"These sounds will lead the way" (2013), Groepsexpositie: Couchsurfers and A-Boys, Jabu Arnell's house, Amsterdam

Jabu Arnell invited me to do a performance at his house which he turned into a exhibition space for a bunch of artists and couchurfers.

I decided to approach this performance in a similar way as my previous action, this time I made one continuous recording while I drove my bike through the city from my house to Jabu's. The recording was used as a sonic recital accompanied by the reading of a text and instrumentation with a small cardboard box I made into a poly-instrument and microphone. The text were slightly modified fragments taken from the book "Listening to Noise and Silence" by Salome Voegelin, it was chanted in a Vedic like manner.



















The night before I found a very large cardboard box at a construction site near his house which I used for my mega-speaker. For amplification I used my portable audio-system, contact mic and an audio mixer.

"A walk from one domestic place to another" (2013), The Netherlands

This work was a walk and sound performance.
From my home in Amsterdam to my friends home who live in the forest in Driebergen-Zeist.

They are a small family who are living in a fairly socially and culturally isolated area, at least compared to their previous home in the city Utrecht. I decided to visit them and make a small domestic sound performance in their living room.


I have been wanting to go for a walk for some time now. Just using my own body and feet. Experiencing the transition of place through walking speed, leaving the city, the "border" with the outside of the city, passing through villages and towns etc. Approaching the whole as one and incorporating the way there, the movement between one static space to another, within the sound performance.

During the walk sound recordings were made with my portable recorder and contact microphone. The recordings were used in combination with my self-made mallets and small domestic objects (paperclip/elastic bands/tape/glass cup) that functioned as unconventional instruments. I brought my autonomous audio system and needed one of their old cardboard boxes to make my speaker.

The walk was in total 55 km, I managed to walk 42,5 in 12 hours up till Hollandsche Rading. From there I took the train and bus for the last 12,5 km. The whole walk was a full sensory experience, including attentive listening within a flux of soundscapes, till the point where I became so sensitive to my walking surface I was avoiding any concrete or stone pavement/road.

On my way back I walked the remaining 12,5 km from my friends house to Hollandsche Rading and took the train back to Amsterdam. To complete the whole, I made another sound performance the next day at home, just by myself.

I didn't use a map and only wrote down names of streets and roads on a piece of paper and asked people for directions. This way I had some social interaction and met some interesting people along the way. I would like to thank everyone that took the effort to take a picture and send it to me by email.

"This time I went for Monsanto but ended up in another park" (2013) Lisboa, Portugal

In July I travelled with my family to Lisboa and visited my friend Hans Kuiper aka Inspector Casino.
With me I brought my autonomous portable audio system. In the neighborhood cafe's I asked around for some cardboard boxes and made my cardboard speaker backpack. After I made the speakers I was "waiting" for the moment when it felt right to PERFORM. I wanted it to be part of the everyday transition of actions. Just a change of intention. After a full day of activities; going to the city, shopping for groceries, going to the beach and making some field recordings along the way. I ended up making an action in the park of the suburb where Hans was living.

The title refers to two different public parks located in Lisbon. Because of the name Monsanto I instantly had to think of the multinational agrochemical and agricultural biotechnological corporation. Parallel to the choice of park it also suggests a fictional action, eventually choosing not to go for Monsanto seeds but something that grows organic, for something unmodified, not patented and nameless.

"RadioActivity" (2013) at MilieuServiceNederland Rijksakademie, Amsterdam

For this radio performance I hacked two small portable radio's transforming them into little synth's.
Utilizing radio frequencies and the radio's circuits to create the minimal with the maximum.

You can listen here.

"At first I went for the okra, but then I settled for the yam" (2013) at deServicegarage, Amsterdam

This work is a collaboration between Aditya Mandayam and me as Bingolingo & Foneysoney. As a headphone piece it was part of the 24hour exhibition The Rise and Fall of the Continuous Circle at deServicegarage.

"At first I went for the okra, but then I settled for the yam" (2013) was a new aural piece by Bingolingo and Foneysoney which revolves around the vowel and/or phoneme shifts that occured during the latter part of the Beeldensturm, amongst other events, in Central-West Europe, B&F overlay five vowels sounds sung in a mezzo-soprano on top of each other, in a way of a pyramidal ladder. The effect must be heard to be understood.

For this specific location the approximate dimensions of the space were used in an audio software program to calculate the approximate reverberation time and recreate the effect when it would be sung in the actual space.

Voice: Alexandros Papamarkou

You can listen here

VONDELPARK (2013)

The video work Vondelpark (2013) is a sound composition aligned with an visual image. It is chronological edited footage of a live happening without any additional sound. The performance took place at the Vondelpark in Amsterdam during the SOTU festival 2013.

When listening and looking at this footage think of Brian Eno's text on Ambient Music. The artist is performing along side the existing, being part of a place and the sound environment, influencing an atmosphere without overamplification. "Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular, it must be as ignorable as it is interesting."

This work stresses the mode of attentive listening. It consists out of recorded material of an improvisation in the making. In a way it is a collaborative work between the artist and the environment. An action in an ever changing soundscape while moving through the park. It reveals the beauty of chance and indetermination.

Below you find some photos and a link to an audio clip. The photos are stills from the video, the audio clip is taken from the video as well.

TOMORROW PERFORMANCE IN THE VONDELPARK

TOMORROW IS MY PERFORMANCE IN THE VONDELPARK!

DUE TO WEATHER CIRCUMSTANCES THINGS MIGHT BE A BIT DIFFERENT THEN MY INDETERMINATIONS WERE ORIGINALLY PLANNED.

SO I WILL ACT UPON THE GIVEN SITUATION.

BUT STARTING AT VONDELBUNKER AN HOUR LATER AROUND 17:30