The Sound of Shadow
Try-Outs
Cinema
30 March-3 April 2010, 10 am-6 pm (open studio)
5-7 May 2010, 8 pm
Het Basisburo
Bioscoop Het Ketelhuis
Tolstraat 129, Amsterdam
Pazzanistraat 4, Amsterdam Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek
Exhibition I
Exhibition II
5-7 May 2010, 10 am-10 pm
17 September-16 October 2010, Tu-Sa 11 am-5 pm
Het Machinegebouw
CBK Amsterdam
Pazzanistraat 41, Amsterdam
Oost-Watergraafsmeer
Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek
Oranje Vrijstaatkade 71, Amsterdam THE SOUND OF SHADOW 2
16 Projections in Space, 3 Movements in Time, 1 Silence Although there are exceptions to the rule, most present-day filmmakers, video- and new media artists are increasingly abandoning the metier of constructing cinematographic space from mere visuals (e.g. movement, angle, frame, choice of décor, colour, editing, after-effects, animation) in favour of interlocking visuals with sound or sound effects. More to the point: they basically have become dependent on audio to complement or complete the visuals. Conversely spectators are growing accustomed to seeing with their ears, consequently developing an unwanted ‘deafness’ to images. Where for example the films of Hitchcock induce, famously effective, a visual apprehension of ‘the scary parts’, later suspense thrillers count wholly on the suggestive effects of ‘daunting audio’ (Stephen Spielberg’s Jaws). Nowadays horror movies probably make one laugh (or yawn) when one mutes the sound. A master of the silent movie era, Sergei Eisenstein, stressed the decisive importance of visuals. He meticulously took care that the images on the silver screen, albeit devoid of THE SOUND OF SHADOW 3
audible voice (i.e. synchronised recorded sound), were singing a visually constructed song of their own. Perhaps logically his theory of film editing does not deviate much from the basic guidelines to music composing, with a strong emphasis on metric, rhythm and (over) tonality. But even Eisenstein used a separate musical score to accompany his features, as was common in his time. In the time-based arts sound (i.e. noise/music/dialogue) is often employed – intelligently, superbly and admirably - as thematic adhesive and ‘emo-managing-device’: To (re) direct the spectator’s gaze, to keep his attention (Bill Viola), to induce active participation (Bruce Nauman) or to create unity in large-scale multi-screen or immersive video compositions (Doug Aitken). However in worst case scenarios sound is utilized to patch up floundering or failing visuals. This can only happen because also in the arts (and not just in the film making industries) there is a growing dependence on sound as an image-enhancing tool. Erecting fluid architecture, open-textured sculpture and pictographic narratives from light and shadow (for what is a projection other than a fleeting show of light and shadow) is a profound artistic challenge and should not be the pleasure and privilege just reserved for the THE SOUND OF SHADOW 4
likes of star editor Pablo Ferro, who stringently edits without soundtrack. Yet undeniably it is hard to make a beguiling film or video without sound. Likewise it is hard to watch a silent film or video without growing impatient or anxious. The Sound of Shadow wants to make amends. The project, designed as a ‘symikony’ (a symphony for images - see page 42) in three movements, seeks to re-enliven the quick-witted resourcefulness induced by the sharp stitch of deprivation which a hundred years ago caused the first silent movie pioneers to come up with groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting ideas. It aspires to create silent projected time-based works that are as engrossing as their ‘regular’ sounded counterparts, thereby not only demanding a heightened attentiveness of the artist but also a newly inspired involvement of the sensitive and sensual spectator - thereby gently plugging into the field of synaesthesia, where currently innovative art forms are being brokered. It endeavours to create meaning, beauty, fascination, marvel and sublimation with one hand tied to the back. Also The Sound of Shadow aims to come off with a slightly political edge. Sound artist THE SOUND OF SHADOW 7
Bill Fontana once remarked that inventors of the industrial apparatus never took (nor take) into account the additional noise production (or noise pollution) of their devices. Urban live is unwittingly clattered with noise because eminent importance is given to the faculty of vision. From an opposite position video artist Artur Zmijewski argues in his manifesto The Applied Social Arts (2007) that the public has lost its ability ‘to read images’ because contemporary society is so cluttered with visual incentives it is difficult for any person to establish focal reference. Deafened by clatter, blinded by clutter: the predicament of modern man? It’s not just urban myth to state that when a person becomes deaf, he develops better vision. The Sound of Shadow wants to defy the burden of ‘visual illiteracy’ by dipping its concert of moving images in an arena of silence, like a mystic descending into the void, thus making room for the breath of God. Teresa van Twuijver, Summer 2009
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Works & Artists
Anne-Marie van Meel
They invented this world and this world. What they write will happen. When they write this has to happen, It will happen. They can write and in this way things will happen.
They Exist (4’31”, 16:9) www.anne-marievanmeel.nl
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Britt Kootstra
Concept + Director – Britt Kootstra Camera + Light – Jukka Rajala-Granstubb Actors – Lina Ekblad + Carla Fri Thanks to – Indium Film Company Sus Productions Malakta Out of practice, traditional and newly evolved manners are interspersed in an absurd coffee drinking ritual. Kaffepaus (10’, 16:9) www.brittkootstra.nl
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Daniëlle Davidson
Where does the individual and the masses begin? What is the impact of the masses on the actions and thoughts of the individual? Does an individual, functioning in a given system, still have a choice? An urban environment (the ant heap of the city) is interesting; How is it possible that in the city, where many ‘cells’ are alive, loneliness is experienced? How is the ‘flow’ in the city? In the streams of commuters each day traveling by tram and metro there is a particular system to be found.
The Shadow of Silence (2’19”, 4:3) www.danielledavidson.nl
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Daphne Koopman & Leonie Oortgijsen
Immortality is what mortals must achieve if they want to live up to the world that surrounds them. An endless inventory of immortal fragments, salt and nuclear fuel, visualizing a possible echo of our future immortal landscape.
Life is Only a Resonance of Science (3’25�, 16:9 portrait) www.daphnekoopman.com immortallandscape.wordpress.com munnickay.wordpress.com
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Dirk Moons
Eckhart Tolle’s self-improvement book ‘De kracht van het Nu’ was a bestseller worldwide. Tolle strikes me as moralizing and he irritates me. But the book does contain some useful thoughts.
‘De kracht van het Nu’ (2’11”, 4:3) www.dirkmoons.com
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Eelco Wagenaar
‘Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow’s speed’ (Howard Nemerov) How do we relate to our bodily shadow? Does this shadow still function as our counter-image if it is light instead of dark? Will this shadow keep its physicality if it is projected on a screen? What happens if this shadow image isn’t always as fast as the original? Inverted Shadow (installation) http://eelcowagenaar.nl
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Esther Verhamme
Sound is everywhere. Even in the quietest place one could still hear the rustling sound of the inner-bodily nervous system. In some cultures people believe that shadows represent the world of ghosts. The sound of shadow lies in the past. Sound / Shadow / Sound explores these traces of sounds. By visualizing sounds and giving them a shadow they become present and physical again. Can one imagine the sounds of the past without hearing them?
Sound / Shadow / Sound (installation) www.estherisleuk.nl
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Lucia Kooiman
The base of reality cannot be understood. Inventing a voice, a listener and oneself. Not to be concerned with the creation or identification of truth. This short video combines photographs, video, drawings and deleted text intuitively. It’s about the experience and usurpation of chaotic, subliminal information about nothing, stated in an unclear voice which cannot be heard. An on-going construction of unintelligible fictions that try to escape the manufactured cultural forms manifesting the function of narrating our biographies.
Unsound (44�, 4:3) luciakooiman@hotmail.com
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Luciano Pinna
Direction + Production – Luciano Pinna Performers – Martje Brandsma, Ammon Faithfull, Guido Vijverberg Camera – Hans de Vries Production Assistant – Rik Spann Thanks to – Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek & Teresa van Twuijver A research into the inner workings behind a directed performance. Invision of I (6’, 16:9) www.lucianopinna.com
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Paul Roncken
Bomenzee (29”, 4:3) Schoolplein (47”, 4:3) Stier (3’24”, 4:3) Struikgewas (35”, 4:3) Zandmannetjes (2’04”, 4:3) www.paulroncken.nl
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PJ Bruyniks
An open space harbours silence and calmness. A scooter is often associated with noise and annoyance. What happens when one takes out the essential elements of each? Perhaps the open space embraces the scooter and the scooter loses its sound.
Untitled (50”, 4:3) Untitled (54”, 4:3) Untitled (2”, 4:3) www.pjbruyniks.nl
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Robbert Weide
The shape of a funnel is the transition between 1D and 2D. Moving on the periphery is 3D.
51-60 (8’56”, 16:9) www.robbertweide.nl
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Sara Palomeque Monje
Experience is not arrayed before me as if I were God, it is lived by me from a certain point of view; I am not the spectator, I am involved, and it is my involvement in a point of view which makes possible both the finiteness of my perception and its opening out upon the complete world as a horizon of every perception. (Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, 1962. Translation by Colin Smith)
The Geometry of Space Gets Transformed by Multiple Projections (various durations, 16:9, 4:3) www.sarapalomeque.com
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Teresa van Twuijver & Marijn Korff de Gidts
The End / Old is the time and many birds are snowing / In the emptiness in the distance / One becomes tired and the voices / Are stiff as nails on even the purest of lips / Rough and low roams the rain / Where have the days of light gone / Where to are the clouds now / Everything is mute and of stone / Alone is his weirdness counting the elements / Bending trembling like a lashing / Giving the last sound: the song / Has the life eternal (Lucebert)
Voice Beat II (triptych, 1’05”, 2’11”, 13”, 16:9) www.teresavantwuijver.nl
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Tzvetana Tchakarova
In film sound usually plays a supportive role. Sound is added to images to create suspense, to accentuate emotions or to give meaning. In this piece sound is the point of departure. ‘Whispers’ investigates the stories of three people and their experience of listening.
Whispers (3 video’s, 2’, 4:3) www.tzvetanatchakarova.com
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Wim Jongedijk
Mazu is the name of the goddess of the sea who protects sailors and fisherman. She originally occurs in several Asian - mainly Chinese - legends of Lin Moniang (960 AD). Her name means ‘silent girl’ for she didn’t cry at birth. About this woman it is said she became a divinity when saving (while in trance meditation) her father and brother during a typhoon at the age of 28. Wim Jongedijk (concept, film) and Catharina Bruijning (concept, actress) Mazu, The Silent Girl (5’41”, 4;3) Zondag (3’15”, 4:3) www.villalogica.nl
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Symikony
The Sound of Shadow is both an exhibition and a gesamtkunstwerk that researches into how sound affects image in the time-based arts by excluding it. Newly commissioned films, videos and unstable media works invite, both individually and collectively, the camera (and eyes) to stand in for the microphone (and ears). Showing the works in the shape of an orchestered symikony (‘visual symphony’) in three movements, using beamers and a ‘surround’ constellation of transparent screens in a large space, The Sound of Shadow underscores the significance of silence, its prevailing absence in present-day time-based arts and the acoustic merits of silent images. The symikony (a freshly coined word consisting of the Greek ‘Sum’ meaning harmony and ‘Ikona’ meaning image) is carefully composed and revolves around three movements in time in which tempo, frame, camera choreography and collision play manifest roles. The Sound of Shadow has a slow first part, an up-beat middle and a pacing end. In the first movement emphasis is given to space, junction and collage; the second shows all the works simultaneously, the third focuses on tonality and plays with repetition, blanks and pauses. The Sound of Shadow 38’15” (Andante 12’45”, Adagio 12’, Andantino 13’30”) THE SOUND OF SHADOW 42
Colophon
Supported by
Concept, Symikony Composition, Organisation – Teresa van Twuijver Curating – Teresa van Twuijver, Eelco Wagenaar Production – PJ Bruyniks Exhibition Design – Sara Palomeque Monje Exhibition Installation - Daphne Koopman, Eelco Wagenaar Website – Esther Verhamme Art Design – Anne-Marie van Meel, Robbert Weide Press – Leonie Oortgijsen, Dirk Moons, Wim Jongedijk, Britt Kootstra Catalog – Tzvetana Tchakarova, Daniëlle Davidson, Sara Palomeque Monje Ensemble – Anne-Marie van Meel, Britt Kootstra, Daniëlle Davidson, Daphne Koopman/Leonie Oortgijsen, Dirk Moons, Eelco Wagenaar, Esther Verhamme, Lucia Kooiman, Luciano Pinna, Paul Roncken, PJ Bruyniks, Robbert Weide, Sara Palomeque Monje, Teresa van Twuijver/Marijn Korff de Gidts, Tzvetana Tchakarova, Wim Jongedijk
www.soundofshadow.com © 2010
Catalog € 5,– THE SOUND OF SHADOW 43