2018 ANNUAL REPORT SONIC ACTS 1017 SG Amsterdam The Netherlands www.sonicacts.com [email protected] Marija Bozinovska Jones, Fascia 171208180222, at Sonic Acts Academy 2018, Dansmakers. Photo by Pieter Kers. Cover: Catherine Christer Hennix, Blue(s) in Green to the 31 Limit, at Sonic Acts Academy 2018, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo by Pieter Kers. ARTISTS Air Max ‘97 Devika Partiman Ivan Slipčević Linn da Quebrada Nicole Hewitt Signe Lidén Ane Hjort Guttu Dieter Kovačič J.G. Biberkopf Lorenzo Pezzani Nina Pixel Solveig Suess Anni Nöps Dinamarca James Massiah Lukas Marxt Nora Sternfeld Stanimir Panayotov Ase Manual Dis Fig Jana Winderen LYZZA NXS STILL Babi Audi DJ Haram Jelena Viskovic M.E.S.H. Oleg Khadartsev Susan Schuppli Benjamin Duboc DJ Lycox Jennifer Lucy Allan Makino Takashi PARADISE Swan Meat BJ Nilsen Dodomundo Jennifer Walshe Manara patten Tatjana Gorbachewsaja Billy Roisz Dreamcrusher Ji Youn Kang Manual Knapp Petit Singe Tatsuru Arai Birgit Bachler Drippin Johann Lurf Marcus Boon Petr Makarov Telcosystems Born in Flamez Elijah Joost Rekveld Marcus Pal Polina Medvedeva Tina Frank Catherine Christer Hennix Elysia Crampton Juha Maria Sarycheva Rabit Victor Mazón Gardoqui Cecilia Esther Urlus Justin Bennett Marija Bozinovska Jones Rana Hamadeh Vida Guzmić Cecilia Jonsson Filipa César Karl Klomp Mario de Vega Red Brut Violence Charmaine Chua Geng Karl Lemieux Martijn van Boven Renske M. van Dam Wartone Christina Kubisch HC Gilje Katya Larina Michele van Ool Rick Dolphijn Why Be clubcouture Hilary Jeffery Kei Kreutler Mijke Pasmans Roc Jiménez de Cisneros Yoong Cocky Eek Hilde Sørstrøm Kieran Yates Miron Galić Rosa Menkman Yun Ingrid Lee Countess Malaise Hugo Esquinca Kilbourne mobilegirl Rozemarie Heggen Zgjim Crystallmess HVAD Klein Moor Mother Sam Rolfes Daniel Mann Iris de Vries Lafawndah N-Prolenta Sarra Wild Dasychira Isaura Sanwirjant Larry B Natalia Kukarenko Sasha Litvintseva SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Unpacking The Processes Of Artistic Knowledge The second edition of Sonic Acts Academy took place from 23 to 25 February 2018 at various locations in Amsterdam. It featured a range of international artists, academics, activists, curators and theorists, ready to articulate different examples of learning and to engage in an experimental setting free of institutional pressure and privileged classrooms. Their processes were revealed in a variety of open workshops, seminars, lectures, performances, screenings, sensorial walks and installations. Sonic Acts Academy is a new platform for investigation, speculation and reflection, focusing on educational practices and the critical examination of knowledge production in the field of art. By expanding artistic experience into an academy of engagement and exchange, we wish to offer both a playground and a radical syllabus at odds with institutionalised learning. Jennifer Walshe, Imaginary Histories, at Sonic Acts Academy 2018, Dansmakers. Photo by Pieter Kers. “Sonic Acts is quite simply one of the best festivals I’ve ever played. The curation is superb, and the thinking is truly interdisciplinary. It’s a gold standard for how festival curation should work.” – Jennifer Walshe Seminar with Catherine Christer Hennix and Marcus Boon at Sonic Acts Academy 2018, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo by Pieter Kers. SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Symposium A three-day symposium at Dansmakers presented artistic investigations and research from over 50 international speakers. The symposium delved beneath the surface of the everyday to expose alternative narratives, with speakers including Nora Sternfeld, Solveig Suess, Birgit Bachler, Christina Kubisch, Jennifer Walshe, Nicole Hewitt and Roc Jiménez de Cisneros. As a warm up to the symposium Sonic Acts organised a seminar in the week prior to the Academy on the work of Catherine Christer Hennix. The seminar with writer and professor Marcus Boon and Catherine Christer Hennix herself, took place at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. “Sonic Acts is an invaluable and internationally unprecedented platform for truly interdisciplinary knowledge production and dissemination.” – Sasha Litvinseva “Incredible event that enables critics, artists, academics and ‘regular people’ to meet and exchange ideas from all existing areas of sound art, music, art, media and science.” – Academy visitor Nora Sternfeld, Negotiating with Reality: Artistic and Curatorial Research, at Sonic Acts Academy 2018, Dansmakers. Photo by Pieter Kers. Linn da Quebrada performing at Violence performing at Progress Bar, Progress Bar, Paradiso Noord. Photo Paradiso Noord. Photo by Pieter Kers. by Pieter Kers. “Sonic Acts have a unique approach to organising socially relevant cultural events. The creation of an Academy, which works outside of traditional institutional structures, is an inspiring and sustainable approach which will speak to an increasingly wide audience in the future.” – Hilary Jeffery SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Performances The performance programmes at Stedelijk Museum, Dansmakers and Tolhuistuin brought together a large and diverse array of artists covering a broad range of the sonic and audiovisual spectrum. Artists experimented in micro-tonality, just intonation and improvisation, and played with spoken and programming languages, while two nights of Progress Bar highlighted a growing community of electronic musicians who occupy clubs for a better politics. Performing artists included Catherine Christer Hennix, Yun Ingrid Lee, On Benjamin Duboc, Rozemarie Heggen, Hilary Jeffery, Marcus Pal, Mario de Illegibility, at Sonic Acts Academy 2018, Vega, Marija Bozinovska Jones, Geng, Dreamcrusher, Moor Mother, Linn da Dansmakers. Photo by Quebrada, DJ Haram and Yun Ingrid Lee. Pieter Kers. Mario de Vega, Vertical, at Sonic Acts Academy 2018, Dansmakers. Photo by Pieter Kers. “Sonic Acts Academy has been a mind opening experience and allowed me to broaden my horizon.” – Academy visitor SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Film Programme Two films,Spell Reel (2017) by Filipa César and Time Passes (2015) by Ane Hjort Guttu, were presented at EYE Filmmuseum in collaboration with EYE on Art – a weekly programme in which film meets the visual arts. Both films contribute to debates on artist responsibility and education’s role in understanding and engaging with reality. The symposium at Dansmakers also included the screening of Jennifer Walshe’s An Gléacht (2015) – with live Screening of Spell Reel (2017) by Filipa soundtrack – Sasha Litvintseva and Daniel Mann’s Salarium (2017), César at Sonic Acts Academy 2018, EYE Filmmuseum. Photo by Pieter Kers. and Nicole Hewitt’s Ruins (Episode 3) (2015). Hidden Layers installation by Shadow Channel students at Sonic Acts Academy 2018, Tolhuistuin. Photo by Pieter Kers. SONIC ACTS ACADEMY Installations & Exhibitions At Motorkade 9, Academy visitors could experience Sensing the Place, an experimental environment developed in collaboration with ArtScience students. The installation 3049 by artist duo patten and the exhibition Hidden Layers by Shadow Channel students also called for attention at Paradiso Noord, Tolhuistuin, featuring strange sci-fi worlds saturated with radical Sensing the Place installation by proposals for a new future. ArtScience students at Sonic Acts Academy 2018, Motorkade 9. Photo by Pieter Kers. “Hallucinant how Hennix manages to make a spatial sensation out of sound... In a word: amazing.” – NRC COMMISSIONS & RESIDENCIES Blue(s) in Green to the 31 Limit – Catherine Christer Hennix As part of a collaborative mission with Stedelijk Museum to diversify the canon of sound art, Sonic Acts commissioned a new work by Catherine Christer Hennix. The work premiered at the Academy with two live performances, followed by a seminar with professor Marcus Boon. It was also included in a far-reaching retrospective exhibition, Catherine Christer Hennix: Traversée du Fantasme, at Stedelijk Museum. At the Academy, experienced improvisers Benjamin Duboc, Rozemarie Heggen, Hilary Jeffery, and Marcus Pal accompanied Hennix’s subtle drone in manners meticulously adapted to the green-lit performance space. Catherine Christer Hennix (US/SE/DE) is a composer, philosopher, mathematician, Catherine Christer Hennix, Blue(s), Green to and visual artist. In the 1960s and 70s, she worked with illustrious figures such as the 31 Limit, at Sonic Acts Academy 2018, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo by La Monte Young and Pandit Pran Nath. Pieter Kers. COMMISSIONS & RESIDENCIES Spatial Media Design – Karl Klomp Karl Klomp designed a spatial media environment for the Academy’s two club programmes at Tolhuistuin, including a three-dimensional object on stage and LED screens throughout the interior and exterior of the building. Karl Klomp (NL) is a media artist and video designer. He is interested in reflections of analog and digital technologies in light, sound, and video. Progress Bar Video Design – Sam Rolfes As an accompaniment to the Progress Bar season, which included the Academy’s two club nights, Sam Rolfes developed episodic videos that re- appropriate and recast pop culture figures and experiment with emergent internet performance formats. Sam Rolfes (US) is a Chicago- and New York-based mixed-format digital artist and director. He crafts diffusive psychosexual worlds that sublimate space and identity. Spatial media design by Karl Klomp at Sonic Acts Spatial media design by Karl Klomp at Sonic Acts Academy 2018, Paradiso Noord. Photo by Pieter Kers. Academy 2018, Paradiso Noord. Photo by Pieter Kers. Sam Rolfes, Absurd Arms, at Sonic Acts Academy 2018, Dansmakers. Photo by Pieter