Beyond Space
Sunday, 19:30 (doors 19:00), Planetarium Artis
SOLD OUT!
An extraordinary programme in a remarkable location: the Beyond Space event in the Planetarium at the Amsterdam Zoo (Artis) includes the international premiere of a composition by the recently deceased innovative composer Maryanne Amacher in acknowledgement of her lifelong dedication to her craft; a new audiovisual work by the Italian multi-talent TeZ; Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand explore the potential of laser and light projections on the Planetarium dome and on soap bubbles, accompanied by live audio by Francisco López; and the British designer Paul Prudence guides the visitors through a visual spectacle specially designed for the Planetarium dome.
Tribute to Maryanne Amacher
PlayThing
Introduction by Naut Humon
A fifty minute experiential audio archive designed and played live for the ages by Maryanne Amacher for Recombinant Media Labs. Over a period of several residencies Maryanne Amacher has been working on a 12 channel composition for the Recombinant Media Labs audiovisual surround environment. The work is keenly representative of the live performances that she has been giving in the recent years and was close to completion when she passed away. For Sonic Acts, Edwin van der Heide and Naut Humon will present an 8 channel, audio only, adaptation of her live to disk composition. Both Humon and Van der Heide have been working closely with Maryanne Amacher. They have finished the work according to Maryanne’s approach to sound and space. The original engineer on the project when it was started in 1999 was Vance Galloway who has recently re consulted us on the work’s initial spatial correlations. Greg Lenczycki has assisted Naut Humon in LA to refurbish her live sessions to a digitally restored playback source. Ambrose Field is a spatial re-interpreter for the Maryanne ‘module’ channel count which enables a version of her live mix to be decoded to variable speaker output setups in different auditoriums.
Maryanne Amacher (1938–2009) was an American composer and installation artist with a unique approach to sound and space. She worked extensively with the physiological phenomenon called otoacoustic emission, in which the ears themselves act as sound generating devices. Amongst her many projects, she had been working for three years on a 40-channel piece at the time of her passing. More information about Maryanne Amacher can be found here.
Naut Humon (US) is the founder of Recombinant Media Labs and was head of A&R for Asphodel Records, both based in San Francisco. During the 1970s he presented a series of events that transported the audience through various indoor/outdoor sites, and interrupted the process of moving with ‘destabilized’ media occurrences designed to repurpose the visitor’s frame of reference from the prevailing performance proximities of the day. Later activities emphasized a strong musical foundation with tactile instrumentation and audio/video technologies that focus the perceptions of the viewer on the physicalization of form. He also helped coordinate the Digital Music category at the ARS Electronica Festival for ten years. Throughout the years, along with his own electroacoustic excursions and products Naut Humon has collaborated with many artists and musicians of numerous influences, disciplines and styles.
Edwin van der Heide (NL) studied Sonology at the Royal Conservatory, where he graduated in 1992. He is working as artist and researcher in the field of sound, space and interaction. His current work is hard to define in the traditional terms of music, sound art or media art because he often works with specific characteristics a chosen medium. The medium is not meant to ‘just’ mediate but its properties become an intrinsic part of the work. Van der Heide extends the term musical language into spatial, interactive and interdisciplinary directions and goes beyond the traditional concert presentation form. The result can either be an installation, a performance or an environment. Often the audience is placed in the middle of the work and challenged to actively explore, interact and relate themselves to the work. In 1995 he started lecturing at the interfaculty Image and Sound / ArtScience of the Royal Conservatory and the Royal Arts Academy in The Hague, The Netherlands. Since 2002 he lectures at the Media Technology MSc program of Leiden University, The Netherlands. In 2007 he became an assistant professor at the same institution.
Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand with Francisco López
Ten Thousand Peacock Feathers in Foaming Acid
In Ten Thousand Peacock Feathers in Foaming Acid, Domnitch and Gelfand use a white laser to scan the surfaces of nucleating and dissipating soap bubble clusters. Unlike ordinary light, the laser’s focused beam is capable of crawling through the microscopic structures within a bubble’s skin. When aimed at specific angles, this penetrating light generates a large-scale hemispherical projection of molecular interactions as well as mind-boggling phenomena of non-linear optics. Bubble behaviours viewed in such proximity evoke the dynamics of living cells (the lipid membranes of which, are direct chemical descendants of soap films). In collaboration with sound artist Francisco López, they employ direct membrane sonification as well as incidental and improvisational techniques. Emanating from a prolific palette of field recordings, the organic materiality of López’s sound environment incites a saturated cross-sensory coalescence with Domnitch and Gelfand’s proto-biotic imagery.
Dmitry Gelfand (RU) and Evelina Domnitch (BY) create sensory immersion environments that merge physics, chemistry and computer science with uncanny philosophical practices. They have collaborated with numerous scientific research facilities to create installations that exist as ever-transforming phenomena that take place directly in front of the observer without intermediation, thereby often serving to vastly extend the observer’s sensory envelope.
Francisco López (ES) has developed an astonishing sonic universe based on a profound listening of the world. His extensive catalogue of sound pieces have been released by more than 200 record labels worldwide.
TeZ
Anharmonium
Modal phenomena – in nature – occur as interactions between different oscillating systems, producing mutual perturbations and deviations from gravitational and electromagnetic linear behaviours. The interferences patterns produced by such meeting of forces and energies form the beautiful diversity of shaped matter at any possible state of motion. Only a small range of this beauty falls under the spectrum of ordinary sensorial perception. Aiming to explore the allure of these hidden fluctuations, Anharmonium combines techniques of cymatics and laser to create a magnified vibrational spectroscopy. A mirror vessel, with fluid set into resonant motion by a sound transducer, acts as a cupular light reflector and projector from laser beamsʼ sources. The live composition unfolds in a spatialized sound and light performance where the spectator is immersed in a deeply synesthetic experience.
Artist and producer TeZ (Maurizio Martinucci, IT/NL) uses technology as a means to explore synesthesia and the relationship between sound and images. He creates immersive installations and performances.
Paul Prudence
RyNTH
RyNTH uses parameters from real-time sound analysis to generate transformations and deformations of the ‘superformula’ (a generic geometric transformation equation that encompasses a wide range forms found in nature). Its dynamic surface texture is generated by incoming audio frequencies resulting in a kind of synesthetic surface tension and modulation. The result morphing geometric construction pays homage to gyroscopic devices and anti-gravity mechanics. The periodicity of the individual elements in RyNTH, and their harmonic relationships with respect to sound alludes to the ancient concept of ‘The Music of the Spheres’.
