Sonic Acts

File:The Geologic Imagination at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ.jpg

The biennial festival takes place every two years in a variety of locations in and around Amsterdam. From a small festival, it has grown into a platform for the research, development and presentation of cutting-edge art, science, music and technology, with a large well-attended festival for over 20 years. The festival comprises a varying programme of concerts, a multi-day international conference, an extensive film programme, masterclasses, workshops, an exhibition and site-specific work.

Sonic Acts was founded in 1994 by Paradiso and the ArtScience Interfaculty (Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, and Royal Conservatory of The Hague) to provide a stage for new developments in electronic music and interdisciplinary art forms.{{cite web|url=http://interfaculty.nl/25years/|title=ArtScience celebrates 25th anniversary}} The festival was initially organised on a yearly basis in Paradiso, a music venue that had become synonymous with counterculture. In the early years of Sonic Acts, increasing attention was given to demonstrations and workshops, as the festival broadened in scope to focus on the theoretical as well as the practical aspects of artistic developments.{{cite web|url=https://www.trouw.nl/home/pop-en-serieuze-muziek-in-harmonie-op-sonic-acts~aa1b0a07/|title=Pop en serieuze muziek in harmonie op Sonic Acts|language=Dutch}}{{cite web|url=https://www.groene.nl/artikel/sonologisch-verantwoorde-house|title=Sonologisch verantwoorde house|date=9 August 1995 |language=Dutch}}

In 1995, Sonic Acts began to introduce new forms of electronic music, such as IDM and electro, as the festival featured performances by English electronic musician Mike Paradinas and ambient techno duo Plaid, among others.{{cite web|url=http://www.volkskrant.nl/archief/paradiso-wordt-omgetoverd-in-audiovisueel-spookhuis~a398961/amp|title=Paradiso wordt omgetoverd in audiovisueel spookhuis|language=Dutch}} In the following years, the festival continued to present new genres of electronic music that were emerging in the early 1990s, with performances by pioneering acts including Robin Rimbaud and English IDM duo Autechre.

The festival was held in August each year until 1999, when it took place from 20 to 23 December. This year also marked enlargement of the festival, with a four-hour boat trip along the IJ to various indoor and outdoor locations in addition to Paradiso. For the first time the festival had a connecting theme, as participating artists took the music of Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi as a starting point for their work.{{cite web|url=https://www.trouw.nl/home/grensfestival-sonic-acts-treedt-buiten-de-oevers~aab3869e/|title=Grensfestival Sonic Acts treedt buiten de oevers|language=Dutch}} Since 2001 each edition of the festival has been named after its theme.

In the early to mid 2000s, Sonic Acts shifted its focus to digital arts and their historical contexts. Under the name Sonic Light, the ninth edition of Sonic Acts was devoted to the art of composed light: “the shaping in time of light and colour in a way which is comparable to the way sound is shaped into music”.{{cite web|url=http://www.joostrekveld.net/?p=215|title=Sonic Light 2003: composing light, articulating space}} The festival featured projections by the late German-American filmmaker Oskar Fischinger and Japanese artist Yasunao Tone,{{cite web|url=http://www.artindex.nl/news/newsframe.asp?id=%7BA39CE441-E98E-449C-8426-6177A1954A34%7D|title=SONIC LIGHT 2003}} as well as Dutch artist Joost Rekveld, who presented a history of abstract animation and light art.{{cite web|url=https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/introduction-to-the-life-and-work-of-joost-rekveld|title=Introduction to the life and work of Joost Rekveld|access-date=2017-06-27|archive-date=2021-01-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126021338/https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/introduction-to-the-life-and-work-of-joost-rekveld|url-status=dead}} Sonic Light also featured renowned and emerging sound artists such as American composer Maryanne Amacher, avant-garde musician Francisco López, Japanese composer Ikue Mori and Canadian electronic musician Venetian Snares.{{cite web|url=http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-nl-0301/msg00058.html|title=Sonic Light 2003 composed light, articulated space}}

In 2004, Sonic Acts held its tenth edition of the festival. Titled Unsorted, the festival explored emerging art forms that were rooted in the information society. Particular attention was paid to artists from the labels Raster-Noton and Touch, as well as the breakcore scene. Performing artists included Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Jon Wozencroft, Philip Jeck, BJ Nilsen, Fennesz, Chris Watson and Sickboy.{{cite web|url=http://www.sonicacts.com/portal-new/pdf/4335.pdf|title=Unsorted, Sonic Acts X}} The following edition, titled The Anthology of Computer Art, was held from 23 to 26 February 2006 in Paradiso and De Balie. The festival focussed on the history of computer art and described itself as “a tribute to the work of the early pioneers”. A DVD and a book exploring the theme were published to coincide with the festival.{{cite web|url=https://www.mediateletipos.net/archives/2215|title=Sonic Acts XI - The Anthology of Computer Art|date=18 February 2006 }}

Between 2006 and 2010, the link between art, science and technology was developed and the symposium grew. In 2008, the twelfth edition of the festival promised a comprehensive overview of the cinematic experience, proposing that “recent technological developments in digitalisation, higher definition imagery and sound, ever-faster communication networks and new types of portable video players make it necessary to re-address the question of what cinema actually is".{{cite web|url=http://www.sonicacts.com/portal-new/pdf/4333.pdf|title=Sonic Acts XII - The Cinematic Experience}}

From 2010, Sonic Acts began to fulfil more functions as an organisation and expanded its activities through international collaborations, organising large-scale projects such as the Kontraste festival in Austria and the international research project Dark Ecology. This led to new commissions, workshops, masterclasses and lectures, as well as substantive research and publications, which were incorporated into the festival. Sonic Acts also evolved to explore expansive themes. The title of the 2010 edition of the festival, The Poetics of Space, was derived from the English translation of the book La Poétique de l’Espace (1958) by the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard,[http://sonicacts.com/portal-new/pdf/4332.pdf Sonic Acts XIII - The Poetics of Space] while the 2012 edition offered “an intense experience of time” under the title Travelling Time.{{cite web|url=http://www.sonicacts.com/SONIC-ACTS-2012-Travelling-Time|title=SONIC ACTS 2012 Travelling Time}}

In 2013, Sonic Acts addressed the theme of The Dark Universe, as inspiration was sought from cosmology and physics.{{cite web|url=http://www.sonicacts.com/portal/news/Theme-The-Dark-Universe|title=Theme: The Dark Universe}} Lectures were given by Dutch physicist Gerard ’t Hooft, sociologist Saskia Sassen and American architect Keller Easterling, among others, and new works were presented by artists such as Matthijs Munnik, Yamila Rios and Joris Strijbos.{{cite web|url=http://www.sonicacts.com/portal-new/pdf/25500522.pdf|title=Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe}} With 2015’s The Geologic Imagination, Sonic Acts shifted its focus to planet Earth. The starting point for the festival was the thesis that we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. It featured lectures by American philosopher Graham Harman and design theorist Benjamin H. Bratton, as well as work by artists Raviv Ganchrow and Jananne Al-Ani.{{cite web|url=http://www.sonicacts.com/2015/|title=Sonic Acts 2015 - The Geologic Imagination}} The festival attracted nearly 9500 visitors.

File:Sonic Acts Festival 2015.jpg

In 2017, Sonic Acts continued the festival’s gradual change in perspective, exploring what it means to be human against the backdrop of the Anthropocene and the rapidly changing relationship between humans and machines.[http://sonicacts.com/2017/festival/the-noise-of-being/ Sonic Acts Festival 2017 - The Noise of Being] Titled The Noise of Being, the seventeenth edition of the festival was visited by 10,625 people. Participating artists and speakers included Eyal Weizman, JK Flesh, Roly Porter, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Jennifer Walshe, Le1f, Evian Christ and Christina Vantzou.{{cite web|url=http://sonicacts.com/2017/|title=Sonic Acts 2017}} The opening night featured four new Vertical Cinema films by Susan Schuppli, HC Gilje, Lukas Marxt, and BJ Nilsen & Karl Lemieux.{{cite web|url=https://www.paradiso.nl/web/Agenda-Item/Opening-Sonic-Acts-Festival-at-Paradiso.htm|title=Opening Sonic Acts Festival at Paradiso}} The Noise of Being received positive reviews. The Wire Magazine described the festival as “triggering the imagination necessary for an urgent debate”. Crack Magazine wrote that the festival “kept its audience shifting, rotating, and reversing around the normalised ideas we all share”.{{cite web|url=https://issuu.com/crackmagazine/docs/74-issuu__1_|title=Crack Issue 74|date=15 March 2017 }}

The latest edition of Sonic Acts Festival was held under the name HEREAFTER in 2019 and focused on the current crisis and challenges confronted on a daily basis as well as the consequences they cause. The festival hosted more than 120 artists and speakers including Beatriz Ferreyra, Timothy Morton, Straub-Huillet, Rosi Braidotti, Sondra Perry and Ulrike Ottinger.{{cite web|url=https://2019.sonicacts.com|title=Sonic Acts 2019 - HEREAFTER}}

Sonic Acts has grown into an organisation that is active throughout the year, producing and presenting work both in the Netherlands and abroad. Recent projects include the three-year art, research & commissioning project Dark Ecology, predominantly taking place in the Arctic region, and its globally touring program Vertical Cinema. Sonic Acts has developed into a hub for an international network of artists, curators and specialists, focusing on future developments as well as the rich histories of art, science and technology.

In 2016 Sonic Acts launched Sonic Acts Academy, a new platform that aims to grow, expand, sustain and disseminate stimulating discourse about artistic research. Its first edition took place from 26 to 28 February at various locations in Amsterdam. Sonic Acts Academy is presented as an exploratory event with a symposium, film screenings, concerts, installations, masterclasses and workshops. The most recent edition of Sonic Acts Academy was held from 21 to 23 February 2020 with artists and speakers including Holly Herndon, No Bra, T. J. Demos, and Terike Haapoja.

Dark Ecology{{cite web | url=https://sonicacts.com/archive/dark-ecology | title=Sonic Acts | Archive }} was a three-year art, research and commissioning project, initiated by Sonic Acts and Kirkenes-based curator Hilde Methi, and in collaboration with Norwegian and Russian partners. Dark Ecology unfolded through research, the creation of new artworks, and a public program that was presented on both sides of the border between Norway and Russia in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The program included lectures, presentations of newly commissioned artworks, guided walks, a discursive program, concert evenings and a workshop.

Living Earth{{cite web | url=https://sonicacts.com/archive/living-earth | title=Sonic Acts | Archive }} was a collaboration between Sonic Acts, Fridaymilk, Hilde Methi and several Norwegian and Russian partner organisations that was conceived as a follow-up to the successful Dark Ecology project. Living Earth involved tailored presentations and new adaptations of previously commissioned works, as well as workshops and discussions across Scandinavia and Russia, including at Inversia Festival in Murmansk, SALT in Oslo, and Terminal B in Kirkenes.

Vertical Cinema{{Cite web | title=/ VERTICAL CINEMA \ | url=http://verticalcinema.org/ | access-date=2024-12-24 | website=verticalcinema.org}} is a series of ten newly commissioned large-scale, site-specific works by experimental filmmakers and audiovisual artists, which are presented on 35 mm celluloid and projected vertically with a custom-built projector in vertical cinemascope. The 90-minute program premiered at Kontraste Dark As Light Festival 2013 and had its international premiere on 24 January 2014 at International Film Festival Rotterdam. A further four Vertical Cinema films were commissioned for the 2017 edition of Sonic Acts Festival, The Noise of Being.

Kontraste,{{cite web | url=https://sonicacts.com/archive/kontraste | title=Sonic Acts | Archive }} a music and art festival in and around Krems an der Donau, Austria, was curated by Sonic Acts in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Kontraste presented sonic and audiovisual experiments, contemporary music and related art forms in a thematic, historical and interdisciplinary context. The programme offered unconventional concerts, live performances, installations, lectures, screenings and presentations.

Murmansk Prospekt{{Cite web | title=Murmansk prospekt | url=https://murmanskprospekt.net/ | access-date=2024-12-24 | website=murmanskprospekt.net}} was a collaboration between Sonic Acts and Fridaymilk exploring the ways that artistic and speculative research can reveal the hidden histories and lost identities of the city of Murmansk. The project sought to enable current and future generations of citizens to re-imagine and redefine the city and articulate their personal identity through digital arts. Murmansk Prospekt unfolded through three research labs stimulating knowledge exchange between emerging Dutch and Russian artists and thinkers, and resulted in commissioned collaborative works, public presentations in Murmansk and Amsterdam and an online platform.

In May 2017, Sonic Acts announced Re-Imagine Europe.{{Cite web | title=Re-Imagine Europe | url=https://re-imagine-europe.eu/ | access-date=2024-12-24 | website=re-imagine-europe.eu}} Re-Imagine Europe is a four-year project presented by ten cultural organisations from across Europe, with an aim to respond to the social and political challenges currently facing the continent. Funded by Creative Europe, the project involves artistic residencies, commissions, workshops and symposia. In February 2023 Re-Imagine Europe received renewed support from Creative Europe for its project New Perspectives for Action, aiming to equip and empower young Europeans through artistic practices to better withstand societal challenges triggered by rapid climate change.

Soundsweird.org{{Cite web | title=Sound Experiments – New Approaches to Non-Formal Music Learning | url=https://soundsweird.org/ | access-date=2024-12-24 | website=soundsweird.org}} was the result of a two-year collaborative educational project, Sound Experiments – New Approaches to Non-Formal Music Learning, by three European organisations active in the fields of experimental music and sound art, as well as youth education. Developed in collaboration with Sonic Acts, KONTEJNER and A4 affiliated artists and musicians, the platform contains six free workshop manuals, each promoting listening, mutual sound research and co-creation. The project was realised through the support of the EU’s Erasmus+ programme.

• 1994 - Sonic Acts I
• 1995 - Sonic Acts II
• 1996 - Sonic Acts III
• 1997 - Sonic Acts IV
• 1998 - Sonic Acts V
• 1999 - Sonic Acts VI
• 2000 - Sonic Acts
• 2001 - Point Pixel Programming
• 2003 - Sonic Light{{cite web|url=http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-nl-0301/msg00058.html|title=Nettime [Sonic Acts] Sonic Light 2003 programme}}
• 2004 - Unsorted
• 2006 - The Anthology of Computer Art
• 2008 - The Cinematic Experience{{cite web | url=https://www.sonicacts.com/archive/sonic-acts-festival-2008-the-cinematic-experience | title=Sonic Acts | Archive }}
• 2010 - The Poetics of Space{{cite web|url=http://weblogs.nrc.nl/cultuurblog/2010/02/12/cs-sonic-acts-beeld-en-ruimte/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111227023922/http://weblogs.nrc.nl/cultuurblog/2010/02/12/cs-sonic-acts-beeld-en-ruimte/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2011-12-27|title=NRC CS: Sonic Acts, beeld en ruimte|language=Dutch}}
• 2012 - Travelling Time{{cite web | url=https://www.sonicacts.com/archive/sonic-acts-festival-2012-travelling-time | title=Sonic Acts | Archive }}
• 2013 - The Dark Universe{{cite web | url=https://www.sonicacts.com/archive/sonic-acts-festival-2013-the-dark-universe | title=Sonic Acts | Archive }}
• 2015 - The Geologic Imagination{{cite web | url=https://www.sonicacts.com/archive/sonic-acts-festival-2015-the-geologic-imagination | title=Sonic Acts | Archive }}
• 2016 - Sonic Acts Academy 2016{{cite web | url=https://www.sonicacts.com/archive/sonic-acts-academy-2016 | title=Sonic Acts | Archive }}
• 2017 - The Noise of Being{{cite web | url=https://www.sonicacts.com/archive/sonic-acts-festival-2017-the-noise-of-being | title=Sonic Acts | Archive }}
• 2018 - Sonic Acts Academy 2018{{cite web | url=https://sonicacts.com/archive/sonic-acts-academy-2018 | title=Sonic Acts | Archive }}
• 2019 - HEREAFTER{{cite web | url=https://www.sonicacts.com/archive/sonic-acts-festival-2019-hereafter | title=Sonic Acts | Archive }}
• 2020 - Sonic Acts Academy 2020{{cite web | url=https://www.sonicacts.com/archive/sonic-acts-academy-2020 | title=Sonic Acts | Archive }}
• 2022 - Sonic Acts Biennial 2022{{cite web | url=https://www.sonicacts.com/biennial/biennial-2022 | title=Sonic Acts | Biennial/Biennial-2022 }}
• 2024 - Sonic Acts Biennial 2024{{cite web | url=https://sonicacts.com/agenda/sonicactsbiennial2024 | title=Sonic Acts | Agenda }}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite web|url=http://sonicacts.com|title=Sonic Acts|publisher=sonicacts.com|accessdate=2015-11-02}}

• {{cite web|url=http://darkecology.net|title=Dark Ecology|publisher=darkecology.net|accessdate=2017-06-28}}

• {{cite web|url=http://verticalcinema.org|title=Vertical Cinema|publisher=verticalcinema.org|accessdate=2017-06-28}}

Category:Recurring events established in 1994

Category:1994 establishments in the Netherlands

Category:Art festivals in the Netherlands

Category:Events in Amsterdam

Category:New media art festivals