Zelfde (Lighthouse, Viral Radio), the programme featured many upcoming international artists and producers from young collectives such as Janus, NON, Endless, Staycore and Knives, based in cities such as Cape Town, Copenhagen, Brighton, Berlin, Oslo and London, which had never performed in the Netherlands before. The electronic music was fuelled by R&B, kuduro, grime, reggaeton, techno, kizomba, as well as computer algorithms and field recordings sourced online. Young producers of complex electronic music like Nkisi, Lotic and Toxe energised the dancing in Paradiso. There were many highlights, one of which was certainly Jason Sharp’s (literally) breathtaking half-hour bass-saxophone improvisation accompanying Daïchi Saito’s new film Engram of Returning. Another one was Paul Jebanasam and Tarik Barri’s brand new digital sound-and-vision universe Continuum. ALX9696, Sonic Acts at Paradiso. Photo by Pieter Kers. 1.2 DARK ECOLOGY

In 2014 Sonic Acts initiated the three-year international art, research and commissioning project Dark Ecology, in the North of Norway and Northwest Russia. It focused on research, transnational cooperation and the creation of new artworks. Dark Ecology was informed by the idea that ecology is ‘dark’ (as the American theorist Timothy Morton argues), because it invites – or demands – that we think about our intimate interconnections with, for instance, iron ore, snowflakes, plankton, or radiation. This idea of ecology – and what we now know about how human activity has fundamentally changed the Earth and the atmosphere – urges a rethinking of the concepts of nature and how humans are connected to the world. The theme and the location informed the Dark Ecology project, and were the starting point to invite artists and theorists to develop new approaches and new works. Dark Ecology thus unfolded through research, the creation of new artworks, and public programmes that Timothy Morton's lecture Dark Ecological were presented in the border zone on both sides of the Russian–Norwegian border. The Chocolate. Photo by Lucas van der Velden. Dark Ecology team curated the programme of commissions and residencies, as well as the Journeys that brought researchers and artists to the Barents Region. With the Dark Ecology Journeys an international meeting place was created for artists and researchers to reflect on ‘dark ecology’ in the context of the Barents Region and the issues at stake there. The project aimed to facilitate an exchange between artists and researchers, and inspire both ‘Dark Ecology is a collaborative a professional and a local audience. This was done through commissioned works, lectures, curatorial effort that takes discussions, excursions, and guided walks, plus the publication of texts and videos on the online platform. The Journeys showed that the chosen thematic framework resonated time to dig deep into the firmly in the national and international art and research community. The project brought Earth’s crust, and make a philosophical and cultural discussion on ecology, nature, and the relation between things speak. It is about humans and non-humans to the North, with the issues of the Barents Region informing the discussions and artistic research. In return the experience of the Journeys in the North, forming a microcosmos and with the visits to commissioned artworks, lecture and discussions, inspired the researchers, a community of thinkers and philosophers, artists and other participants. It gave them a deeper understanding of the doers who care for a shared issues, and a fresh view on the possibilities of art giving form to new ideas, and speaking planetary space, a micro- to the imagination. The Journeys have exposed a local audience to new art and new thinking. In 2016 especially the presentation of commissioned works in Russia attracted a reality that can spread and large local audience, many of whom had never experienced contemporary art before. The infiltrate into other realities, results of the research and residencies were internationally presented at public events and ways of thinking about and festivals in Bergen (NO), Amsterdam (NL), and elsewhere. Documentation, essays and interviews were included in the publication Living Earth. In addition, extensive reflection and being in the world. Dark and documentation was published on the online Dark Ecology platform. Dark Ecology was Ecology is about seeing, part of the Changing Weathers project that was supported by the European Commission, listening, acting and reflecting a close collaboration with art partners situated at Europe’s economic and political periphery. From the beginning, there was a keen interest from the Norwegian, Dutch and art and theory.’ - Hilde Methi, curator Dark Ecology 8 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 JustinHC Gilje Bennett, & Justin BennettVilgiskoddeoayvinyarvi performing Mikro during- Wolf theLake Dark on Ecologythe Mountains journey.. Photo byby Michael Rosa Menkman. Miller. 9 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 SONIC ACTS ACTIVITIES IN 2016

international cultural world, and this enabled Sonic Acts to initiate further partnerships and collaborations with organisations in, amongst others Tromsø (Verdensteatret and Kurant Art Space) and Bergen (Borealis Festival and Landmark/Bergen Kunsthall). In addition, Dark Ecology collaborated with the 3-year EC-funded research project Arctic Encounters.

DARK ECOLOGY JOURNEY III

8 – 12 June 2016, Svanvik (NO), Kola Superdeep Borehole, Zapolyarny and Nikel (RU), Kirkenes (NO)

Thursday 9 June 2016 The group of artists and researchers – from Norway, the Netherlands, Canada, the US, France, Germany, Italy and many other places – who participated in the third Dark Ecology Journey in June 2016 was welcomed on 8 June at the Svanhovd Centre in Svanvik. This third Journey was scheduled for the time when the sun is above the horizon for the full 24 hours. In the opening lecture Heather Davis gave her view on the Anthropocene and the geology of plastics. For the afternoon the group was split in several subgroups for curated research walks in the region, looking into the archaeological, historical, ecological and political aspects of the Svanvik Valley. Dmitry Morozov’s (aka :vtol:) sound installation Lesophon was presented in Svanhovd. Jana Winderen’s Pasvikdalen was also installed in Svanhovd. Heather Davis' lecture Plastic Geologies - The Problem of Universality. Photo by Lucas van der Velden. Friday 10 June 2016 Timothy Morton kicked off the second day with a lecture and presentation of his new book Dark Ecology. For a Logic of Future Coexistence, which had just been published by Harvard. In the afternoon the group travelled across the border to Nikel. A large local audience turned up for the hike up the hill to see and hear Signe Lidén and Espen Sommer Eide’s work Altitude & History. On the way up Espen Sommer Eide performed three short pieces based on the sound histories of Nikel’s old residents that he and Lidén had collected. The hike ended on the top of the hill were the wind instruments were spread out, with four upright tubes (with little speakers underneath them) playing field recordings close-by. The group stayed on the hill for a considerable amount of time, and many of the Russians played the antenna-like wind instruments.

Pasvik River Tour. Photo by Michael Miller.

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Saturday 11 June 2016 In the morning the group travelled to the Kola Superdeep Borehole, in the mountains near Zapolyarny. In the middle of a breath-taking landscape lay the ruins of Soviet science and engineering. Once this was a place for avant-garde science and hi-tech experimental engineering, to learn about the Earth, but now only the carcases of electronic installations and rusting metal remain. Justin Bennett had created a narrative soundwalk in and for this site, which explores its history, and the stories about it. Over 100 Russians came by bus and car from Zapolyarny and Nikel (and even further away) to experience the work.

Sunday 12 June 2016 On the last day of the third Dark Ecology Journey, the group departed from Zapolyarny to Kirkenes for the unveiling Cecilia Jonsson’s installation Prospecting: A Geological Survey of Greys on Langøra Hill in Kirkenes. Walking towards the work, the group listened to Peter Meanwell’s specially commissioned podcast about the Justin Bennett, Vilgiskoddeoayvinyarvi work: 170 metres of bore-cores, exhibited as a sculpture. The journey closed inside - Wolf Lake on the Mountains. Photo by the emptied bankrupt separation plant in Kirkenes, where previously iron ore had Michael Miller. been separated from stone. It felt as if the workers have only temporarily left the building. Nickel van Duijvenboden invited the group to the canteen and into the factory hall for his performance. He read letters, interspersed with drumming, about his stay and various topics connected to the current situation in Kirkenes. The final performance took place in an adjacent mining warehouse; Mikro, a live improvised audiovisual performance by Justin Bennett and HC Gilje.

1.3 PROGRESS BAR

Progress Bar offers a discursive programme of talks, screenings, performances and a club in a single night. Each event connects artists and audiences across the globe and highlights new developments in art, music, politics and society. The series gives insight into the creative practice of the contributors, from vanguard music producers and filmmakers to pioneering theorists and activists. Performances have featured a genre-spanning line-up ‘Progress Bar is the most of local and international artists – and communities of artists – many of whom straddle the exciting and engaged club intersection between nightlife and socio-political activism. Progress Bar is committed to a new generation of local and international talents and night in the Netherlands.’ actively seeks out urgent voices and sounds that demand attention. Performing artists - DJ Broadcast at Progress Bar events included Bordeaux-based Nidia Minaj, who is one of few female producers of kuduro music; Sami Baha, who garnered a musical reputation after leaving his increasingly turbulent hometown of Istanbul; and young DJs and producers such as the Stockholm-based Staycore collective (Toxe, ALX9696 and Mechatok); and Endless, a subversive, genre-breaking London collective that breeds exciting new producers. By working with young, diverse and critical artists Sonic Acts aims to stimulate innovation and diversity in the cultural field.

Progress Bar reaches out to local artists and communities and focuses in particular on a young and culturally diverse audience. As a venue the Tolhuistuin location in Amsterdam Noord is a perfect place to bring this audience in contact with Sonic Acts and the programme it offers. An industrial remnant that has been repurposed as a cultural destination, the location merges mainstream and more avant-garde programming. The programming of Progress Bar events also encourages local artists. Rijksakademie resident artist Kate Cooper, and visual designer Aaron McLaughlin — a graduate of Sandberg Jo Kali interviews Gaika at Progress Bar. Instituut — both gave talks about their work. Photo by Pieter Kers. At the same time, Progress Bar connects with artists and communities formed in other parts of the world. The third edition featured London-based DJ and producer Nkisi, co- founder of the NON - collective of African diasporic artists using sound as their primary

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media to articulate the structures that distribute power. Many of the communities connected to Progress Bar have been formed online. In some cases, Progress Bar was the first time that members of these communities had met in person.

Progress Bar speaks to a younger audience, whose experiences and developments are increasingly defined by digital media technologies. The Internet and digital media inform how many emerging artists express themselves, and Progress Bar aims to showcase these developments, to document them and to make them accessible. Progress Bar is a response to the changing role of cultural institutions to provide a context for contemporary art and digital culture, and a platform for its communication. Abyss X at Progress Bar. Photo by Pieter Kers. An important element of Progress Bar events is the talks programme. With a focus on performances, Progress Bar talks have covered a wide range of socio-political issues, particularly those concerning minorities and marginalised groups. Topics have included the impact of gentrification on clubs, transgender politics, and how a collective of African artists are using sound to express societal structures. Michael Oswell, art director, and graphic designer for Progress Bar, talked about his practice, while senior editor for Novara Media, Ash Sarkar, spoke about the implications of Brexit.

Progress Bar creates an encouraging environment, and boosts the confidence of emerging artists to open up the creative process of their work. For some artists it is the first time they perform abroad, or the first time they have talked to an audience about their work. Writer and performer Roger Robinson discussed his career and work with King Midas Sound. Other artists participated in conversations about their work, including London-based performer GAIKA, multidisciplinary artist False Witness, and Bolivian-born producer Elysia Crampton.

Lecture by Ash Sarkar at Progress Bar. Progress Bar exists is to account for change – whether it’s the changing role of cultural Photo by Pieter Kers. institutions or developments in arts, politics and society in general. As such, Sonic Acts wishes to advance the public understanding of club spaces, and this extends to the physical and visual properties. For the first five editions of Progress Bar,Marco Broeders – under the alias Co2Ro – designed spatial transformations; for example, physical stencils were used against a light source to create unique patterns.

PROGRESS BAR SEASON 1 The first series of Progress Bar events began on 16 January. Culture journalistAimee Cliff and Robert Robinson of King Midas Sound gave presentations. The club programme featured King Midas Sound, Lexxi, Endgame and Kamixlo — co-founders of Endless collective. The second edition on 26 March featured live performances by Egyptian–Iranian performer Lafawndah, emerging producer and visual artist PYUR, New Zealand-born producer FIS, London-based producer Brood Ma, and Brighton-based producer ITAL TEK. The talks programme featured London-based digital arts studio Werkflow, and Lafawndah.

The third edition took place on 23 April. It opened with talks by London-based DJ and producer Nkisi and performer GAIKA. The club programme also featured live performances and DJ sets by Nkisi and GAIKA, as well as Paris-born Crystallmess and Liverpool-based producer Ling. On 4 June, the fourth edition of the first series began with talks by multidisciplinary artist False Witness and Bolivian-born producer Elysia Crampton. The event continued with live performances and DJ sets by Elysia Crampton, False Witness, Bordeaux-based Nidia Minaj, multi-instrumentalist and producer Yves Tumor, and DJ Sami Baha.

12 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 King Midas Sound at Progress Bar. Photo by Pieter Kers. PROGRESS BAR SEASON 2 After a summer break Progress Bar returned on 15 October with a second series of events. The first edition included a new audiovisual show by duo Amnesia Scanner; Bordeaux- based, Angola-raised artist Malibu; and DJ sets by young producers Toxe, ALX9696 and Mechatok. Talks were by Michael Oswell and Ash Sarkar. The second edition on 19 November included performances by experimental duo patten, Belgian producer Sky H1, Dedekind Cut, Jam City, and TTB. The talks programme included Rijksakademie resident artist Kate Cooper, and a conversation with Dedekind Cut. The third edition on 17 December began with a talk by visual designer Aaron McLaughlin, and interviews with collaborators God Colony and Flohio, and Shygirl and Sega Bodega. The event continued with DJ sets and live performances by Cõvco, God Colony with Flohio, DJ Juha, DJ and producer SHALT, Shygirl with producer Sega Bodega, and DJ and producer Wartone.

1.4 COMMISSIONS & CO-PRODUCTIONS

One of the most important ambitions of Sonic Acts is to realise new works, varying from experimental installations, audio works, compositions and films to research projects and large-scale works in public space. This ambition was embodied by the commissioning and production of eight new artworks which premiered either in 2016 in the context of the Academy or Dark Ecology. The commissions are explorations and concretisations of the (artistic) research that Sonic Acts champions, and connect to themes and issues that are foregrounded by the Sonic Acts events. In many cases the works are realised in a close collaboration with (international) partners, and distributed via Sonic Acts’ international network. Sonic Acts commissions new works from carefully selected artists, creators and musicians. It functions as client, catalyst and distributor, and supervises the content and production of the commissions, facilitates residencies, acts as a sparring partner, and monitors the quality of the commissioned work. Reflection and knowledge transfer is usually connected to the production of the commissions: artists present works-in-progress, give lectures or workshops, and/or are interviewed. Practice and theory are linked and the production process is made visible to the public, also in online and offline Sonic Acts publications that aim to increase the reach of these works.

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Homage to Dick Raaijmakers - Thomas Ankersmit For this electronic music performance, sound artist and composer Thomas Ankersmit delved into the ideas and instruments of a Dutch titan of electronic music, Dick Raaijmakers (1930–2013). As a work of contemporary music in its own right, Ankersmit’s homage re-evaluated Raaijmakers’ concepts of sound, composition and spatial experience in a technologically more advanced era. Ankersmit mainly used similar means as Raaijmakers: tone and noise generators, modulators, filters, mixers, amplifiers and speakers. However, instead of Raaijmakers’ usual method of editing with magnetic tape, Ankersmit used computer software. Ankersmit’s homage was commissioned for the 2016 Thomas Ankersmit, Homage to Dick Sonic Acts Academy and premièred during the opening night at the Stedelijk Museum Raaijmakers. Opening Sonic Acts Academy Amsterdam. It has toured extensively. at Stedelijk. Photo by Pieter Kers.

Thomas Ankersmit (NL) is a Dutch musician and artist based in Berlin and Amsterdam, whose work displays a deep interest in acoustic perception.

Vilgiskoddeoayvinyarvi: Wolf Lake on the Mountains - Justin Bennett Vilgiskoddeoayvinyarvi: Wolf Lake on the Mountains by Justin Bennett, was a site-specific soundwalk in and around the abandoned site of the Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest man-made hole on Earth: it descended more than 12 kilometres. The listeners met Viktor – a fictional character created by Bennett – a geologist who worked on the Kola Superdeep project until it was shut down. Viktor, who has stayed on-site as much as possible, shows the audience around the ruined site and explains his work: listening to vibrations deep within the Earth, linking geology with Sami shamanism and divination. The English and Russian soundtracks are published on Soundcloud. The work premiered Justin Bennett, Vilgiskoddeoayvinyarvi during the Dark Ecology Journey. - Wolf Lake on the Mountains. Photo by Michael Miller. Justin Bennett (UK/NL) works with sound and visual media and examines the sounds of our everyday urban environments in the minutest detail.

Realised with additional support of Changing Weathers.

Progress Bar Spatial Transformations - Marco Broeders Marco Broeders – under the alias Co2Ro – designed and implemented custom-made objects, interiors and theatrical environments as spatial transformations for Progress Bar events. His designs were used for the first five editions in Paradiso Noord, Tolhuistuin, and consisted of sound controlled lamps, LED blinders and aluminium objects, as well as laser cut cylindrical drums that acted as physical stencils or templates placed inside or in front of a light source, creating shapes with the emitted light.

Marco Broeders (NL) has studied Architectural Design at the AKV St.Joost in Breda. Marco Broeders, Progress Bar Spatial Currently he works as Co2RO primarily as a spatial designer and analogue dj/vj. Transformations. Photo by Pieter Kers. Echolocation (Session) - Nickel van Duijvenboden Echolocation (Session) was a new work by Nickel van Duijvenboden. Following his Dark Ecology residency in Kirkenes, van Duijvenboden gave a performative reading inside disused communal spaces belonging to the Kirkenes mine. He blended the reading of written letters with sound recordings and live instruments, creating a parallel narrative based on a prior visualisation of the location and a psycho-geographical exploration of the surroundings. To Van Duijvenboden the written letter has become a means of rhythmic reporting from a situation of constructed ‘remoteness’. It allows a degree of improvisation, which in some cases recalls the act of dérive: an unplanned journey undertaken by a flaneur.

Nickel van Duijvenboden, Echolocation Nickel van Duijvenboden’s (NL) work centres on how to visually represent a writing practice. (Session). Photo by Michael Miller.

14 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 JOURNEYS

Signe Lidén & Espen Sommer Eide, Altitude and History. Photo by Michael Miller. Altitude and History - Espen Sommer Eide & Signe Lidén With Altitude and History, Espen Sommer Eide and Signe Lidén investigated the acoustic phenomena in relation to the topography of the area while relating them to the local history, using specially developed mobile, meteorological music instruments. The work took the shape of a trek in the mountains above Nikel during the Dark Ecology Journey, where listeners experienced that wind, weather, atmospheric pressure and the temperature of the air, and that refraction, diffraction and reverberation by the landscape affects sound and its propagation in the air. Eide and Lidén mapped the history of the area vertically, from the ground up, into the different atmospheric strata. This history is shaped and moved by the weather conditions at different altitudes.

Espen Sommer Eide (NO) is among the most prominent Norwegian representatives of experimental electronic music.

Signe Lidén’s (NO) installations and performances examine man-made landscapes and their resonance.

Mikro - HC Gilje & Justin Bennett 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. Gilje and Bennett created this performance from material gathered over the course of the third Dark Ecology Journey. Gilje used a microscope to examine and capture textures of the various found materials, which were added to a continuously changing video loop: new images constantly replace old ones. Organic, mineral, synthetic, processed: dead and live materials come together in a flicker bonanza. The modus operandi for the sound in Mikro was inspired by and similar to Gilje’s video processing techniques. Sounds were created Justin Bennett & HC Gilje, Mikro. Photo by by manipulating found materials – metal, paper, plant material, stones, and other objects Rosa Menkman. – to reveal their textures and resonances.

Prospecting: A Geological Survey of Greys - Cecilia Jonsson Prospecting: A Geological Survey of Greys was an interdisciplinary, site-specific art project that appropriated the scientific geological methods of extracting, analysing and categorising mineral specimens. In doing so, the project addresses the distinctions between objective scientific methods and subjective influences. A massive cylindrical column of rock core sample was displayed, shadowed by its negative – an adjacent 5-centimetre-diameter, 150-metre-deep hole in the basement rock. Following its unveiling during the Dark Ecology Journey, the installation was exhibited on-site on Prestefjellet, just outside Kirkenes, from 12 June until 25 September 2016.

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Cecilia Jonsson (SE) is an interdisciplinary artist who, informed by methods used in the natural sciences, explores tensions between the mineral domain and living entities.

Realised with additional support from Arts Council Norway, Changing Weathers, Norwegian Visual Artists Association (NBK), Bergen Municipality and The Geological Survey of Norway.

Sound work for Prospecting: A Geological Survey of Greys - Peter Meanwell Peter Meanwell composed a new sound piece to accompany the work Prospecting: A Geological Survey of Greys by Cecilia Jonsson. It features the artist in conversation about her engagement with the landscape around Kirkenes and the physical processes of creating the installation, and a soundtrack of field recordings of the surrounding area and the technology used to create the work.

Peter Meanwell (UK) is the artistic director of the Borealis Festival in Bergen (NO). He has been making radio programmes for BBC 3 for more than ten years.

Cecilia Jonsson, Prospecting A Geological Lesophon - ::vtol:: aka Dmitry Morozov Survey of Greys. Photo by Rosa Menkman. In a barn in Pasvik Valley a few dozen rolls of adhesive tape hung in a row. Ultrasonic distance sensors and small contact microphones attached to the tapes produced an algorithm which generated sound that was transmitted on FM. The audience was invited to listen to the installation as it unwound, through headphones and via FM radio. Lesophon was on display in the Visitor Centre of Øvre Nationalpark Svanhovd from 9 to 12 June 2016 during the Dark Ecology Journey.

::vtol:: aka Dmitry Morozov (RU) is a Moscow-based media artist, musician and engineer of strange-sounding machines.

1.5 WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS

::vtol:: aka Dmitry Morozov, Лесофон With its workshops and seminar programme Sonic Acts aims to develop talent and -Lesophon. Photo by Rosa Menkman. share and develop knowledge with professionals, emerging artists and makers and students, writers and critics. The topics of the workshops and seminars relate to Sonic Acts’ areas of focus and offer the opportunity to reflect more deeply on the participants’ own practice. The workshops and seminars take different forms: Some are hands-on and practice-oriented, others focus on a deep understanding of artistic methodology. The length varies from one day to almost a full week. In 2016 the Academy programme was embedded in a series of workshops, which provided the participants with a unique opportunity to gain in-depth insights into the theory and thinking, working processes and methods of internationally renowned artists and thinkers. The local and international response on the call for applications for the workshops shows that there is a great demand for these forms of knowledge acquisition and sharing.

Field Recording Workshop by Jana Winderen and BJ Nilsen 10-13 February, STEIM, Amsterdam (NL)

Over the course of four days, this practice-oriented workshop focused on the art of field recording. The workshop was led byJana Winderen and BJ Nilsen, whose careers span several decades. After an introductory day, the second day was an excursion to National Park de Biesbosch with a biologist accompanying the participants. On the third day, an urban ecologist guided the participants on a long walk through the different Field Recording Workshop with Jana environments of the inner city of Amsterdam. The workshop continued at STEIM, with Winderen and BJ Nilsen. Photo by Lucas feedback and processing sessions that concluded with a share-and-tell session on the van der Velden. final day for participants and a group of students. The results of the workshop can be found on Soundcloud.

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Atmospheric Feedback Loops Workshop by Susan Schuppli 25 - 26 February, CESAR Observatory, Lopik & Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (NL)

The Atmospheric Feedback Loops workshop led by Susan Schuppli focused on Schuppli’s artistic research practice. The workshop started with a research trip to the Cabauw observatory in Lopik, with its many measurement instruments that include a 213-metre- high antenna. Discussions with Professor Herman Russchenberg, director of the Climate Institute of the Technical University Delft, centred on the meaning of terms such as ‘climate change’, ‘rain drop’ and ‘cloud’. The workshop concluded at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam with the development of ideas of participants as well as an evaluation of newly acquired experiences and knowledge. Since the workshop, plans have been made to continue the collaboration with Cabauw for the second part of Schuppli’s diptych on weather stations.

Voice Odder Workshop by Ewa Justka 26 February, STEIM, Amsterdam (NL)

Atmospheric Feedback Loops Workshop by For this workshop, Polish electronic noise artist Ewa Justka guided participants through Susan Schuppli. Photo by Rosa Menkman. the process of creating a unique electronic instrument and effects unit, The Voice Odder, which is a compact, voice-altering device inspired by William S. Burroughs’ claim that ‘the word is a virus’. The mission of the workshop was for the participants to free themselves ‘Because of the vast amount of this ‘parasitic resisting organism’ by building a device especially designed for this of different approaches, it is purpose, allowing them to hear the invader and see it as light frequencies. The Voice Odder is a simple electronic circuit based on a delay Integrated Circuit (IC). It has a built- hard to write or read about in microphone and includes echo and delay effects, and extreme resonance sampling and field recording. This workshop distortion, which generates crazy noises and surprising sounds. The workshop appealed allowed me to get in touch to a very mixed group of people ranging from art students and artists interested in using with people for whom field distorted voices in their performances, to writers with an interest in approaching the voice in a tactile manner. recording is an important part of their practice, and to learn Critical Writing Workshop 2016: Describing the Indescribable about everybody’s views.’ 26-28 February, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL) - Participant Field Recording After the success of the Critical Writing Workshops in 2015, the Academy featured another Workshop 4-day workshop on critical writing, led by renowned and experienced journalist Jennifer Allan and co-editors Katía Truijen and Nadine Roestenburg, which attracted participants from all over Europe. The workshop provided insights into specific aspects of the craft of critical writing (language, style, focus) and provided feedback on the texts written by ‘The workshop gave me the the workshop participants during the Academy. The participants and editors produced 17 great opportunity to meet edited articles that were published on the Sonic Acts blog sonicacts.com/critical. other like-minded writers Realised with additional support of Changing Weathers. from around the world. What I really appreciated was the #Additivism PostNatural Workshop by Moreshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke chance to acquire one-on-one 29 February - 1 March, Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (NL) feedback on my own writing The workshop by Morehshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke took place after the Academy at which is very rare in these days the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten and attracted a large number of participants. of strictly online relationships The workshop started with an elaborate lecture on the relationships between plastic, horror and 3D printing and their roles in contemporary culture. Participants were then with editors.’ guided in developing their own ‘post-natural’ recipes: recipes that shed light on the ways - Participant Critical Writing 3D printing can be used as a critical form of art. A selection of the results will be part of Workshop the recently published 3D Additivism Cookbook.

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Sensory Augmentation and Obstruction Workshop 29 November – 1 December, LIMA, Amsterdam (NL)

The workshop by Joost Rekveld, organised in collaboration with LIMA as part of UNFOLD, introduced different schools of thought that deal with human perception, from ancient concepts to more recent ideas, taking inspiration from early video works by Steina and Woody Vasulka). It looked at the intimate relations between humans and technological devices, including research into the development of artificial eyes for blind people. Sensory Augmentation and Obstruction Participants translated the output of various types of sensors to real-time visuals, Workshop by Joost Rekveld. Photo by experimenting with the perception of their surroundings. An important aspect of the Pieter Kers. workshop was the use by participants of their self-built devices during short field trips around the city.

The Maryanne Amacher Archive Seminar & Listening Session 12 – 13 December, Stedelijk Museum & De Appel, Amsterdam (NL)

The two-day seminar presented by Amy Cimini, Bill Dietz and Robert The offered a deep insight into the work of Maryanne Amacher through a selection of documents, images, and audio from various iterations of Maryanne Amacher’s Mini Sound Series as well as works leading to its development, all of which had been recently digitised by the archive. The seminar brought together experts from different fields to exchange insights The Maryanne Amacher Archive Seminar. and discuss the possibilities of recreating her work. The seminar was part of a longer Photo by Pieter Kers. trajectory building towards reinterpretations of Amacher’s work. Following the second day of the seminar, a public listening session of additional unpublished Amacher audio was presented as a practical elaboration for seminar participants, and as an introductory overview for the general public.

1.6 OTHER ACTIVITIES

Tegenlicht Meet Up 12 October, Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam (NL)

The prize-winning Dutch documentary television series, VPRO Tegenlicht, joined Sonic Acts on the last Dark Ecology Journey in June 2016. The documentary, which focuses on the future of art, was broadcasted on Dutch national television on Sunday 9 October on NPO 2. The following Wednesday there was a Tegenlicht Meet Up event at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam. Director of Sonic Acts, Lucas van der Velden, was one of the contributors invited to discuss art’s place within the cutting-edge of science, theory and social activism, whether the term ‘art’ will still be useful in the future, and how artists will Cultuurbarbaren - VPRO Tegenlicht relate to themselves and others in society. documentaire over Dark Ecology. Vincent op Vrijdag & Sonic Acts 28 October, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (NL)

As part of the Vincent on Friday series at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Sonic Acts presented a programme of Dark Ecology relating to the museum’s exhibition: Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh: Impressions of Landscape. Many of the works created for Dark Ecology can be seen as a new form of landscape art, revealing unexpected or hidden aspects of the landscape and our relationship with it. As such they connected t. Joost Rekveld and Jana Winderen introduced the world of Dark Ecology. Signe Lidén’s film krysning/пересечение/conflux showed a unique perspective on various landscapes in the border area of Norway and Russian. A performance by artists Karl Lemieux and BJ Nilsen layered analogue film recordings of landscapes and was accompanied by live sound. The programme also featured a large-scale video work by artist HC Gilje and a DJ set by Yon Eta. Karl Lemieux & BJ Nilsen, unearthed. Vincent op Vrijdag & Sonic Acts. Photo by Maartje Meesterberends. 18 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 SONIC ACTS ACTIVITIES IN 2016

1.7 DISTRIBUTION

Many of the works which were commissioned by Sonic Acts were shown at other occasions such as festivals, conference and performance programmes as well, and a lot of effort was put into making the dissemination happen. The curatorial team of Sonic Acts and Dark Ecology, together with invited artists and theorists also gave several presentations at different events internationally. Below is a brief overview of the distribution.

Thomas Ankersmit’s Homage to Dick Raaijmakers toured extensively in 2016, to Spektrum Berlin (DE), Gogbot Festival in Enschede, WORM Rotterdam, International Computer Music Conference at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, November Music in Den Bosch and Ancienne Belgique in Brussels (BE).

DARK ECOLOGY In total, over 18 Dark Ecology exports occurred in 2016. In this way the results and insights of Dark Ecology were exported outside the Barents Region, and gained a much wider visibility and larger audience reach. Confluxby Signe Lidén, a commission for Dark Ecology in 2014, was screened at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, where Jana Winderen also presented her work in progress and the commission unearthed by Karl Lemieux and BJ Nilsen was screened. The latter was also screened at the Mediatheque in San Francisco USA. IsoScope, a commission for Dark Ecology in 2015, was also exhibited several times, including at the Museumplein (Amsterdam) and at the festival Into The Great Wide Open (Vlieland NL).

Also noteworthy is the joint Arctic Encounters & Dark Ecology Forum in Tromsø on Wednesday immediately after the third Journey in 2016. It was organised in collaboration with Fylkeskommune Tromsø. Annette Wolfsberger, Hilde Methi, Arie Altena, Espen Sommer Eide and Margrethe Pettersen were on the Dark Ecology panel, and Signe Lidén’s Confluxwas shown in a film version. The evening closed with an event at Kurant in Tromsø. Jana Winderen gave a moving live performance of Pasvikdalen, a commission for Dark Ecology 2015. Afterwards, Timothy Morton gave a lecture and Q&A, and read his prepared ‘love letter to Dark Ecology/Sonic Acts’. The text was a mash-up of the e-mails Morton exchanged with Sonic Acts and excerpts from texts he has written for Dark Ecology.

In the framework of RIXC Art Science Festival from 29 September - 1 October 2016 in Riga, Lucas van der Velden took part in the conference Open Fields and presented the Living Earth publication in a panel composed of Changing Weather partners titled Networked Repsonse with o.a. Erich Berger (Hybrid Matters), Netta Norro and Marko Peljhan (Projekt Atol). RIXC’s annual conference Open Fields is an opportunity to discuss artistic research, the changing role of arts in societies, art’s transformative potential, and relations to sciences.

VERTICAL CINEMA Commissioned, curated and produced by Sonic Acts, Vertical Cinema premiered at the end of 2013 and has since travelled the world. Vertical Cinema tips the all-too-familiar cinemascope screen on its side, creating a vertical monolith on which commissioned works on 35 mm film are screened. These works by internationally renowned experimental filmmakers and artists consist of abstract imagery, formal experiments, found footage and live laser action, accompanied by immersive soundscapes. The programme was shown in 2016 at GEGENkino in Leipzig. Vertical Cinema filmmakerJohann Lurf attended the screening and gave an introductory talk about Vertical Cinema and his Vertical Cinema work Pyramid Flare.

Film still from Pyramid Flare, Vertical Cinema commission by Johann Lurf.

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1.8 PUBLISHING

Sonic Acts Academy Volume 1 The first edition of the Sonic Acts Academy was accompanied by a zine-style publication. This first volume in a series is a vital frame of reference to the programme.

The elaborately designed and printed Sonic Acts Academy Volume 1 provides insights into the back-end of the practices of the artists who participated in the Academy, as well as into artistic strategies and processes that begin with research and end in a finished artwork. The zine contains short essays, manifestos, statements and visuals essays by #Additivism, Thomas Ankersmit, Louis Henderson, Ewa Justka, Anton Kats, Okkyung Sonic Acts Academy Volume 1. Lee, Yoneda Lemma, Maryanne Amacher Archive, M.E.S.H., Anna Mikkola, BJ Nilsen, Sally-Jane Norman, Dick Raaijmakers, Daïchi Saïto, Susan Schuppli, Jos Smolders (WaSm), Raphael Vanoli, Ana Vaz and Frans de Waard (WaSm). Femke Herregraven and Arthur Roeloffzendesigned the zine.

Living Earth - Field Notes from the Dark Ecology Project 2014–2016 Living Earth is a book filled with ideas, conversations, lectures, and documentation relating to commissioned installations, soundwalks, concerts and performances made for and during the Dark Ecology project. Living Earth is a recreation of the Dark Ecology Journeys to the Barents Region, from Kirkenes and Svanvik in Norway to Nikel, Zapolyarny and Murmansk in Russia. It is a 256-page trip with artists, thinkers, curators and other Dark Ecology participants into the dark space of rethinking nature and art, and it also contributes to the contemporary Anthropocene debate. The motivations behind the Living Earth — Field Notes from the Dark project and its impact are discussed in the opening interview with the curatorial team Ecology Project 2014-2016. titled ‘Outside the Comfort Zone’. Besides a long essay by Timothy Morton on ‘What Is Dark Ecology’, the book contains contributions by Susan Schuppli (‘Dirty Pictures’), and Berit Kristofferson(‘The Workable Arctic of Ice and Oil’), which examine the impact of the Anthropocene. There is an interview with Heather Davis (‘Queer Kinship’), and in her essay about Margrethe Pettersen’s soundwalk (‘Living Land – Below as Above’), Britt Kramvig builds on the notion of ‘anthropo-not-seen’. Tatjana Gorbachewskaja and Katya Larina discuss their research into the interaction between the Arctic environment and the architecture in the Russian mining town Nikel (‘Nikel – The City as a Material’). Graham Harman embarks on an interesting rethinking of Jakob von Uexküll’s influential book A Foray Into the World of Animals and Humans and its notion of environment (‘Magic Uexküll’).

Living Earth documents and presents the commissioned works created for Dark Ecology in different formats. There are works byHC Gilje (Barents – Mare Incognitum; The Crossing; Mikro with Justin Bennett), Joris Strijbos (‘Machine Synaesthetics’, an interview about his work IsoScope), Espen Sommer Eide (Material Vision – Silent Reading; ‘A Vertical Perspective’ – a text about his collaboration with Signe Lidén on Altitude and History). Some artists were already presented in more depth in The Geologic Imagination (2015), but are present in Living Earth as well: Raviv Ganchrow (Long Wave Synthesis), Karl Lemieux and BJ Nilsen (unearthed), Marijn de Jong (with a photo essay Grey Zone) and Femke Herregraven (Staring into the Ice).

Research Series The Sonic Acts Research Series is a series of online dossiers devoted to specific aspects of the research that Sonic Acts conducts for its activities. Commissioned texts and interviews with featured artists and speakers are combined with films and material from previous Sonic Acts events. The texts will eventually be made available in various formats to accommodate different reading and browsing tastes. In 2016 a total of seven Research Series dossiers was published on the Sonic Acts website. Susan Schuppli was interviewed about what it means to be an artist working in the field of practice-based research. Morton Subotnick spoke with Arie Altena to discuss his particular approach to electronic music. Leading up to his performance during the Sonic Acts Academy, in his

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interview Thomas Ankersmit delves into the ideas and instruments of Dutch electronic musician Dick Raaijmakers. Furthermore, Jananne Al-Ani spoke with Julian Ross about her film seriesThe Aesthetics of Disappearance: A Land Without People, Rosa Menkman interviewed Heather Davis about the value of artistic experimentation, the importance of queer theory and the ecology of plastics and Mirna Belina interviewed Tatjana Gorbachewskaja and Katya Larina on The City as a Material. Lastly, an essay from Living Earth was published, in which Timothy Morton explains what dark ecology is.

Dark Ecology Field Notes The Dark Ecology Field Notes is a collection of all the video and photo reports of the Journeys by Fridaymilk and others, interviews with artists and thinkers who participated in the Journeys, written reports, short essays, audio recordings and other media relating to the Dark Ecology project and its themes. In total 33 field notes were published on theDark ‘Participating in the Dark Ecology website over the course of three years. In 2016, leading up to the Dark Ecology Ecology Journey was an Journey, a new Dark Ecology Reading List was published with readings from Timothy , , and more. Furthermore, Arie Altena compiled extraordinary opportunity to Morton Michel Serres Donna Haraway a text about Nikel and Nikel Materiality, and a Dark Ecology Vimeo Album was published witness the dark matters of with lectures by Timothy Morton and Graham Harman, who both participated in the Dark environmental change firsthand Ecology Journeys. Together with Fridaymilk Sonic Acts published a series of video diaries through direct contact with about Dark Ecology, with day-to-day impressions of the Journey. Lastly, Arie Altena wrote a diary about the Dark Ecology Journey, a detailed report rich with initial impressions. the landscapes in which we travelled. This book reflects Video Archive, Vimeo Channel & Livestream upon these encounters, Sonic Acts’ Vimeo-channel gives access to a growing number of videos (+108 videos in 2016) from previous events, which constitute part of the archive. These videos are entangling our proximate and amongst others used in our Research Series, and in this way connect the archive local experiences with the with upcoming Sonic Acts projects. For the Sonic Acts Vimeo channel, a series of global processes of accelerated contextual albums was produced bringing together a selection of videos that are related thematically. The Plastic Futures album, for example, contains talks about the role and climate change.’ effect of plastics in contemporary society and another titledResearch through Practice - Susan Schuppli emphasizes a cornerstone of the Academy: foregrounding work-in-progress by using an open and dynamic format as a means of knowledge production. The symposium programme of Sonic Acts Academy was live streamed and reached a significant international audience (approx. 600 persons per day) in addition to the real life audience. All recordings were consequently published on Sonic Acts’ Vimeo channel.

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Paul Jebanasam & Tarik Barri, Continuum AV. Sonic Acts at Paradiso. Photo by Pieter Kers. 22 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 2. PR, COMMUNICATION & MARKETING

Sonic Acts positions itself as a platform for substantive research on the production and exhibition of new work. It does this by means of an ongoing public programme, where research and views on developments in society in general, and in the arts and science in particular, are displayed in conjunction. The communication strategy focuses firstly on comprehensive public recruitment and secondly on exposing the knowledge and results acquired through Sonic Acts activities, and builds on methods that have been employed successfully to date. Cooperation was expanded in 2016 through new partnerships; marketing aimed at students and universities was increased, as was marketing via online campaigns, and we actively approached the national and international press. Attention to marketing was further enhanced by the creation of a new position, Head of Marketing & Communications.

Sonic Acts reaches a large number of people. Many of the audience trust Sonic Acts for its bold programming – with broad, interdisciplinary and varied content. The main target groups for Sonic Acts, locally, nationally and internationally, are firstly ‘the makers of today and tomorrow’, which includes visual and new media artists, (audio-visual) designers, architects, filmmakers, performance and sound artists, composers and musicians; secondly students of film, audio-visual and visual arts, architecture, design, new media and music; thirdly experts and professionals, including programmers and curators of art, film and media festivals and institutions, and film and visual arts journalists, theorists and Audience at Progress Bar. Photo by Pieter scientists, as well as scholars in these fields; and fourthly the general interested public, Kers. including film and music lovers, and the contemporary art audience.

The marketing policy is geared toward achieving and serving the widest and most diverse possible audience. The knowledge that Sonic Acts has gained through both its approach and public outreach, are connected to the marketing efforts of partner organisations who in turn reach their own audiences. Sonic Acts amplifies its reach by increasing the number of activities — as well as the spread of activities throughout the year, and by varying the locations of its activities in Netherlands and abroad as it does not have its own building and therefore can benefit from using various locations and communicate with their corresponding audiences.

Sonic Acts Academy attracted almost 5400 visitors in its inaugural edition. Not included in this number are audience that visited works from the Stedelijk collection and Maryanne Amacher’s Tone and Interval Studies (1976–78), which were displayed at the museum for the duration of the weekend, and enabled a much wider audience to become acquainted with the Academy. Altogether, Sonic Acts events in 2016 attracted a total of 12,266 visitors – 9369 of these through activities in Netherlands. The total is lower than that of 2015 because the Academy, with respect to the festival, has a smaller audience reach. This number is derived from visitors and participants of events – 5400 for the Academy, 2500 for Dark Ecology, and more than 4300 for the rest of the programme – of which almost 100 participants attended workshops, masterclasses, and seminars. More than 1500 were visitors to the newly initiated Progress Bar series.

Sonic Acts’ online communication channels were well-attended with 129,788 visitors year-round to the Sonic Acts website, including 33,672 unique visitors during Sonic Acts Academy. Sonic Acts’ Twitter following reached 4879 with a high interaction rate. Sonic Acts’ photos on Flickr were viewed 278,229 times and videos on Vimeo were played 17,883 times. The fan base of the Facebook page grew to over 9700, with posts reaching up to

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12,429 people. Sonic Acts recently joined Instagram and attracted over 700 followers in a short period. Sponsored posts and advertisements were used on Facebook and Instagram to boost the reach on social media. The Sonic Acts website was augmented by a dedicated Dark Ecology website, and both functioned as hubs for the most up to date information. Newsletters, calls for application and announcements were sent out to subscribers of both Dark Ecology and the Sonic Acts newsletter. These subscriptions enabled us to reach an important part of our core audience. Facebook was used to announce events and share documentation. Vkontakte — the largest European online social media and social networking service, especially popular among Russian- speaking users — was also used to share announcements in Russian.

Communication on the website and via newsletters was intensified in the weeks before events. Before each Dark Ecology Journey, for example, this involved the publication of readings lists, a dossier, and intense coverage of the commissioned artists’ residencies. During the Journey daily video reports and photos were shared immediately to allow non-participants to follow the event in real-time. The Critical Writing Workshop was also used to aid communication by fostering the growth of a community of emergent writers. The results of the workshops were published on a dedicated ‘blog’ section of the Sonic Acts website, and shared through other Sonic Acts and Dark Ecology channels. Timothy Morton's lecture Dark Ecological Chocolate. Photo by Michael Miller. Special attention was paid to documentation and reporting. This enabled the engagement of a much larger audience. Professional photographers were employed, with a good selection of their photographs being shared on Flickr and other social media. Sonic Acts published day-to-day online reports of each Dark Ecology Journey, in addition to reports written by ‘embedded writers’.

Sonic Acts’ websites functioned as platforms for reflection, with commissioned texts, reports, discussions, interviews and documentation, including videos and photographs. Content relating to Dark Ecology was collected under the heading ‘Field Notes’, with documentation from participants’ personal channels — such as photographs and videos on Flickr, Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo — and reviews from other publications. Texts were mostly published in English. A number of texts were also published in Russian and Norwegian to broaden the reach of the Dark Ecology project.

In addition to online communication, printed materials were also utilised to increase visibility, in particular for the communication of Sonic Acts Academy and the multiple Progress Bar events. This included flyers and posters that were distributed throughout Amsterdam and neighbouring cities, targeting appropriate cultural and educational institutions. Sonic Acts worked with carefully chosen graphic designers to provide clear and effective communication, while also complementing the events with an innovative visual identity. Advertisements were published in a selection of international journals. The print campaign for Dark Ecology mainly focused on a local audience, with advertisements in local newspapers in Norway and Russia, as well printed posters that were distributed in Kirkenes, Nikel and adjacent towns.

In 2016 Sonic Acts worked with the following partners and locations in Amsterdam: Paradiso, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, OCCII, Rijksakademie, STEIM, Tolhuistuin, de Brakke Grond, van Gogh Museum, de Appel and LIMA. Nationally and internationally Sonic Acts worked with GEGENkino (DE), Verdensteatret (NO), Kurant (NO), Changing Weathers (EU project), and Norwegian and Russian partners within the Dark Ecology project.

The choice of partners is based on both content and advertising considerations. Sonic Acts cooperates with complementary partners who are tied to relevant audiences, while the effectiveness of advertising – and the reach of marketing and

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communications – increases significantly by working closely with the marketing departments of larger partners. Sonic Acts has an excellent reputation within its field and has built up an extensive network of partner institutions such as museums, festivals and research bodies. Press releases were distributed to media organisations to gain attention for events. The Dark Ecology project was covered by several national and international magazines, websites and newspapers. The most notable coverage related to its inclusion in a Dutch VPRO documentary about the future of art (broadcast on Dutch national television in October 2016).

Organisations, including national and international institutions, funds and platforms who paid attention to the Sonic Acts Academy through announcements, reviews and interviews included Paradiso, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Rewire Festival, TodaysArt, Gonzo Circus, Media Art Festival, State X/New Forms, STEIM, Truants, V2, FAQ Festival, Extrapool, WORM, Astral Plane Blog, La Force Sauvage, Arts Numeriques, SETUP Utrecht, Geluid van Nederland, DJBroadcast, NRC, Metropolis M, Thump, Subbacultcha, Parool, The Fader, Noisey, VPRO Vrije Geluiden, Generation Bass, Digicult, Resident Advisor, SSBA Salon and We Are Public. The total advertisement value of the Dutch press attention amounted to no less than 11,627 euros.

Bill Dietz & Robert The, Maryanne Amacher Archive. Sonic Acts Academy. Photo by Pieter Kers.

25 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 3. SONIC ACTS 2016 IN NUMBERS

Sonic Acts Academy visitors: 5366 Progress Bar visitors: 1573 Vertical Cinema visitors: 408 Dark Ecology events visitors: 2489 Other Sonic Acts events visitors: 2430

SONIC ACTS Sonic Acts portal website: 97,212 page views 77,917 unique page views

Sonic Acts Academy website: 33,672 page views Raphael Vanoli, opening Sonic Acts 15,993 unique page views Academy at Stedelijk. Photo by Pieter Kers. Facebook page: 9762 fans (+2531 in 2016) and with posts reaching up to 12,429 people Twitter: 4879 followers (+692 in 2016) Flickr: approximately 480,943 views in total (+278,229 in 2016) Newsletter: nearly 2600 recipients Vimeo: 357 videos (+108 in 2016), 17,883 plays in 2016

DARK ECOLOGY Dark Ecology website: 17,680 page views 11,341 unique page views

Facebook page: 2350 fans (+714 in 2016) with posts reaching up to 4800 people Newsletter: 793 recipients

PROGRESS BAR Facebook page: 1056 fans (+761 in 2016) and with posts reaching up to 2373 people Twitter: 468 followers (joined in April 2016) Instagram: 454 followers (joined in April 2016)

VERTICAL CINEMA Vertical Cinema website: 5415 page views 4393 unique page views Facebook page: 852 fans (+279 in 2016) and with posts reaching up to 1372 people

26 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 4. SONIC ACTS TEAM, PARTNERS & FUNDERS IN 2016

4.1 SONIC ACTS

Board: Pierre Ballings, Mark Minkman, Joost Rekveld, Gerard Walhof

Curatorial Team: Nicky Assmann, Mirna Belina, Gideon Kiers, Rosa Menkman, Lucas van der Velden, Juha van ’t Zelfde

Production: Eve Dullaart, Rick Everts, Sebastian Frisch, Erwin van ’t Hart, Johan Hendrikse, Mark den Hoed, Edgar Kapp, Suze de Lang, Julia Nüsslein, Macha Rousakov, Jorg Schellekens, Rob Wagelmans, Marta Wasiuta (intern), Anne van Waveren (intern), Toxe, Sonic Acts Academy at Paradiso. Annette Wolfsberger Photo by Pieter Kers. Communication, Design & Documentation: Aleksandr Alekseev, Arie Altena, Bas de Beer, Bas van den Broeke, Zhanna Guzenko, Femke Herregraven, Jo Kali, Pieter Kers, Oleg Khardatsev, Liesbeth Koot, de Gebroeders van Leeuwen, Sanne Lohof, Michael Oswell, Mark Poysden, Arthur Roeloffzen, Julian Ross, Marinus de Ruiter, Stefan Warton

Partners: de Appel, BeamSystems, CESAR Observatory, Filmtechniek, Gegenkino, Lighthouse, LIMA, Paradiso Amsterdam, Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, STEIM, Subbacultcha, TU Delft, Viral Radio, Van Gogh Museum, Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond, WeArePublic, WG Theatertechniek

Funders: Creative Industries Fund NL, Mondriaan Fund, City of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, Performing Arts Fund NL, Changing Weathers (co-funded by Creative Europe Programme of the European Union), Europe by People

4.2 DARK ECOLOGY

Curatorial Team: Arie Altena, Nicky Assmann, Mirna Belina, Gideon Kiers, Rosa Menkman, Hilde Methi, Lucas van der Velden, Annette Wolfsberger

Production: Eve Dullaart, Rick Everts, Sebastian Frisch, Ragnvald Grønbech, Nikolay Khoroshilov, Roman Khoroshilov, Irina Neganova, Maria Rusinovskaya, Anton Shamshin, Guro Vrålstad

Communication, Design & Documentation: Ivan Afanasyev, Aleksandr Alekseev, Bas van den Broeke, de Gebroeders van Leeuwen, Zhanna Guzenko, Oleg Khardatsev, Michael Miller, Irem Müftüoglu, Mark Poysden, Arthur Roeloffzen

Partners: Arctic Encounters (University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett University, the University of Iceland, Roskilde University, and The Arctic University of Norway), Arctic Drilling AS, Barents Travel (Nikel), Borealis Festival, Childrens’ Art School Nikel, Fridaymilk (Murmansk), Full of Nothing (Petrozavodsk), Roman Khoroshilov, Landmark/ Kunsthall Bergen, NIBIO Svanhovd & Visitor Centre Øvre Pasvik National Park,

27 / SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2016 SONIC ACTS TEAM, PARTNERS & FUNDERS IN 2016

NGU (Geological Survey of Norway), PNEK, School No 20 Nikel, Sør-Varanger Filmklubb, Tschudi, Visitor Centre of Øvre Pasvik National Park, municipalities of Nikel, Zapolyarny, Petchenga & Sør-Varanger

Dark Ecology is part of Changing Weathers (initiated by the Arctic Perspective Initiative and coordinated by Zavod Projekt Atol (SI) in partnership with Sonic Acts (NL), RIXC (LV), Finnish Society of Bioart (FI), Hilde Methi (NO), Time’s Up (AT) and Ljudmila (SI)). Changing Weathers is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Arctic Encounters is financially supported by the HERA Joint Research Programme.

Funders: BarentsKult, Public Art Norway (KORO/URO), Arts Council Norway, Creative Industries Fund NL, Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, PNEK (Production Network for Electronic Art, Norway), Mondriaan Fund, Paradiso, Arts Council Norway - The Audio Visual Fund, Finnmark County Municipality, Bergen Municipality, Norwegian Visual Artists Association (NBK), Nordland County Council, City of Bergen and Troms County Council.

Sonic Acts is part of Changing Weathers, funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Joris Strijbos, Isoscope. Opening Sonic Acts Academy at Stedelijk. Photo by Pieter Kers.