Overtoon
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Overtoon offers two types of residencies: production residencies and research residencies. While production residents are invited to work in our studios up to a year in order to deliver a work of art that Overtoon will present in its network, research residents can find a spot in our studios for a shorter amount of time in order to investigate an aspect of their work that is related to sound. There are no calls for projects. Instead, artists can contact Overtoon for research residencies on a flexible basis. On the other hand, production residencies are based on an ongoing dialogue with artists involved in the Overtoon network. Overtoon is supported by the government of Flanders and the Flemish Community Commission in Brussels. * Christoph De Boeck
A salt vapour washes over a supporting beam made of brushed steel that hovers in mid-air. It emits a constant percussive sound composed of hundreds of so-called acoustic emissions. A sensor is capturing these emissions caused by the corrosion process in this 20th century construction icon. The inaudible, ultra-acoustic waveforms are registered with an oscilloscope and consequently they are played back with a lower audio sample rate. Listening to the internal activity of solid structures reveals the transformatory nature of infrastructure, a metastability, a world in distress. Every new acoustic emission is concatenated to the audioloop: an initial loop of one or two crack sounds is extended with each new event so that multiple micro-melodies arise. It becomes the song of a monolith animated with the sound of its own demise. Co-produced by Overtoon, Netwerk Center for Contemporary Art and Bozar Brussels
BIO Christoph De Boeck creates visual sound-based installations. He has been drawn to sound in a performative context, treating the sonic as a force unfolding within the empty space of a blackbox. His exhibition work is marked by a tension resulting from discrepancies between what we experience as visual and what we hear. Recently De Boeck has focused on acoustic traces left behind by stress events. For example, cracks in infrastructure elements are revealed by ultrasonic technology. In this work the arrangement of sound marks relates to a man-made world under pressure. The acoustic image points to a larger event which is taking place within a horizon we cannot define. Sound, an instant of physical impact as much as an elusive trace, articulates the displacement of energy in bodies of architecture, of infrastructure and of humans. His work has been presented in Bozar Brussels, Verbeke Foundation Kemzeke, STUK Leuven, STRP Eindhoven, Netwerk Aalst, z33 Hasselt, Le Bon Acceuil Rennes, Concertgebouw Bruges, Museum for Art & Technology MAAT Lisbon and many other venues. Christoph De Boeck is artistic co-director of Overtoon, a platform for research, production and distribution in sound arts based in Brussels. * Dominik ’t Jolle
Tinnere, Behind the tune is a crossover project between Overtoon, artist Dominik ’t Jolle, and Jan Ost from BRAI3N, a multidisciplinary centre for brain research. Dominik has been suffering from ringing in the ears and even sound hallucinations for much of her life. As a child she already observed vibrations and flashes of light with realistic resonances in the room where she was. She woke up one morning with a deafening, high sinus tone that never stopped. As a sound artist, she wants to translate those impressions into an audiovisual project that can be understood by a wide audience, but also by her doctors and researchers in tinnitus research. It will be a work of art with sound and projection that maps its tinnitus spectrum. Hearing damage is not the only causal factor in the tinnitus complex. The interaction between stress and stored information creates a network of neuronal connections. The hyperactivity of the compounds manifests itself as an acoustic phantom in these patients. The brain wave registration shows links between activity in the different brain areas. Dominik takes the drawings of the connectivity analysis (QEEG) as a starting point for sketches, for the design of the installation, for the distribution of a network of loudspeakers and lines throughout the room, in order to give shape to the hypersensitization.
BIO Dominik ’t Jolle is interested in people, culture, place and misplacement with a focus on building personal relationships and living with rural and urban communities for extended periods of time. Over twenty years she worked and lived in Cameron, Guinee (West Africa), Niger, Filipines and Belgium raising the profile of rural and marginal communities through film, sound recordings, visual arts projects and community based projects such as the building of water wells in Niger, community health support in the Filipines, empowerment social cohesion projects. 2016-current sound for solidarity (empowerment/social cohesion by children project) 2016 sound design for ‘Damonia’ short film by Ramy Mouharam Foud (Be) 2016 sound4solidarity, Karel de Grote university college of Antwerp (Be) 2015-current (research) work in progress tinnitus/sound generator * Mariska De Groot
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Aernoudt Jacobs
The four pieces in this compilation are based on recordings from cosmic radiations, electro magnetic frequencies from trains, electronic circuits and power plants. INFRAULTRA is a commission from the City of Liège for a new sound work for the Cybernetic Tower – an artwork by the Franco-Hungarian artist Nicolas Schöffer at the Parc de la Boverie.
BIO Aernoudt Jacobs’ work is both phenomenological and empirical. It originates from acoustic and technological research and investigates how sounds still can yield sonic processes which will trigger the perceptive scope of the observer. Jacobs’ installations focus on a central question: how can the complexity, richness and stratification of our direct, daily environment be translated into something that can really be experienced? http://www.aernoudtjacobs.info/
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Justin Bennett
Multiplicity consists of a number of pieces in different media which can be shown together or individually. Horn of Brussels is a sculpture made of old brass instruments which plays an ever-changing five-channel composition of musical sounds and field recordings, while the form of the instrument is based on the metro network of Brussels. Next to this Bennett also developed a collection of ‘filters’ – small sculptural objects which act as devices for active listening, a collection of recordings made through these filters, a text with sonogram images analyzing the role of sirens in the soundscape of the city, and a collection of drawings and photographs which provide context for the above works. The recording is a fragment of the registration of the sculpture.
BIO Justin Bennett (UK, 1964, based in The Hague) works with sound and image. Trained in sculpture and electronic music, he uses drawing, video, sculpture, and a diverse array of sound forms in his research. One recurrent theme is our experience of archticture, urban development, and the (un)built space. He employs sound in order to render it audible as well as palpable: in his work, listening carefully provides a radically different way of seeing and experiencing.
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Gert Aertsen
The recording is a registration of the installation.
BIO Gert Aertsen has been involved in new media since 2001. He has been working as an artist, organizer, technician and programmer, and collaborated with different organizations. He was part of Machine Centred Humanz, a multi-disciplinary collective of artists exploring the different fields of technology, arts, robotics, and experimental music. They realized a long list of unconventional projects ranging from networked audiovisual performances and sound installations to artbots. Within Mxhz Gert Aertsen was mostly concerned with installations and artbots like”Thoughts Go By Air” and “Roving Walter Walter”. Their projects were shown, at Artbots NY, ZKM Karlsruhe and Tesla Berlin… Together with Pieter Heremans and Hendrik Leper he started Code31, an open studio for research, development and discussion about techniques and methodologies in media art. It served as a space to experiment with new technologies and stimulate interchange between artistic disciplines. Code31 gathered artists and engineers. One of their last installation was SE/30:Welcome to the 20th century back. Although the collective stopped to exist, they still collaborate from time to time, if only to show some of their old projects. And in 2004 he co-founded OKNO, an artist run organization based in Brussels, established as an umbrella organization for three initiatives Looking Glass, Mxhz and Code31. For his Overtoon residency Gert Aertsen works on a site-specific installation that deals with time and the perception of time. http://lahaag.org
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Davide Tidoni
BIO Davide Tidoni is a researcher in the field of sound and listening. He is interested to the relational dimension of listening and the uses of sound in everyday life. With a particular emphasis on observation, action and participation, he realizes a variety of works that include site-specific interventions, live performances and audio recording projects.
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Jeroen Vandesande
Produced by Overtoon, coproduced by Z33 With the support of the Flemish Community Thanks to Pauwel De Buck, Jan Wante and Stéfan Piat
BIO Jeroen Vandesande takes a highly explorative approach to sound and composition. His works combine avant-garde compositional methods such as game theory and chance operations with contemporary DIY techniques like no-input mixing, chaotic feedback systems and DIY electronics. Through musical performance Vandesande reflects on the the conditions of our communication, on the possibility of harmony and the loss of it. He therefore focuses on the game that controls human communication. He experiments with the roles and the game between composer, performer and audience, also in the visual reflection of it. http://www.jeroenvandesande.be/
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Floris Vanhoof
Concept and realisation: Floris Vanhoof / Co-production: Overtoon, Het Bos and KRAAK / With the support of the Flemish authorities.
BIO Floris Vanhoof (1982) is interested in the hybrid form of music, photo and film. Projections and music produced by a modular synthesizer are central to his work. His first projections were 16 mm celluloid experimental films which evolved into pure visual experiences in which he questions viewing patterns. Vanhoof creates his own instruments and installations and explores the grey area between image, light and sound. As a media-archaeologist he confronts the digitally spoiled visitor with flickering 16 mm films and slide installations, formats whose days are numbered. He deliberately choses analogue technology, not for nostalgic reasons, but because he wants to experiment with what used to be known as ‘high-tech’. Vanhoof is looking for ways to create new images with old media. He makes his own translations of sound into image and vice versa, by connecting one medium to another not always compatible medium. Thereby he doesn’t impose his own vision, but he shows himself curious as to what his work elicits in the visitor. How does our perception work and what new perspectives arise? Installations were exhibited at LLS387 Antwerp, SMAK Ghent, Castlefield Gallery Manchester, Vooruit Ghent, Network Aalst, Bozar Brussels, Film Festival Ghent, Beursschouwburg Brussels. Performances took place at ISSUE Project Room New York, Aural Mexico City, UH Budapest, Hangar Bicocca Milan, Centre d’art contemporain Dijon, ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Flagey Brussels, Cafe OTO London, Extracity Antwerp, Witte de With Rotterdam, Kaskcinema Ghent, International Mystery Los Angeles, The Wulf Los Angeles, Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, Museum van Elsene Brussels, KMSKA Antwerp, Les Urbaines Lausanne, Xing Live Arts Week Bologna, Electronica and Abril Madrid, Lal Lal Lal Tampere and Helsinki. In 2015 he received the Audience Award of the Young Belgian Art Prize. |
INFRAULTRA is a mimesis based on vocalisations from frequencies that are imperceptible by the ear. Through a technological process of transformation, inaudible frequencies (from VLF signals, ultrasounds, electro magnetic fields, cosmic radiations, …) have been put into the audible range. The resulting recordings were then vocally mimicked and layered into new compositions.
The project Multiplicity was developed during a residency at Overtoon which Bennett used to investigate the acoustic territories of the city of Brussels, such as territories of language (voices, narratives), territories of security (signals, announcements and sirens), territories of work, territories of birds and animals, and Underground territories (the reverberations and resonances of the tunnels and passageways of the city).
Aargh is an exploration into the mechanics of speech. Inspired by the famous 
“In this recording I play the snare-drum with a pair of microphones. The recording explores the physical properties and affordances of the microphone and presents a more intuitive way to relate to it. By giving a body to the microphone, by using it as a drumstick, the work reflects on the physical affection and corporal aspect of material culture and how this sensual attraction violates conventional modes of using technology.”
The installation can be considered as an instrument built by the artist that autonomously performs a composition. Circuit 03 plays with the feedback principle to produce sound. Feedback is created when microphones and loudspeakers are aimed at each other. The shapes of the tubes, the resonance patterns and the placement of the loudspeaker are only a few of the parameters determining the pitch of the sounds produced. Using these parameters, the artist Vandesande produced a composition. However, the sound composition is not a freestanding given, but also is created by the special resonance of the space and changes when the visitor changes positions and moves around.
With fifty different geometric shapes Floris Vanhoof creates an orchestra of speakers, the newest instrument in his growing collection around the research of our perception. The installation Polyhedra sends a cloud of sounds through space. The different volumes and spatial placement of the objects provide an intense listening experience: every speaker translates the sound differently. The spatial circulation of sound through the speakers, combined with the natural musical movements, take the audience on a voyage of sounds along the sculptures.