The anniversary edition of the Sonic Acts Biennial was a spectacular success – a tremendous THANK YOU to everyone who attended! Featuring 140 artists and 54 events, gathering visitors in 15 locations around Amsterdam, at concert halls, clubs, museums, and art galleries. Over two months, we embarked on weathering workshops, danced the night away during high-energy club events, listened to archives, experienced cinematic and audiovisual masterpieces, and much, much more.

To the artists, we couldn’t be more grateful for your generous and awe-inspiring presence in our programme. We are also hugely thankful for our funders, partners, technicians, and volunteers, not to mention the Sonic Acts team, who worked to make the Biennial a reality. A special shoutout goes to our photographers and video crew, whose extensive documentation can be found on Flickr. In the upcoming weeks, we will be releasing new video content via YouTube and Vimeo, including in-depth interviews, filmed lectures and performances, as well as recap highlights – watch this space!

Thank you to all ARTISTS: Adriana Knouf, Aho Ssan, Aimée Theriot, aircode, Alice Twemlow, Anika Schwarzlose, Anna Khvyl, Annea Lockwood, Annika Kappner, Arash Akbari, Arjuna Neuman, Astrida Neimanis, Atte Elias Kantonen, aya, baby ganoush, BEARCAT, belit sağ, Ben Kreukniet, Benjamin Thigpen, Beny Wagner, Bernard Parmegiani, Bo Wang, Boris Shershenkov, Brackish Collective, Canal++, Cara Mayer, Casimir Geelhoed, Charlemagne Palestine, Charo Calvo, Clara de Asís, Cocky Eek, Denise Ferreira da Silva, dj sniff, Eléonore Huisse, Elena Khurtova, Eleftheria, Elvia Wilk, Éric La Casa, Eric Maltz, Eve Aboulkheir, Faiza Ahmad Khan, Farzané, Felicity Mangan, Flora Yin Wong, François Bayle, François Bonnet, Galen Tipton, General Magic ∞ Tina Frank, Geneva Skeen, Görkem Arıkan, Harun Morrison, Hildegard Westerkamp, Hira Nabi, Hugo Esquinca, Iannis Xenakis, Imani Jacqueline Brown, Imgrate, Ingrate, Jana Winderen, Jessica Nightlife, Jez riley French, Ji Youn Kang, Jim O’Rourke, Jonáš Gruska, Jota Mombaça, Juan Arturo García, Julia Giertz, KABLAM, Kassel Jaeger, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Kristina Andersen, laschulas, Lasse Marhaug, Leroy de Böck, Low End Activist, Luc Ferrari, Lukas Marxt, M Murphy, M.E.S.H., Marcin Pietruszewski, Margarida Mendes, Marja Ahti, Mark IJzerman, Matthias Puech, Max Eilbacher, Michael Speers, Millie Rose Dobree, Minji Kim, Mint Park, MISFYA, Natalia Domínguez Rangel, Natasha Tontey, Nico Bes, noiserr, Pedro Matias, Pete Edwards, Pheobe riley Law, Prison Religion, Rabit, Rachael Rakes, Rebecca Lane, Russell Haswell, ï î (Lukas De Clerck & Victor Guaita Igual), Sasha Litvintseva,​​ Sarah Davachi, Sarah van Lamsweerde, Sevi Iko Dømochevsky, SHALT, Ship Sket, Sissel Marie Tonn, Slikback, Solveig Suess, Susan Schuppli, Sébastien Robert, Tarek Atoui, The Social Lover, Theresa Baumgartner, touche—touche, TRANCE (City, Dis Fig, Felix-Florian Tödtloff, Ican Harem, KIM KHAN, Kasimyn, Lavinia Vago, Léa Djyl, Ndoho Ange, OMI, Siko Setyanto, Tianzhuo Chen, Ylva Falk & ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U), YOZY, Yeon Sung, Zgjim, and ZULI.

Thank you to all FUNDERS: Creative Industries Fund NL, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK), Fonds 21, Cultuurfonds, Hartwig Art Foundation, Cultuurloket DigitALL, Mondriaan Fund, Provincie Noord-Holland, Cultural Participation Fund, Gravin van Bylandt Stichting, Performing Arts Fund NL, Re-Imagine Europe – co-funded by the European Union, Stichting Zabawas, Nieuwe Instituut, Goethe-Institut Niederlande, and Institut français NL.

Thank you to all PARTNERS: ​All Rent, Beamsystems, CRACK Magazine, Centercom, De Appel, De Witte Raaf, Dutchital Media, e-flux, Extra Extra Magazine, Flyerman, Gonzo Circus, HKU Utrecht, Ina GRM, Kentalis, Ledlease, Metropolis M, Radio WORM, Showcare, SoundLAB, Spatial Media Laboratories, Subbacultcha, The Quietus, The Wire, Underbelly, WG Theatertechniek, and We Are Public.

Thank you to all LOCATIONS: Paradiso, Muziekgebouw, Bimhuis, Looiersgracht 60, Stedelijk Museum, Eye Filmmuseum, W139, Zone2Source, Oude Kerk, Garage Noord, kanaal40, Het HEM, OT301, Rijksakademie, and Jacuzzi.

Thank you to all VOLUNTEERS: Alessandro Aprile, Alessia Spaghetti, Alva Bückings, Amedeo Feingold, Amirreza Torangan, Anastasiia Horodechna, Andreea Diana Stancu, Ane Yang, Anouk Albrecht, Aukse Maciunaite, Axel Chalon, Cath Carter, Catriona Reid, Chanwoo Song, Chiara Pitrola, Danai Giannopoulou, Daniel Manz, Davide Tiraboschi, Derek Kuijper, Dimitra Trigka, Donghee Jeong, Elizabeth Choong, Elizabeth Scott, Emma Little, Emma Lucas, Félicia Dotse, Flóra Pálhegyi, Golnoosh Heshmati, Grace Wang, Hari Chauhan, Heleen van Rossum, Ho-chi So, Hunter Wise, Hyeisoo Kim, Imke Hullman, Imre Ismen, Inés Rakosnik, Iulia Aionesi, Izabela Kaczyńska, Jagoda Lis, Jef Rouschop, Jiyun Nam, Joana Naomi Prochaska, Juli Kiriiak, Julia Kloppenborg, Kaj Boonstra, Kaja Tasevska, Kristina Vodorezova, Laura Faraone, Laura Kowalczyk, Leila Edelsztein Satz, Lianne Smit, Linda Akkarach, Louiza Kloppenborg, Lovelina van de Reep, Lydia Poole, Mara Ledeboer-Boviatsi, Mateusz Grzywacz, Maurice Beld, Michelle Croeze, Monika Dimitrova, Nabila Ernada, Noa Eshed, Peter Huizinga, Peter Moran, Rachit Puri, Roberta Esposito, Sabina Scorțanu, Sara Kers, Sarah Birchall, Sifra Meijers, Sofia Beatrice Malatesta, Sophie Barrett-Pouleau, Soyoon Cha, Thomas Kaufmanas, Timurs Davilovs, Tom Polleau, Valerie Wollinger, Vlada Chernavina, Xiaoyi (Edith) Chen, Xico Ribas Tur, Yana Lineva, Žarko Almuli, and Zita Kosaras.

Sediments at Het HEM and online
Saturday 23 March from 11:00 to 17:40

Endings are sad, but not if we spend them together! To round off the Biennial, join us at Het HEM in Zaandam for Sediments, a whole day of interactive site-specific events – field and audio walks, participatory performances, and workshops. Listen to the story of the wind with Overexposed resident Minji Kim. Attune to the weather and cycle into the unknown with Yeon Sung as part of her cycling performance around Zaandam. Mint Park also explores the area surrounding Het HEM, guided by Pauline Oliveros’ listening approach and digital signal processing algorithms. Elena Khurtova and Anika Schwarzlose will take visitors into the Hembrugterrein, revealing remnants of the former weapons factory, which they also thematise in their piece with chromatographic textiles, Residue, Colliding Archives: Chapter 3 presented at the Sonic Acts exhibition.

Alongside the workshops, Mint Park will perform her sound piece Sensing Boundary Layers of Unknown for the first time – made in collaboration with Sonic Acts – and Farzané will give a live demonstration of her collaborative multichannel sound installation Embedded/Embodied, co-commissioned by Sonic Acts and Het HEM. Listen to The Social Lover’s DJ set, composed using material from the Sonic Acts archive, and engage in enriching conversations between artists and the curatorial team. For anyone who can't make it, or who wants to follow along online, head to thecouch.hethem.nl to experience Farzané and Arash Akbari's virtual walk, which was commissioned by Het HEM.

Exhibition at W139
Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 20:00
Don’t forget that Sunday 24 March is your last chance to visit the Biennial exhibition at W139! If you haven’t been yet or simply want to explore the works further, then be sure to stop by.

Ticket sale

Over two months, the Sonic Acts Biennial takes a multitude of forms. To help you navigate the extensive programme, we will be sharing weekly tips via our website and social channels.

Feedback Loops Broadcast from Radio WORM
Online, Monday 11 March from 14:00 to 17:00

The Feedback Loops workshop culminates with a live show on Radio WORM. Tune in and listen to the participants deliver their reflections on the Biennial goings-on, accompanied by field recordings, music, and discussion. Led by Martina Raponi/noiserr and guest host Cara Mayer, Feedback Loops builds on the decade-long legacy of Sonic Acts’ critical writing workshop.

Sightless Seeing #6: A Flower Noticed You, Performative Exhibition Tour at W139
Tuesday 12 March from 17:30 to 18:45

Taking the form of an alternative guided exhibition tour at W139, Sarah van Lamsweerde and actor Leroy de Böck, who is visually impaired, invite visitors to experience the artworks and the space through sensory rituals.

Breathing Spaces, Multichannel Workshop Presentation and Concert at Zone2Source
Sunday 17 March from 12:00 to 17:00

During the captivating culmination of the Spatial Sound Workshop, the ten participants, led by Ji Youn Kang, will showcase their collective pieces and installations. This event promises to be a sensory feast, where space itself is transformed into an unconventional musical instrument.

Exhibition at W139
Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 20:00

The Biennial exhibition illuminates the fluid, porous boundaries between the human and more-than-human. With works by Harun Morrison, Jota Mombaça, touche—touche, Annika Kappner, Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner, Brackish Collective, Pedro Matias, and Natasha Tontey.

Exhibition at Looiersgracht 60
Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 20:00

The featured artists in the exhibition seek to give form to the ongoing environmental crisis by examining the unexposed histories of contamination, bodily landscapes, and postnatural ecosystems. With works by Lukas Marxt, laschulas collective, Anika Schwarzlose and Elena Khurtova, and touche—touche.

For more information, please see the timetable of our programme, or browse the programme to see what’s coming up. Follow the links to buy tickets, or see what tickets are still available here.

Embedded/Embodied uses spatial audio, point-cloud captures, and navigational interactions. The online experience is developed by training the Embedded/Embodied A.I. system based on audio recordings from Het HEM’s terrain. The aim is to create interactive documentation of this artistic research project, allowing visitors to explore the system's learning epochs in a spatiotemporal manner.

The artwork will be demonstrated by Farzané in an octophonic installation at Het HEM on Saturday 23 March, as part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2024 field day Sediments. An iteration of Embedded/Embodied was was first presented in February and March in the Spatial Sound Platform’s Listening Room and live event A.I. Worldlings at Zone2Source, for which several microphones were placed in Amstepark.

Farzané and Arash Akbari have been artistic collaborators since 2017.

Farzané’s most recent compositions investigate complex systems, natural algorithms, and human-machine interaction, which she transposes to live performance, with interactive installations, films, VR and multi-sensory experiences. The focus of her current research, based out of the Netherlands, is on utilising artificial intelligence methods in the framework of free improvisation in electroacoustic music.

Arash Akbari, a composer living in Tehran, investigates experimental approaches to sound generation, field recordings, acoustic instrumentation, digital synthesis, DSP, and noise. He likewise directs his experimental practices into audio-visual performances and installations, interactive software, and multi-sensory experiences. With a critical mindset toward the dominant paradigm of technology, he examines counter-narratives regarding computational processes, interactive cybernetic systems, and their emergent behaviours, questioning their social and emotional impact.

Het HEM’s online platform The Couch has always been part of Het HEM’s programming. The initial version was a literal one: a cosy spot for visitors to relax and enjoy curated content that deepened and widened the scope of the exhibitions. Now, The Couch has broadened into a wider online platform, a place for the venue to expand its offerings via text, audio, video, and newly commissioned digital artworks, centring strong voices that tell stories to help understand the world as it is and as it could be, with humour and a critical eye. The platform also aims to support exciting research – artistic, scientific, and theoretical – by exploring developments in contemporary technologies as well as renewed understandings of earthbound practices and knowledges.

Documented extensively by our team of photographers, Flickr contains a highlight reel of special moments from the Biennial. Find snaps of artists and audiences at events including the exhibition openings at W139 and Looiersgracht 60, club nights at kanaal40 and OT301, the otherworldly experimental performance TRANCE at Paradiso, and the symposium at the Stedelijk Museum. There's documentation of Expanded Experience at Muziekgebouw, as well as Astrida Neimanis' Weathering Together workshop, Warping Spatial Narratives – led by Theresa Baumgartner and Ben Kreukniet – and the Feedback Loops critical writing workshop. You can also take a peek at pictures of the immersive live concerts that took place at Zone2Souce, home to the Spatial Sound Platform.

Check out these and more photos from the Biennial on our Flickr page, which will continue to be updated in the upcoming weeks!

Over two months, the Sonic Acts Biennial takes a multitude of forms. To help you navigate the extensive programme, we will be sharing weekly tips via our website and social channels.

Sightless Seeing #6: A Flower Noticed You, Performance at W139
Tuesday 5 March 17:30 to 18:45
Saturday 9 March 19:30 to 20:45
Sunday 10 March 11:00 to 12:15

Taking the form of an alternative guided exhibition tour at W139, Sarah van Lamsweerde and actor Leroy de Böck, who is visually impaired, invite visitors to experience the artworks and the space through sensory rituals.

Eye on Art: Moving Ice, Film Screening and Live Performance at Eye Filmmuseum
Tuesday 5 March, Cinema 1, 19:15 to 20:45

The Sonic Acts commission, Moving Ice by Susan Schuppli tells the story about how European and American merchants tried to cool the tropics through the financialisation of temperature. It will be featured in Eye on Art; an evening in collaboration with Sonic Acts, with an audiovisual performance by Sébastien Robert and Mark IJzerman - with material from the Eye collection – the screening of Susan Schuppli's new film and a talk between Schuppli and her collaborator Faiza Ahmad Khan with Åse Løvgren.

Eye on Art: Shapeshifts, Film Screening at Eye Filmmuseum
Tuesday 5 March, Cinema 3, 21:30 to 22:40

Curated in collaboration with Canal++, Jo-Lene Ong, Rachael Rakes, and Julian Ross, Shapeshifts presents films by Bo Wang and Shambhavi Kaul. Wang – who presents a Dutch premiere of his film An Asian Ghost Story – will be in conversation with Rachael Rakes and Julian Ross about his long-running body of work exploring the traces and hauntings of colonial pasts.

Listening Anew, Live performances and Talks at Zone2Source
Thursday 7 March 19:00 to 22:00

Dive into the Sonic Acts archive together with sound artist and producer KMRU. The listening session is preceded by an introduction to this collection and a talk by KMRU on his own work with archives as part of ‘Temporary Stored’ – a project excavating sound records of the Afrikamuseum in Tervuren, Belgium.

Still Life of a Laid Table with Lecithin and Voice, Performance at W139
Saturday 9 March 18:00 to 19:00

Brackish Collective's performance engages the audience through auditory, olfactory, and gustatory interventions. The piece is named after the installation of the same title – a dinner table created by the collective that mirrors the 'banketje' style, a genre of still life painting once favoured by Dutch middle-class merchants.

Listening Rooms at Zone2Source – FINISSAGE
Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 12:00 to 17:00

The Listening Room is a sound exhibition – a place to listen to sound on a proper spatial setup. On the impressive, 8.2-channel sound system, a series of works from the Sonic Acts archive and newly commissioned works will be played out in 9 programmes. Part of the Listening Room is also an interactive installation by Farzané and Arash Akbari.

Exhibition at W139
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 20:00

The Biennial exhibition illuminates the fluid, porous boundaries between the human and more-than-human. With works by Harun Morrison, Jota Mombaça, touche—touche, Annika Kappner, Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner, Brackish Collective, Pedro Matias, and Natasha Tontey.

Exhibition at Looiersgracht 60
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 20:00

The featured artists seek to give form to the ongoing environmental crisis by examining the unexposed histories of contamination, bodily landscapes, and postnatural ecosystems. With works by Lukas Marxt, laschulas collective, Anika Schwarzlose and Elena Khurtova, and touche—touche.

For more information, please see the timetable of our programme, or browse the programme to see what’s coming up. Follow the links to buy tickets, or see what tickets are still available here.

As part of their alternative guided exhibition tour, artist Sarah van Lamsweerde, together with visually impaired dancer and actor Leroy de Böck, invite you to engage with the artworks on display at W139 through a series of sensory rituals. Going beyond the ocular, Sightless Seeing #6: A Flower Noticed You taps into touch, memory, and embodied listening, navigating the subtleties of the space to experience it anew.

Encompassing the curatorial underpinnings of The Spell of the Sensuous, the 2024 Biennial exhibition illuminates the fluid, porous boundaries between the human and more-than-human, embracing a multiplicity of ways of engaging with the thresholds of the body.

Creating performances, installations and publications, Sarah van Lamsweerde questions the way humans interact with nature and culture. With her collaborator Leroy de Böck, she produces Sightless Seeing, a project they have been doing together since 2017 for different exhibitions. For this edition, they ask: If these objects were once animated by their maker, what kind of agency and sensibility did they receive? Can the artworks look back at us?

Tickets: 7–10€

Timeslots

5 March 17:30–18:45
9 March 19:30–20:45
10 March 11:00–12:15
12 March 17:30–18:45

Accessibility

This venue is only partly accessible to wheelchair users.

A trans-hemispheric commerce in natural ice moved its crystal cargo along the well-established shipping routes of plantation economies and the spice trade, what came to be known as the ‘frozen water trade’. Moving Ice tells the story of how European and American merchants tried to cool the tropics through the financialisation of temperature. Shipping natural ice extracted from glaciers and winter lakes to colonial elites around the world. Sometimes using slave labour to unload ships. The moving of a melting commodity that lost its mass by almost a third upon arrival is now largely forgotten.

Susan Schuppli, a researcher and artist based in the UK, examines material evidence, corroborating material from war and conflict, as well as environmental disasters and climate change. Schuppli is Professor and Director of the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths University of London where she is also an affiliate artist-researcher and Board Chair of Forensic Architecture.

Get your tickets here.

Moving Ice is co-commissioned by Sonic Acts (NL) and BEK – Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts (NO) in the context of the Re-Imagine Europe programme, co-funded by the European Union.

Sonic Acts collaborates with Rupert, an independent, publicly funded centre for art, residencies and education, located in Vilnius, Lithuania, for a two-part research and production residency. ALTERLIFE begins with a two-month research residency at Rupert (September–October 2024), before continuing with one month at Sonic Acts in Amsterdam (February 2025).

Project theme

The climate crisis is a crisis of the imagination, warns Amitav Ghosh in The Great Derangement. As he states, we are unable to think through the scale and violence of climate change in our culture. The ethics of individualism value personal experiences above structural and collective ones. Yet individual bodies cannot get you out of entanglements, notes Indigenous feminist scholar M Murphy, ‘embodiment does not provide a respite or escape from history, from infrastructures, from relations of power.’

Human bodies do not end at the skin, as Donna Haraway puts it. They expand into the environment, and mirror it back to us. We are living in what Murphy describes as the state of ‘alterlife’, transformed by the chemical entanglements built up in our societies over the centuries of colonial and capitalist exploitation of both humans and non-humans.

Guided by the methodology of critical walking practices, we invite proposals that use imagination to forge alliances and create alternative narratives about our political realities. Wandering is both a political and cultural activity, according to author Rebecca Solnit, ‘an embodied presence in motion connecting us to inner and outer realms.’

How can passing through space critically help us understand and reimagine our environment, our shared histories, and each other, showing us where we can go together? How can we think of alterlife as a starting point for a different approach to life.

Who can apply?

This residency welcomes all EU-based artists during the duration of the residency (2024–2025). We encourage individual artists or duos who take a multidisciplinary approach, particularly practices which incorporate sound and video.

What can you expect?

The project begins with a two-month research residency at Rupert in Vilnius, Lithuania from September to October 2024. Next is a one-month research and development residency in the Netherlands in February 2025, followed by the development and production of a new commission for exhibition at Rupert and Sonic Acts in late 2025 and early 2026.

What do we offer?

• Fully funded stays at Rupert (September–October 2024) and Sonic Acts (February 2025)
• Stipend of 3400 euros for a 3-month residency period in both locations, travel to both locations (up to 400 euros per location), and research/production support for an artwork (to be discussed with the resident)
• Research project featured on Sonic Acts and Rupert website or publications
• Feedback sessions with the resident, help in working on funding applications, productional support
• Production of the artwork and its exhibition at Rupert (2025) and Sonic Acts Biennial (2026)

Residency at Rupert

Individual artists or collectives are provided with one residency studio (maximum 2 person occupancy) and one stipend for two months. Applications can be submitted by families, but note that the kitchen, bathroom and toilet facilities at Rupert are shared between the residents and other tenants in the building. You can find more information in Rupert’s FAQ.

Residency at Sonic Acts

Sonic Acts has two state-of-the-art audio/video studios equipped with professional audio and video equipment. These studios are modular and can be configured per project. Sonic Acts has an extensive multichannel audio setup, 3D and VR glasses and projectors, various workstations, streaming facilities, and high-end cameras, sensors, microphones, and field recording kits. In addition, the organisation owns software licences for professional audio and video productions, 3D modelling, and spatial sound. A simple electronics workshop is available for building instruments and prototypes. Sonic Acts archive, both in physical form and digitally, is available for research.

Application

Applications should be submitted via Homerun in English by 1 April 2024. Interviews with shortlisted candidates will take place 10–11 April, and the selected applicant will be notified by 15 April 2024.

Prospective residents are invited to present a project they will be working on during the residency. Applicants are required to submit:

• CV
• Portfolio (up to 5 works, max 10 pages, max 10 MB)
• Project description (up to 600 words)

The selection committee comprises two members of the curatorial team of Sonic Acts (Mirna Belina, Maud Seuntjens) and two from Rupert (Viktorija Šiaulytė, JL Murtaugh), and independent jury members, artists Marissa Lee Benedict, David Rueter, and others to be confirmed.

For further enquiries please contact us at residency@sonicacts.com.

Apply Here

ALTERLIFE is a collaboration between Rupert (LT) and Sonic Acts (NL). Part of New Perspectives for Action. A project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union. The residency in Amsterdam is organised in collaboration with W139.

New Perspectives for Action is a project by Re-Imagine Europe, a collaboration between Paradiso and Sonic Acts (NL), Elevate Festival (AT), A4 (SK), INA GRM (FR), Borealis (NO), KONTEJNER (HR), RUPERT (LT), Semibreve (PT), Parco d’Arte Vivente (IT), Disruption Network Lab (DE), BEK (NO), Kontrapunkt (MK) and Radio Web MACBA (ES). Co-funded by the European Union.

Over two months, the Sonic Acts Biennial takes a multitude of forms. To help you navigate the extensive programme, we will be sharing weekly tips via our website and social channels. After a successful festival weekend, dive deeper into our programme.

CONCERTS

Within Space, Live Performances and Talks at Zone2Source
Thursday 29 February from 19:00 to 22:00

This programme expands on the elemental relationship between sound, space, sound systems, and the listener. Casimir Geelhoed’s Kinemorphosis – a portmanteau of 'kinema' and metamorphosis – is a live performance for an octophonic sound system. Charo Calvo’s performance, The Grass, is inspired by a poem by author Jeffrey Yang. In PLUS (Axis of Distance), Max Eilbacher takes up a sound synthesis technique he has been developing over the past few years.

Silence: Charlemagne Palestine, Concert at Oude Kerk
Friday 1 March from 08:00 to 09:00

The Silence event series occurs on the first Friday of every month in Amsterdam’s oldest building. At 8 a.m., visitors are invited to witness experimental pieces under the ancient ceiling of the Oude Kerk. This year, Sonic Acts brings influential composer, performer, and visual artist Charlemagne Palestine to the church to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Silence concerts.

Touched by Sound, Presentations, Talks & Concerts at BIMHUIS
Sunday 3 March from 15:30 to 18:30 & 20:30 to 22:30

Touched by Sound takes up the legacy of the pioneering performer and instrument maker Michel Waisvisz (1949–2008). Together with Kristina Andersen and Sonic Acts, artist and composer Tarek Atoui explores Waisvisz' archives as a catalyst for new forms of experimentation. On Sunday 3 March, a series of talks and a performance invite us to reposition Waisvisz’ work in the present. Firstly, artists Boris Shershenkov, Görkem Arıkan, Andersen, and Atoui present the new instruments, discussing the fascinating process of re-editing them. The second part of the evening features a durational collective improvisation involving a group of musicians who will showcase the artistic continuation of Waisvisz’ ideas.

EXHIBITIONS

Listening Rooms at Zone2Source
Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 12:00 to 17:00

The Listening Room is a sound exhibition – a place to listen to sound on a proper spatial setup. On the impressive, 8.2-channel sound system, a series of works from the Sonic Acts archive and newly commissioned works are played out in 9 programmes. Part of the Listening Room is also an interactive installation by Farzané and Arash Akbari.

Exhibition at W139
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 20:00

The exhibition features works by Harun Morrison, Jota Mombaça, touche—touche, Annika Kappner, Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner, Brackish Collective, Pedro Matias, and Natasha Tontey.

Exhibition at Looiersgracht 60
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 20:00

The exhibition features works by Lukas Marxt, laschulas collective, Anika Schwarzlose and Elena Khurtova, and touche—touche.

EXHIBITION TOURS AND WORKSHOPS

Exhibition Walking Tour for Curators and Professionals at W139 & Looiersgracht 60
Monday 26 February from 13:00 to 15:30

A special exhibition tour for curators and cultural professionals, expanding on the overarching curatorial concepts behind Sonic Acts Biennial 2024: The Spell of the Sensuous and taking a deeper look at the works on display.

Mourning Waters Workshop at Jacuzzi (sold out)
Monday 26 February from 16:00 to 19:00

Engaging with the manifold complexities of environmental relations, this workshop with Margarida Mendes proposes a space to converse about changing ecosystems, while exploring how these may be celebrated and mourned collectively.

Sightless Seeing #6: A Flower Noticed You, Alternative Exhibition Tour at W139
Saturday & Sunday, 2 & 3 March from 19:30 to 20:45

Taking the form of an alternative guided exhibition tour at W139, together with actor Leroy de Böck, who is visually impaired, Sarah van Lamsweerde invites the visitors to experience the artworks and the space through sensory rituals. Leroy brings the surroundings to life through the power of language, the body, and imagination.

Over two months, the Sonic Acts Biennial takes a multitude of forms. To help you navigate the extensive programme, we will be sharing weekly tips via our website and social channels. Strap in for the busiest week of the Biennial yet, including the symposium and much more for our festival weekend!

TRANCE at Paradiso
Friday 23 February from 15:00 to 03:00

Somewhere between a rock concert, an underground rave, an immersive theatre production, and an otherworldly cinematic experiment, you will find TRANCE. Visionary contemporary artist Tianzhuo Chen, the director of Asian Dope Boys, creates a synthesis of his work from the past decade. The 12-hour-long extravaganza includes a sprawling ensemble cast of international musicians and performers such as ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U, Dis Fig, KIM KHAN, Ylva Falk, Kasimyn and Ican Harem.

Expanded Experience at Muziekgebouw
Saturday 24 February from 19:00 to 01:00

Sonic Acts is back in Muziekgebouw for a six-hour evening of concerts and audio-visual screenings. Expanded Experience includes diverse and spectacular approaches to sound and image, navigating sonic encounters as multi-sensory experiences, encompassing deep listening and sublime visuals. Including work from Marcin Pietruszewski, Eléonore Huisse, Kassel Jaeger, Ï Î, Sarah Davachi, Sevi Iko Dømochevsky and Aho Ssan, General Magic ∞ Tina Frank, Oliver Torr and Axonbody, Hugo Esquinca and Russell Haswell.

Club night at Garage Noord
Saturday 24 February from 23:00 to 06:00

Celebrating our festival weekend with a club night; soundscape abstractionist SHALT warms up the downstairs club room, followed by Ship Sket’s fusion of drill, baile funk and ballroom vogue, and Janus party affiliate KABLAM. From Cairo’s underground, ZULI will deliver an unrentling live set before Bapari lands hard and fast with their disruptive pop edits and YOZY delivers hybrid speed techno stylings. Closing out downstairs, MISFYA plays until sunrise, channelling her French-Ivorian heritage into bass-heavy futurism. In bar40, Angry Youth co-founder Zgjim follows up from baby ganoush’s diverse sound palette. Then there’s Bristol’s plummeting frequency specialist Low End Activist and, as the finale, Discwoman's BEARCAT.

Symposium at the Stedelijk Museum (sold out)
Saturday and Sunday, 24 & 25 February from 10:30/11:00 to 18:00

The symposium is also open to attend online. We welcome Astrida Neimanis, author of the formative book Bodies of Water (2017), researcher M Murphy, architectural researcher Imani Jacqueline Brown, anti-extractive activist and academic Margarida Mendes, and videographer and visual artist belit sağ. Following their individual lectures, Neimanis and Murphy will share a conversation. The conference emphasises cinematic and collaborative research practices, questioning how we might envision and engage differently with the so-called ‘natural’ world. Accompanied by her modular synthesiser, xenologist scholar, and artist Adriana Knouf's presentation is proposed as a love letter. Filmmakers Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner are joined by author Elvia Wilk for a conversation about their oeuvre. Engaged in a long-term collaboration, philosopher Denise Ferreira da Silva and artist Arjuna Neuman will discuss their collaborative films that deal with the quantic, cosmical, organic matter, and geologic time. Lastly, Hira Nabi weaves together narratives from misty mountain sides, the ghosts of extraction and British imperialism.

Listening Rooms at Zone2Source
Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 12:00 to 17:00

The Listening Room is a sound exhibition – a place to listen to sound on a proper spatial setup. On the impressive, 8.2-channel sound system, a series of works from the Sonic Acts archive and newly commissioned works will be played out in 9 programmes. Part of the Listening Room is also an interactive installation by Farzané and Arash Akbari.

Exhibition at W139
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 20:00

The exhibition is now open to the public for regular visiting. With works by Harun Morrison, Jota Mombaça, touche—touche, Annika Kappner, Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner, Brackish Collective, Pedro Matias, and Natasha Tontey.

Exhibition at Looiersgracht 60
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 20:00

The exhibition is now open to the public for regular visiting. The featured artists seek to give form to the ongoing environmental crisis by examining the unexposed histories of contamination, bodily landscapes, and postnatural ecosystems. With works by Lukas Marxt, laschulas collective, Anika Schwarzlose and Elena Khurtova, and touche—touche.

Performances at W139
Thursday 20 February from 20:00 to 22:00

(e)ncounter(ing) #3 – emotionally displaced is Pedro Matias’ performative reading of dépaysement, an emotional map of disorientating ‘stories’ that speculate upon systemic oppressive structures, nature, the (more than) human body, and regeneration. The reading is followed by a guided collective experience of Annika Kappner’s ATER TUMTI, with a live spatial sound performance by Eric Maltz.

Weathering Together Workshop at Zone2Source (sold out)
Thursday 22 February from 15:00 to 18:00

Astrida Neimanis presents a more-than-meteorological workshop, connecting the sensory experience with disrupted weather patterns. This workshop will draw on a decade of practice-led experiments initiated within the Weathering Collective to consider how attention to these weathers can guide us in a meaningful redistribution of shelter and vulnerability in stormy times.

For more information, please see the timetable of our programme, or browse the programme to see what’s coming up. Follow the links to buy tickets, or see what tickets are still available here.

Over two months, the Sonic Acts Biennial takes a multitude of forms. To help you navigate the extensive programme, we will be sharing weekly tips via our website and social channels. Stay tuned for the latest!

Blue Hour
Zone2Source, Thursday 15 February from 19:00 to 22:00

Blue Hour takes place around dusk, during the intermediate moment between day and night, when the gradual change of colour and contours makes us aware of our fragile perceptions. Distances Bending, a collaborative composition by Clara de Asís and Rebecca Lane, takes up elemental musical materials and a repeated time structure for this performance. Michael Speers' piece delves into instability and contingency, unveiling an ecology of non-linear interactions between acoustic and synthetic materials, the listener, performer, and space.

Exhibition at Looiersgracht 60
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 20:00

Last week we opened the second part of the exhibition at Looiersgracht 60 and the exhibition is now open to the public for regular visiting. The featured artists seek to give form to the ongoing environmental crisis by examining the unexposed histories of contamination, bodily landscapes, and postnatural ecosystems. With works by Lukas Marxt, laschulas collective, Anika Schwarzlose and Elena Khurtova, and touche—touche, and Aimée Theriot.

Exhibition at W139
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 20:00

After opening the festival at the start of this month with a bang and a performative activation by Brackish Collective, the exhibition is now open to the public for regular visiting. With works by Harun Morrison, Jota Mombaça, touche—touche, Annika Kappner, Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner, Brackish Collective, Pedro Matias, and Natasha Tontey.

For more information, please see the timetable of our programme, or browse the programme to see what’s coming up. Follow the links to buy tickets, or see what tickets are still available here.

Dive deep into the politics of cold with a programme of films about ice! The double bill evening starts at 19:15 with an AV performance Another Deep (Try-Out) by Sébastien Robert and Mark Ijzerman, who invite you to an immersive experience of deep-sea mining in the Svalbard region. IJzerman’s research in planetary processes and warming waters, paired with Robert’s study into sound, is heavily reflected in Another Deep, which touches on topics such as climate change, industrialisation, and resource exploitation. Their research has been produced in collaboration with V2_ (NL) and BEK (NO).

We are happy to announce the world premiere of Susan Schuppli’s documentary film Moving Ice (2024). It tells the story about how European and American merchants tried to cool the tropics through the financialisation of temperature and by shipping natural ice extracted from glaciers and winter lakes to colonial elites around the world. Susan Schuppli is an artist, researcher, Professor and Director of the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths University of London, where she is also an affiliate artist-researcher and Board Chair of Forensic Architecture. The film is co-commissioned by Sonic Acts (NL) and BEK (NO) in the context of Re-Imagine Europe programme, co-funded by the European Union. Susan Schuppli and her collaborator Faiza Ahmad Khan will be in conversation with Åse Løvgren from BEK – Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts.

The second film programme of the evening, Shapeshifts, is presented in collaboration with Canal++, a curatorial film collective from Amsterdam comprised of Jo-Lene Ong, Rachael Rakes, and Julian Ross. It features two films by Shambhavi Kaul and Bo Wang. Professor at Duke University and experimental filmmaker, Kaul will take the audience to the ancient ruins of Hampi in southwestern India, Monkey Kingdom in Slow Shift (2023), where troops of langurs observe the changing world and where mythical powers intersect geologic timescales.

Artist, filmmaker and researcher Bo Wang will present the Dutch premiere of his film An Asian Ghost Story (2023), which already received multiple awards in CPH:DOX, DOKLeipzig, Arkipel and other festivals. The film explores the haunting past of Asia’s modernisation in the late 20th century, which was marked by a large-scale export of wigs during the Cold War. Every wig thus becomes an evocative ghost-like token of imperial past.

The screening will be introduced by Jo-Lene Ong and Bo Wang will be in conversation with Rachael Rakes and Julian Ross.

Tickets to the 5 March programmes can be booked via Eye Filmmuseum and Cineville.

Over two months, the Sonic Acts Biennial takes a multitude of forms. To help you navigate the extensive programme, we’ll be sharing weekly tips via our website and social channels. Stay tuned for the latest!

The Exhibition Continues at W139
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 20:00

After the opening last Friday, the exhibition will be open to the public for regular visiting. With works by Harun Morrison, Jota Mombaça, touche—touche, Annika Kappner, Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner, Brackish Collective, Pedro Matias, and Natasha Tontey.

A.I. Worldlings Live at Zone2Source
Live performances and talks, Thursday 8 February from 19:00 to 22:00

Explore the sound world of moss and A.I. with Pheobe riley Law, Jez riley French, Farzané and Arash Akbari as they delve into listening practices, recording technologies, and A.I. In Moss Listening, father and daughter Pheobe riley Law and Jez riley French present recordings made with self-built microphones capturing the sounds of moss. Presenting their installation Embedded/Embodied, Farzané and Arash Akbari will touch upon situated listening, sonic knowledge in relation to A.I., and the role of spatial sound in speculative environments.

The Listening Room Afternoons at Zone2Source
Listening sessions, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays

The Listening Room is a sound exhibition. On the impressive, 8.2-channel sound system, a series of newly commissioned works, soundworks from the Sonic Acts archive, and works produced and curated by Ina GRM, Paris, will be played out in 9 programmes. Also part of the exhibition is Farzané and Arash Akbari’s installation constructed out of several microphones placed in the park. Come and meditate in the super relaxed setting of Amstelpark with works by Beatriz Ferreyra, Geneva Skeen, Ji Youn Kang, Jana Winderen, Mint Park, Hildegard Westerkamp, BJ Nilsen, Anna Khvyl, François J. Bonnet, Iannis Xenakis, Flora Yin Wong, Éric La Casa, Hugo Esquinca & Russell Haswell, Annea Lockwood, KMRU, and more.

Exhibition Opening at Looiersgracht 60
Opening on Friday, 9 February from 19:00 to 22:00

The exhibition at Looiersgracht 60 gives form to the ongoing environmental crisis by examining the unexposed histories of contamination, bodily landscapes, and postnatural ecosystems. With works by Lukas Marxt, laschulas collective, Anika Schwarzlose and Elena Khurtova, and touche—touche, and live, improvised set by musician Aimée Theriot at 20:30.
*Opened to the public during the weekend 12:00–20:00

Club night at OT301
Friday, 9 February from 22:00 to 04:00

In celebration of the second exhibition opening in the Biennial, we invite you to come dancing at OT301. Expect a hybrid mixture of DJ and live sets featuring aircode, aya, Eleftheria, M.E.S.H., Prison Religion, and RABIT.

WINDSHIELD at Looiersgracht 60
Saturday, 10 February from 14:00 to 16:00

An immersive auditory experience led by artist and composer Natalia Domínguez Rangel. Through this interactive experience, participants can become a human microphone and explore auditory landscapes. This is an opportunity to wear WINDSHIELD, a one-to-one human-scale replica of a microphone skin.

Sonic Acts Radio is the virtual manifestation of the Spatial Sound Platform. The physical version takes shape as a 8.2-channel sound system housed at Zone2Source for the duration of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2024 – visit the arts venue in Amstelpark to attend the Listening Room, live concerts, presentations, and more.

Emerging as a new field, spatial audio is changing the way we listen, making it possible to add entirely new layers of sonic presence, depth, and immersion. While surround sound has been used in music and cinema for many years, today’s concept of spatial audio has become prominent through commercial VR headsets and recent video game technology. The avant-garde has also played an essential role, with sound artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Jacob Kirkegaard, Barry Truax, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller laying the groundwork through their pioneering use of binaural recordings, multi-channel setups, and focus on attentive, attuned listening.

Drawing on and intersecting with these developments, Sonic Acts has built an online radio platform as part of the organisation's ongoing research into exhibiting soundworks and exploring experimental practices. Simply plug in and become submerged in the three-dimensional soundscape!

The radio will stream pivotal works by Annea Lockwood, Hildegard Westerkamp, Jana Winderen, BJ Nilsen, and many more pieces that have been performed and recorded at Sonic Acts over the years. Also available, catch newly commissioned works by Anna Khvyl, Atte Elias Kantonen, Geneva Skeen, KMRU, Mint Park, Felicity Mangan, and Slikback. These have been specially (re-)adapted, suitable for all headphones and speakers with spatial sound capabilities. Simply move around to experience the 3D effect – the camera follows your position, re-adjusting and panning the audio accordingly. If you prefer your camera off, the system then switches to mouse control (this can also be disabled using the 'locked' setting).

For those who can't make it to Sonic Acts Biennial 2024 – or who want to listen from home – a number of concerts will be streamed live from the locations. The selected shows will be unveiled shortly.

Over two months, the Sonic Acts Biennial takes a multitude of forms. To help you navigate the extensive programme, we’ll be sharing weekly tips via our website and social channels. Stay tuned for the latest!

Join for the inaugural weekend of the Sonic Acts Biennial! On Friday, from 19:00, visit W139 for the exhibition opening and be amongst the first to view the artworks. As part of the evening, Brackish Collective also will enact a performative activation – an intervention evoking their multisensory practice that includes performance, scenography, taste, and narrative. Just up the street, at kanaal40, the opening is followed by a thrilling club night – an afterparty starting from 22:00, with DJ sets from Jessica Nightlife, Millie Rose Dobree, Samuelspaniel, and Ingrate. On Saturday, the exhibition’s public programme kicks off with a one-time workshop from 12:30 to 14:30 led by English artist and writer Harun Morrison.

Friday also marks the launch of the Spatial Sound Platform (SSP) – a new initiative that immerses the audience in an innovative auditory experience every afternoon. Launching with it, the Sonic Acts Spatial Radio is an exciting new online initiative, streaming archived and live audio directly from the Biennial through to its closing in March. This interactive platform broadcasts spatialised audio – creating a 3D effect – that works through all headphones as well as speakers with spatial sound capacities.

Spatial Sound Platform

Launching at 12:00 on Friday 2 February

Listening Room
The Listening Room is a sound exhibition – a place to listen to sound on a proper spatial setup. On the impressive, 8.2-channel sound system, a series of works from the Sonic Acts archive and newly commissioned works will be played out in 9 programmes. Part of the Listening Room is also an interactive installation by Farzané and Arash Akbari.

Embedded /Embodied by Farzané and Arash Akbari
Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Zone2Source
An interactive sound installation constructed out of several microphones placed in Amstelpark, from where sounds are processed and engaged with by the A.I. agent. You can interact with the installation through an iPad available at the entrance of Zone2Source. The piece will be open repeatedly throughout the Biennial and the opening weekend.

Fridays at Zone2Source
Listening Room 1, 2, & 3 featuring work from Felicity Mangan, Jonáš Gruska, Slikback, Iannis Xenakis, Beatriz Ferreyra, Benjamin Thigpen, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Geneva Skeen, and Ji Youn Kang.

Saturdays at Zone2Source
Listening Rooms 4, 5, & 6 featuring work from Jana Winderen, Mint Park, Marja Ahti, Hildegard Westerkamp, BJ Nilsen, Anna Khvyl, Bernard Parmegiani, François J. Bonnet, Flora Yin Wong, and Lasse Marhaug.

Sundays at Zone2Source
Listening Rooms 7, 8, & 9 featuring work from Éric La Casa, Hugo Esquinca & Russell Haswell, Atte Elias Kantonen, Luc Ferrari, François Bayle, Matthias Puech, Eve Aboulkheir, Annea Lockwood, KMRU, and Galen Tipton.

Exhibition at W139

Opening Friday from 19:00 to 22:00

The Biennial exhibition illuminates its themes of sensory encounters with the more-than-human, touching upon animatic beliefs, alchemic elements, and emotional cartographies. With works by Harun Morrison, Jota Mombaça, touche—touche, Annika Kappner, Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner, Brackish Collective, Pedro Matias, and Natasha Tontey. The opening features a performative activation by Brackish Collective. The exhibition will then remain open to the public every Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00 to 20:00.

Party at kanaal40

Friday from 22:00 to 04:00

After the exhibition opening at W139, a short walk away on the Beursstraat, join us for a thrilling club party celebrating the Biennial kickoff. Samuelspaniel brings his dizzying electronics, while Jessica Nightlife’s energising selections oscillate between 1990s vocal, progressive house, early trance, and breakbeat. Known for her masterful bass manipulations, Millie Rose Dobree is set to open, with Ingrate as the final act of the night.

Environmental Justice Questions Workshop with Harun Morrison

One time only at W139, Saturday from 12:30 to 14:30

Which song reminds you of the collapse of our planet? Whose fantasies are we living in? In this workshop, Harun Morrison will engage in collective conversations and small-group discussions around a selection of environmental justice questions chosen from the ongoing project exhibited at W139.

For more information, please see the timetable of our programme, or browse the programme to see what’s coming up. Follow the links to buy tickets, or see what tickets are still available here.

In a rapidly changing world, fieldwork is a crucial part of our cultural orientation. It is the practice of making sense between oneself and the landscape. In this field trip, we will visit several places along the Frisian coastline, known for their dark skies and direct exposure to the elements. The Wadden Sea, as one of the largest tidal planes on the planet, ties together sky and mud. It is exactly in these places where one can strongly sense the rhythms of a tidal region that are governed by interplanetary cycles. What can the mud tell us if we listen to the depths of its mysteries?

Staying with the mud, Cocky Eek will conduct a ‘quick and dirty’, low-tech workshop to create mud listening and sensing devices – a unique opportunity for an in-depth encounter with the saltmarshes of Marrum. Under the guidance of a local mud guide and equipped with our handmade devices, participants will visit the area around the villages of Moddergat and Paezens – to listen in, to, and with the tidal landscape.

Impressions of the field experiments and recordings will be interwoven with a festive thematic dinner at Het Lage Noorden in Marrum. The dinner will be followed by research presentations from 12 students from the ArtScience Interfaculty who tapped into the local rhythms and orbital planetary bodies in the night skies during a course led by Cocky Eek in 2023–2024.

Some outcomes of ‘the muddy workshop’ will also be presented at Zone2Source on 21 March, in the context of the Sonic Acts Biennial, at the Dark Skies event. They will be presented together with the works of the ArtScience Interfaculty students to form a constellation of sensorial experiences inspired by the dark skies and the liquid muddy planes that reflect them.

Practical Information

The workshop takes place at Het Lage Noorden in Friesland. Travel to and from the location is organised by Sonic Acts and included in the workshop price. The group will depart together from Amsterdam and return in the evening.

The workshop is open for up to 14 participants, orientated towards artistic practitioners, especially in the fields of sound, listening, ecology, and sensorial experiences.

General admission costs €50 and €25 for students. If the participation fee is prohibitive, please indicate that you would like financial assistance in your application form.

Included in the ticket price: travel to and from Friesland by bus, workshop, mud tour with guide, dinner, and refreshments.

Participants are kindly asked to bring:

• rain gear and well-fitting knee-high rain boots (*applicants are asked to kindly let us know if you do not own such boots; there will be some available at the location)
• warm clothes and wind-proof jackets
• any tools, materials, or devices for this DIY low-tech workshop.

Schedule

12:00 Group departure from Amsterdam to Het Lage Noorden
13:30–15:30 Workshop with Cocky Eek
16:00–18:00 Mud walking tour
18:30–19:30 Dinner at Het Lage Noorden
19:30–21:00 ArtScience student presentations
21:30–23:00 Group return to Amsterdam

To join the workshop, submit a small application form by 17 February. We will contact the accepted participants at the end of February.

[Apply here](applications now closed)

For any questions, please email us at workshop@sonicacts.com

Accessibility

The workshop takes place in English with no sign language assistance. The workshop is not wheelchair accessible, due to the trip and the nature of the tour.

The workshop is co-organised in collaboration with Cocky Eek, tutor at ArtScience Interfaculty, part of interdisciplinary art programme between the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK) and the Royal Conservatoire (KC). With local support from Het Lage Noorden in Marrum. Part of New Perspectives for Action.

A project by Re-Imagine Europe, a collaboration between Paradiso and Sonic Acts (NL), Elevate Festival (AT), A4 (SK), INA GRM (FR), Borealis (NO), KONTEJNER (HR), RUPERT (LT), Semibreve (PT), Parco d’Arte Vivente (IT), Disruption Network Lab (DE), BEK (NO), Kontrapunkt (MK) and Radio Web MACBA (ES). Co-funded by the European Union.

Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum has been selling magazines since 1969, boasting a rich history of providing diverse reading materials from around the world. Sonic Acts is delighted to partner with this cornerstone Dutch literary institution and a thriving hub for printed matter enthusiasts for the launch of Ecoes #6. A portmanteau of ‘ecology’ and ‘echoes’, Ecoes is a bi-annual magazine about ‘art in the age of pollution’, published by Sonic Acts Press. This extended, 300-page edition reflects and resonates with the upcoming Biennial: The Spell of the Sensuous, incorporating many of the featured artists, musicians, thinkers, and filmmakers, animating and foregrounding their participation through essays, interviews, and evocative visual pieces.

As part of the launch event, Athenaeum’s indie mag and zine specialist Marc Robbemond will speak with Mirna Belina, Sonic Acts curator and editor-in-chief, and assistant editor Hannah Pezzack. They will discuss the process of compiling the special issue, which presents compelling artistic research perspectives from David Abram, Astrida Neimanis, Elvia Wilk, Margarida Mendes, François Bonnet, Arjuna Neuman & Denise Ferreira da Silva, and Susan Schuppli, among many others. Visitors are welcome to ask the editors questions directly too, as well as stay for drinks and pick up a copy of Ecoes #6 hot off the press.

Marking 30 years of the organisation at the forefront of sound, moving image, and ecological thinking, Sonic Acts Biennial 2024 takes place from 2 February to 24 March. Encompassing over 50 events in 15 locations, the Biennial weaves together the cultural ecosystem of larger Amsterdam and further afield. Staged across the city and online, it takes shape as an exhibition, a symposium, film screenings, immersive installations, a multichannel sound programme, club nights, sound and field walks, workshops, and more.

Part of New Perspectives for Action. A project by Re-Imagine Europe, a collaboration between Paradiso and Sonic Acts (NL), Elevate Festival (AT), A4 (SK), INA GRM (FR), Borealis (NO), KONTEJNER (HR), RUPERT (LT), Semibreve (PT), Parco d’Arte Vivente (IT), Disruption Network Lab (DE), BEK (NO), Kontrapunkt (MK) and Radio Web MACBA (ES). Co-funded by the European Union.

Hosted by artist and composer Tarek Atoui, this masterclass invites participants to engage with a series of Michel Waisvisz’ musical scores. Each score demonstrates a different approach to music, from small notes, drawings, and diagrams, to simpler instructional pieces and software codes, and each speaking of its time, author and era in its own way.

In collaboration with Kristina Andersen and Sonic Acts, Atoui explores the archive of pioneering artist, performer and instrument maker Michel Waisvisz as a catalyst for new forms of experimentation. Atoui approaches the archival materials through the concept of ‘orality’ – the tradition of passing down knowledge through spoken communication. Created through spontaneous collective situations – moments of congregating together, improvisation, and adaptation – Waisvisz’ musical scores represent an ever-changing vocabulary.

The masterclass centres on the ‘reading’ of those scores and understanding how they can be reactivated through exhibitions and performative environments today. Collaboratively, participants will delve into the history of scoring, with each document stemming from a different time – from the 1960s until 2010. Together they will research the scores representations of how Michel Waisvisz responded within his artistic practice of performing and instrument making to the perception of music and explore ways of introducing the archival materials into new situations today.

Michel Waisvisz (1949–2008) was a pioneer in the international world of technological art, electronic sound art, and performance. Based on his experiences of playing with short wave radio as a child, he developed electronic and (later) digital instruments and software that transform bodily movements into sound. Works including the Crackle Box (1974) and Crackle Synth (1974), both pressure-sensitive, touchable devices, and The Hands (1984), twin MIDI controllers that can be attached to the player's palms, garnered him international acclaim His influence only increased after becoming the artistic director of STEIM, the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music in Amsterdam from the 1980s onwards.

Practical Information

The workshop takes place at Rijksakademie on Monday 4 March, 18:00 to 22:00.

The workshop is open for up to 10 participants, ideally, artists, curators or researchers with an interest in archives within cultural and artistic contexts.

The participation fee is €20 or €15 for students. If the participation fee is prohibitive, please indicatethat you would like financial assistance in your application form.

Transportation is not included in the workshop fee and should be organised by participants themselves.

To join the workshop, submit your application by 1 February. We will contact the accepted participants in February.

APPLY HERE (applications now closed)

For any questions please email us at workshop@sonicacts.com

Accessibility

The workshop will take place in English without sign language assistance. The site of the workshop, Rijksakademie, is wheelchair accessible with accessible toilets.

Part of New Perspectives for Action. A project by Re-Imagine Europe, a collaboration between Paradiso and Sonic Acts (NL), Elevate Festival (AT), A4 (SK), INA GRM (FR), Borealis (NO), KONTEJNER (HR), RUPERT (LT), Semibreve (PT), Parco d’Arte Vivente (IT), Disruption Network Lab (DE), BEK (NO), Kontrapunkt (MK) and Radio Web MACBA (ES). Co-funded by the European Union.

Published by Sonic Acts Press, Ecoes #6 draws inspiration from the landmark book that inspired the 2024 Biennial, The Spell of the Sensuous (1996), authored by the ecologist, philosopher, and magician David Abram. Under this spell, the magazine explores the web of relations – experienced and perceived through the ‘sensuous body’ – that evoke our rootedness in the larger ecology of Earth beings.

Incorporating theorists, artists, and musicians who will take part in Sonic Acts Biennial 2024, the sixth issue of Ecoes centres on the role of intuition and sensing. Fascinating interviews, evocative visual contributions, and prosaic essays envision the body as an open, fluid, and porous entity, with boundaries like membranes, forming a surface of metamorphosis and exchange.

Pre-order now to be the first to get your hands on a copy or join us for the issue’s launch event on Thursday 25 January, taking place at Athenaeum Boekhandel Spui in Amsterdam.

You can also find other publications from Sonic Acts Press available in our webshop, including previous editions of Ecoes and exclusive deals.

A portmanteau of ‘ecology’ and ‘echoes’, Ecoes is a bi-annual magazine about ‘art in the age of pollution’. Showcasing compelling artistic and critical perspectives that engage with the past, future, or after lives of environmental harm, toxicity, extraction, and waste, the magazine unpacks alternatives to the anthropocentric perspective that approaches the nonhuman as a resource.

The latest issue opens with an essay by David Abram – Creaturely Migrations on a Breathing Planet – a lyrical piece conjuring the movements of migrating salmon, cranes, and butterflies. Also contemplating instincts and intuition across species, in her evocative piece learning, feeling, Astrida Neimanis traces the interconnected lifeways of kelp and otters, emotional landscapes, and bodies beyond our own.

For author Elvia Wilk, recognising our fundamental, more-than-human porousness is a matter of urgency. In her interview with Hannah Pezzack, she speaks on mystical encounters, penetration, and the enormity of the escalating climate emergency. The Austrian artist and filmmaker Lukas Marxt also sat down with Maïté Moloney to delve deep into his various film, publication, and installation works relating to the Salton Sea – a landlocked lake in Southern California that has seen continuous transformation due to ecological disasters caused by human intervention.

Anti-extractive activist and academic, Margarida Mendes shares her research and reflections on the intersection of sound and ecology in her essay Sonic Submergence – Experiences in Environmental Adaptation. In conversation with Sally-Jane Norman, composers Tarek Atoui and researcher Kristina Andersen share their experiences of diving deep into the archive of Michel Waisvisz (1949–2008), unearthing scores, documents, and musical tools. The initiative is part of a long-term heritage project, initiated by Sonic Acts, investigating the legacy of the pioneering Dutch composer and inventor of haptic, touch-sensitive electronic instruments.

Part of New Perspectives for Action. A project by Re-Imagine Europe, a collaboration between Paradiso and Sonic Acts (NL), Elevate Festival (AT), A4 (SK), INA GRM (FR), Borealis (NO), KONTEJNER (HR), RUPERT (LT), Semibreve (PT), Parco d’Arte Vivente (IT), Disruption Network Lab (DE), BEK (NO), Kontrapunkt (MK) and Radio Web MACBA (ES). Co-funded by the European Union.

Events kick off on Friday 2 February with the launch of The Spatial Sound Platform at Zone2Source – set to host a listening room, live concerts, and audio livestream every week until the end of the Biennial. The Biennial Exhibition opens in the evening with drinks at W139, followed by a club night just a few metres away at kanaal40. On 9 February we will gather for the second exhibition opening at Looiersgracht 60 and a party at OT301.

The weekend of 23 to 25 February is an ode to Sonic Acts’ longstanding, intensive interdisciplinary festival. On Friday night at Paradiso, TRANCE is not to be missed. Somewhere between a rock concert, an underground rave, an immersive theatre production, and an otherworldly cinematic experiment, the sprawling ensemble cast of international musicians brings a 12-hour-long extravaganza to the former church and squat. Saturday is the first day of the Symposium at the Stedelijk Museum, consisting of dialogues, lectures, and performative presentations that provide insight into experimental and innovative practices responding to the climate emergency. In the evening, we invite everyone to an exceptional assemblage of auditory and visual experiences at Muziekgebouw, before taking over Garage Noord for a full-throttle club night going on until the early hours. The symposium resumes again on Sunday morning.

In March, we’re thrilled to present the Biennial culmination of the Michel Waisvisz Project at BIMHUIS, with expert talks and evening performances celebrating a pioneer of Amsterdam’s experimental electronic music scene. Not far across the river, the Eye Filmmuseum will host a film and live audiovisual programme, including screenings and Q&A sessions.

Throughout all eight weeks, a running public programme of events related to the exhibition will take place alongside a variety of open workshops, discussions, sound walks and other field-based and hands-on activities. More information about these will follow soon.

This isn’t everything – keep an eye on 2024.sonicacts.com in January for the final additions to the Artists lineup and a timetable with the full programme and corresponding tickets!

What is a nightclub without lights and stage design? How can light complement sound and make the experience stronger and more immersive? This workshop with Theresa Baumgartner focuses on developing artistic and technical skills for making stage scenography for live performances and DJ sets. She will join forces with workshop participants to conceptualise a spatial design for three club nights during the Sonic Acts Biennial: in Garage Noord, kanaal40, and OT301. The final session at Garage Noord will also be facilitated by Ben Kreukniet, as co-creative director. Kreukniet is a multidisciplinary visual artist and director based in Amsterdam, who will collaborate with Baumgartner and participants on the show design.

Theresa Baumgartner is a visual artist blurring the lines between AV performance and installation art, with an approach to stage design that is rooted in fine art and sculpture. She explores how spatial and light design can enhance the overall experience of the events and the dynamics of space in the context of nightlife culture. In the workshop, she will share her experience and knowledge on cooperating with venues and artists on a spatial design, while taking into account the site-specific opportunities of spaces, the overall biennial identity, and theme/technical requirements of line-ups.

The course is designed for young makers: visual artists, light designers, and spatial designers looking to expand their skills and explore the intersection of art and nightlife. This is an opportunity to gain practical experience with established venues and artists, as well as to train collaborative work in a club environment.

Some topics and themes that the workshop covers: How to conceptualise a general creative concept; developing software and hardware skills; creating and performing visual imagery and light environments, insights into different lighting and projection tools, sculptural elements; responding to the visual identity; learn to work with colour and animation techniques.

Practical Information

The workshop includes 7 meetings from 29 January to 24 February. It takes place online and in person at Garage Noord, kanaal40, and OT301.

Schedule

Presence to all sessions live and online is strongly recommended! Additional online meetings will be decided with the participants.

29 January: 18–22 h @ Garage Noord

30 January: 18–22 h @ Garage Noord

2 February: 11–16 h (workshop) & 22–4 h (live show) @ kanaal40

7 February: 20–22 h @ OT301

8 February: 11–18 h @ OT301

9 February: 11–18 h (workshop) & 22–4 h (live show) @ OT301

24 February: 10–17 h (workshop) & 23–6 h (live show) @ Garage Noord – featuring guest host Ben Kreukniet

Participation

The workshop is open for up to 5 participants. The course is oriented towards people with interests in combining technology and spatial design. Skills in production software and hardware, scenography, video, and 3D sketching are recommended.

General admission costs €60 and €45 for students.

Transportation and accommodation are not included in the fee and should be organised by participants. Hospitality will be provided at the venues.

Submit your application by 8 January. We will contact the accepted participants in the week beginning 15 January. Selection criteria include statement of motivation, artistic portfolio, resume, and example of previous work.

APPLY HERE (applications now closed)

For any questions please email us at workshop@sonicacts.com

Accessibility

The workshop will take place in English without sign language assistance. The site of the workshop OT301 is wheelchair accessible with accessible toilets. The bottom floor of Garage Noord is wheelchair accessible, with standard toilets on the bottom floor. However, the upstairs of Garage Noord and kanaal40 are not accessible.

Part of New Perspectives for Action. A project by Re-Imagine Europe, a collaboration between Paradiso and Sonic Acts (NL), Elevate Festival (AT), A4 (SK), INA GRM (FR), Borealis (NO), KONTEJNER (HR), RUPERT (LT), Semibreve (PT), Parco d’Arte Vivente (IT), Disruption Network Lab (DE), BEK (NO), Kontrapunkt (MK) and Radio Web MACBA (ES). Co-funded by the European Union.

Self versus other, body versus environment, inside versus outside. In Western thought, strict dualisms have served as foundational concepts for centuries. But can the complexities of our current age still be adequately understood in terms of such oppositions? Or do escalating climate emergencies, colonial legacies,and capitalist exploitation signal the limitations of these entrenched lines of thinking?

Inside Out and Outside In is a close collaboration between Sonic Acts and University of the Arts ArtEZ, an art academy that connects theory with practice. Their programme Honours Lab offers various study ‘tracks’ throughout the academic year that students can follow alongside their regular curriculum. These are diverse, in-depth courses in which students engage with current theories, practices, and forms of research. In this track, the students will challenge the fantasy of the ‘bounded human subject’ and explore more relational perspectives that acknowledge the interconnectivities, interdependencies, and permeabilities that make up our world.

‘Humans are tuned for relationship. The eyes, the skin, the tongue, ears, and nostrils – all are gates where our body receives the nourishment of otherness.’ — David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous (1996)

Aligning with the theme of the upcoming Sonic Acts Biennial in 2024, The Spell of the Sensuous – inspired by the seminal work of American philosopher David Abram – this track will take the concept of the 'sensuous body' as its foundational premise. Through this embodied lens, the students will investigate the fluid and multifaceted connections between the self and the other, the body and the environment, and the boundaries of inside and outside.Throughout the track, they will delve deep into concepts of self, otherness, and the transcorporeal relations that bind bodies and environments. Furthermore, a significant emphasis will be placed on sensorial perception and aesthetic experience, using these avenues to forge connections with diverse forms of otherness.

As a unique benefit of this cooperation, participants will have the opportunity to attend the Sonic Acts Biennial exhibition, sound programme, and symposium in Amsterdam and meet several artists for special presentations, such as Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner, whose practice has been driven by questions about the thresholds between the body and its surroundings, knowledge regimes and power, modes of organising and perceiving the natural world; Farzané, a sound artist and researcher exploring various disciplines, from electroacoustic music composition, computer science, to linguistics; and Annika Kappner, who is working within the expanded field of painting, creating sensory scenographies through her multidisciplinary practice.