SONIC ACTS ANNUAL REPORT 2014 1 / ANNUAL REPORT 2014 INTRODUCTION 2014 was a busy year for Sonic Acts. The year started with the presentation of the voluminous publication The Dark Universe and ended with finalising the next extensive book The Geologic Imagination. Highpoints of the year include the many screenings of Vertical Cinema – a project developed by Sonic Acts, including the commissioning of ten films, accompanied by a side-programme of lectures and workshops. All screenings were sold out, and on almost all occasions extra screenings had to be facilitated at the last moment due to huge demand. In October the first edition ofDark Ecology with a programme of lectures, guided walks, presentations of commissioned works, workshops, and further activities took place in the border area of North Norway and North- West Russia. This three-year international research and commissioning programme is initiated, curated and produced by Sonic Acts in collaboration with partners in Norway and Russia. In 2014 we conducted extensive research leading up to the 2015 Sonic Acts festival The Geologic Imagination. This included editing the book The Geologic Imagination, and interviewing artists and theorists. Many of these interviews were published in The Geologic Imagination or became part of the online Sonic Acts Research Series. Apart from this, we organised several smaller programmes, lectures and performances, and we commissioned new works that were shown at the Sonic Acts festival, at Dark Ecology, and at other international events, such as donaufestival. It is also noteworthy that we facilitated the research of other artists and theorists, in particular by inviting them to take part in the Dark Ecology journey. Furthermore we started to explore the possibilities of setting up a festival in Vienna, Austria. All in all, Sonic Acts’ activities signify the organisation’s transition from a ‘festival-based’ , Marijn de Jong organisation to a curating platform that commissions new work, researches, publishes, and organises Zone Grey international events. Cover: Detail of 2 / ANNUAL REPORT 2014 EVENTS 2014 internationally renowned experimental filmmakers SONIC ACTS and audiovisual artists, is presented on 35 mm celluloid and projected vertically with a custom- built projector in vertical cinemascope. It is a EVENTS IN 2014 90-minute programme made solely for projection on a monumental vertical screen and features Bernhard Foing: Space Debris Lecture works by Tina Frank (AT), Björn Kämmerer (DE/ 18 January AT), Manuel Knapp (AT), Johann Lurf (AT), Joost De Balie Rekveld (NL), Rosa Menkman (NL), Billy Roisz (AT) & Dieter Kovačic (AT), Makino Takashi (JP) To celebrate the book launch of The Dark Universe & Telcosystems (NL), Esther Urlus (NL), (see below) Sonic Acts organised an afternoon on Martijn van Boven (NL) & Gert-Jan Prins (NL). space debris, in collaboration with Gonzo (circus) and ESA. Space debris, also known as space The programme was conceived by Sonic Acts at waste, has become a serious problem for space a moment when ‘vertical video’ was an issue the exploration. Scientists are working on solutions. world of mobile cinema (iphone movies). It was In his lecture Bernard Foing from the European controversial, especially with regard to ‘e-culture’ Space Agency focused on ESA’s research in as it uses celluloid at a moment when film had this field and the latest developments in space gone digital. But timely, or stubbornly untimely, exploration. Femke Herregraven presented the project received a lot of attention, and was her work-in-progress Staring into the Ice, widely discussed. Vertical Cinema had its Dutch commissioned by Sonic Acts/Dark Ecology. premiere with two sold-out screenings as part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The programme was considered to be one of the VERTICAL CINEMA AT IFFR highlights of the festival. The screenings were accompanied by a lecture by Erkki Huhtamo, concerts, and a workshop. Erkki Huhtamo: Up and Down the Shaft of Time Vertical Cinema Lecture at IFFR 24 January Rotterdam At the occasion of the international premiere of Vertical Cinema at IFFR 2014 in Rotterdam, Finnish Professor of media history at UCLA Erkki Huhtamo delivered an extensive lecture at IFFR on the history of vertical cinema, and its position in contemporary media culture, citing many thought- provoking and funny examples, from Eisenstein to vertical iPhone-movies. We interviewed Erkki Huhtamo, and published the interview as part of the Sonic Acts Research Series (see below). Vertical Performance at Mind The Gap Nights 24 January WORM, Rotterdam Vertical Cinema at IFFR. Photo: Pieter Kers As part of the Mind The Gap Nights at WORM Vertical Cinema Screenings (a collaboration with IFFR and Gonzo (Circus)) that International Film Festival Rotterdam focus on presenting innovative, experimental and 24 January adventurous audiovisual culture, Sonic Acts invited Arminius, Rotterdam COH & Tina Frank to show their new collaboration in which video images are generated from the In 2013 Sonic Acts commissioned, curated and sound output of the mixing board, in an entirely produced Vertical Cinema. This series of ten analogue transfer from sound to image. commissioned large-scale, site-specific works by 3 / ANNUAL REPORT 2014 ANNUALEVENT REPORTS 2014 2014 Vertical Cinema Workshops Vertical Cinema: Four Expanded Lectures 23 & 24 January 20 February – 23 February Rotterdam Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam During IFFR Sonic Acts organised an intensive two-day Vertical Cinema Workshop. It consisted of an introduction to the Vertical Cinema project by its producers, and a masterclass led by Tina Frank focusing on the digital versus the analogue, as well as a one-day 16mm film workshop led by Esther Urlus. Urlus and Frank are both filmmakers who each made a new work for Vertical Cinema. The workshop attracted a good number of students, predominantly of the Piet Zwart Institute. The workshop was organised in collaboration with the Piet Zwart Institute and Filmwerkplaats WORM and took place at V2_ in Rotterdam. VERTICAL CINEMA AT STEDELIJK Vertical Cinema Screenings 20 – 23 February Erika Balsom, Vertical Cinema Expanded Lecture at Stedelijk Museum Dan Flavin hall, 4 screenings Photo: Pieter Kers Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam A programme of four expanded lectures by international speakers focused on the history of vertical and other forms of expanded cinema and explored the future of audio- visual experiments. Each lecture was held on a different evening, giving the speaker ample time to unfold his/her thoughts and ideas. The four lectures preceded the screenings of Vertical Cinema at the Dan Flavin Hall of the Stedelijk. On 20 February Philippe-Alain Michaud, film curator at Centre Pompidou, focused on the tradition of experimental cinema, and demonstrated that film cannot be defined by the restricted point of view of the history of cinema. On 21 February art historian Noam M. Elcott showed many examples and identified three resonances of the vertical screen: as mere matter, as human form, and as divine presence. On 22 February film historianE rica Balsom explored analogue rejections of the horizontal frame and excavated the prehistory of the variable aspect ratios that confront film today. And on 23 February Bart Rutten, head of conservation at the Stedelijk, shared his remarks on the mainly abstract Vertical Cinema programme, Vertical Cinema at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Amsterdam. based on both his personal experiences in curating Photo: Pieter Kers film and video art, as well as the institutional Vertical Cinema was screened four times at context of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. We the Dan Flavin hall of the Stedelijk Museum. All interviewed Erika Balsom, Noam Elcott and Bart screenings were sold out and had the visitors Rutten and published these interviews in the sitting on the monumental steps of the hall with context of the Sonic Acts Research Series. the screen hanging in the stairwell. The screenings were accompanied by a programme of lectures and workshops (see below). 4 / ANNUAL REPORT 2014 EVENTS 2014 Parsec, Macular. Photo: Ed Jansen Dick Raaijmaker’s Volta at Age of Wonder Festival 28 – 30 March Natlab, Eindhoven Part of the Age of Wonder festival was the remake of Dick Raaijmaker’s performance Volta, which Sonic Acts co-produced. A giant battery was constructed, producing energy for exactly one light bulb. Sonic Acts at donaufestival: Parsec and OFF – 3 Hz, 25 - 26 April, 30 April – 3 May Volta at Age of Wonder Festival. Photo: Pieter Kers Krems, Austria Vertical Cinema Synchronator Workshop Sonic Acts presented two works as part of 21 February the donaufestival in Krems, Austria. Finnbogi STEIM, Amsterdam Petursson prepared his latest installation OFF – 3Hz for the Kapitelsaal in Klangraum Coinciding with the Vertical Cinema presentation Minoritenkirche. This site-specific work was at the Stedelijk we organised a Synchronator- realised in cooperation with Kontraste 2013 workshop at STEIM. The Synchronator converts and AIR – Artist in Residence Krems. It deals electronic audio signals into composite video with states of consciousness and brainwave signals. Designed by Bas van Koolwijk and Gert- frequencies in the transition between slow-wave Jan Prins in 2009, it has seen a steady growth in sleep/dream phases and awakening. Sonic Acts the number of users. Tina Frank’s filmColterrain also presented Macular’s work Parsec at the for Vertical Cinema was made with a Synchronator. donaufestival. The critically acclaimed installation During this workshop the participants were was deemed to be one of the highlights of introduced to the background, techniques and the festival. For this installation 16 ‘arms’ are use of this device for live improvisation and equipped with light and sound producing devices recordings. Each participant was invited to work that scatter abstract audiovisual patterns while with the Synchronator devices and television rotating. It plays with the sense of perception and monitors, and engaged in hands-on experiments. the effect is an intense, hypnotic experience. The instructors were Gert-Jan Prins, Bas van Koolwijk & Tina Frank.