Try-Outs

30 March-3 April 2010, 10 am-6 pm (open studio)

Het Basisburo

Tolstraat 129, Amsterdam

Exhibition I

5-7 May 2010, 10 am-10 pm

Het Machinegebouw

Pazzanistraat 41, Amsterdam

Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek

Cinema

5-7 May 2010, 8 pm

Bioscoop Het Ketelhuis

Pazzanistraat 4, Amsterdam

Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek

Exhibition II

17 September-16 October 2010, Tu-Sa 11 am-5 pm

CBK Amsterdam

Oost-Watergraafsmeer

Oranje Vrijstaatkade 71, Amsterdam

The Sound of Shadow

THE SOUND OF SHADOW 2

16 Projections in Space, 3 Movements in Time, 1 Silence

Although there are exceptions to the rule, most present-day filmmakers, video- and new

media artists are increasingly abandoning the metier of constructing cinematographic space

from mere visuals (e.g. movement, angle, frame, choice of décor, colour, editing, after-effects,

animation) in favour of interlocking visuals with sound or sound effects. More to the point:

they basically have become dependent on audio to complement or complete the visuals.

Conversely spectators are growing accustomed to seeing with their ears, consequently

developing an unwanted ‘deafness’ to images. Where for example the films of Hitchcock

induce, famously effective, a visual apprehension of ‘the scary parts’, later suspense thrillers

count wholly on the suggestive effects of ‘daunting audio’ (Stephen Spielberg’s Jaws).

Nowadays horror movies probably make one laugh (or yawn) when one mutes the sound.

A master of the silent movie era, Sergei Eisenstein, stressed the decisive importance of

visuals. He meticulously took care that the images on the silver screen, albeit devoid ofTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 3

audible voice (i.e. synchronised recorded sound), were singing a visually constructed song of their own.

Perhaps logically his theory of film editing does not deviate much from the basic guidelines to music

composing, with a strong emphasis on metric, rhythm and (over) tonality. But even Eisenstein

used a separate musical score to accompany his features, as was common in his time.

In the time-based arts sound (i.e. noise/music/dialogue) is often employed – intelligently,

superbly and admirably - as thematic adhesive and ‘emo-managing-device’: To (re) direct the

spectator’s gaze, to keep his attention (Bill Viola), to induce active participation (Bruce Nauman)

or to create unity in large-scale multi-screen or immersive video compositions (Doug Aitken).

However in worst case scenarios sound is utilized to patch up floundering or

failing visuals. This can only happen because also in the arts (and not just in the film making

industries) there is a growing dependence on sound as an image-enhancing tool.

Erecting fluid architecture, open-textured sculpture and pictographic narratives from light

and shadow (for what is a projection other than a fleeting show of light and shadow) is a

profound artistic challenge and should not be the pleasure and privilege just reserved for theTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 4

likes of star editor Pablo Ferro, who stringently edits without soundtrack. Yet undeniably it

is hard to make a beguiling film or video without sound. Likewise it is hard to watch a silent

film or video without growing impatient or anxious.

The Sound of Shadow wants to make amends. The project, designed as a ‘symikony’

(a symphony for images - see page 42) in three movements, seeks to re-enliven the quick-witted

resourcefulness induced by the sharp stitch of deprivation which a hundred years ago caused

the first silent movie pioneers to come up with groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting ideas.

It aspires to create silent projected time-based works that are as engrossing as their ‘regular’

sounded counterparts, thereby not only demanding a heightened attentiveness of the artist

but also a newly inspired involvement of the sensitive and sensual spectator - thereby gently

plugging into the field of synaesthesia, where currently innovative art forms are being

brokered. It endeavours to create meaning, beauty, fascination, marvel and sublimation with

one hand tied to the back.

Also The Sound of Shadow aims to come off with a slightly political edge. Sound artist THE SOUND OF SHADOW 7

Bill Fontana once remarked that inventors of the industrial apparatus never took

(nor take) into account the additional noise production (or noise pollution) of their devices.

Urban live is unwittingly clattered with noise because eminent importance is given

to the faculty of vision.

From an opposite position video artist Artur Zmijewski argues in his manifesto The Applied

Social Arts (2007) that the public has lost its ability ‘to read images’ because contemporary

society is so cluttered with visual incentives it is difficult for any person to establish focal

reference. Deafened by clatter, blinded by clutter: the predicament of modern man? It’s not

just urban myth to state that when a person becomes deaf, he develops better vision. The

Sound of Shadow wants to defy the burden of ‘visual illiteracy’ by dipping its concert of moving

images in an arena of silence, like a mystic descending into the void, thus making room

for the breath of God. Teresa van Twuijver, Summer 2009

THE SOUND OF SHADOW 8

Works & Artists

Anne-Marie van Meel

They invented this world and this world.

What they write will happen.

When they write this has to happen,

It will happen.

They can write and in this way things will happen.

They Exist (4’31”, 16:9)

www.anne-marievanmeel.nlTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 10

Britt Kootstra

Concept + Director – Britt Kootstra

Camera + Light – Jukka Rajala-Granstubb

Actors – Lina Ekblad + Carla Fri

Thanks to – Indium Film Company

Sus Productions Malakta

Out of practice, traditional and newly evolved manners are interspersed in an absurd coffee drinking ritual.

Kaffepaus (10’, 16:9)

www.brittkootstra.nlTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 13

Daniëlle Davidson

Where does the individual and the masses begin? What is the impact of the masses on the actions and

thoughts of the individual? Does an individual, functioning in a given system, still have a choice? An urban

environment (the ant heap of the city) is interesting; How is it possible that in the city, where many ‘cells’

are alive, loneliness is experienced? How is the ‘flow’ in the city? In the streams of commuters each day

traveling by tram and metro there is a particular system to be found.

The Shadow of Silence (2’19”, 4:3)www.danielledavidson.nl

THE SOUND OF SHADOW 14

Daphne Koopman & Leonie Oortgijsen

Immortality is what mortals must achieve if they want to live up to the world that surrounds them. An

endless inventory of immortal fragments, salt and nuclear fuel, visualizing a possible echo of our future

immortal landscape.

Life is Only a Resonance of Science (3’25”, 16:9 portrait)

www.daphnekoopman.com

immortallandscape.wordpress.com

munnickay.wordpress.com

THE SOUND OF SHADOW 17

Dirk Moons

Eckhart Tolle’s self-improvement book ‘De kracht van het Nu’ was a bestseller worldwide. Tolle strikes me

as moralizing and he irritates me. But the book does contain some useful thoughts.

‘De kracht van het Nu’ (2’11”, 4:3)

www.dirkmoons.comTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 18

Eelco Wagenaar

‘Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow’s speed’ (Howard Nemerov)

How do we relate to our bodily shadow?

Does this shadow still function as our counter-image if it is light instead of dark?

Will this shadow keep its physicality if it is projected on a screen?

What happens if this shadow image isn’t always as fast as the original?

Inverted Shadow (installation)

http://eelcowagenaar.nlTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 21

Esther Verhamme

Sound is everywhere. Even in the quietest place one could still hear the rustling sound of the inner-bodily

nervous system. In some cultures people believe that shadows represent the world of ghosts. The sound of

shadow lies in the past. Sound / Shadow / Sound explores these traces of sounds. By visualizing sounds and

giving them a shadow they become present and physical again. Can one imagine the sounds of the past

without hearing them?

Sound / Shadow / Sound (installation)

www.estherisleuk.nlTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 22

Lucia Kooiman

The base of reality cannot be understood. Inventing a voice, a listener and oneself. Not to be concerned with

the creation or identification of truth. This short video combines photographs, video, drawings and deleted

text intuitively. It’s about the experience and usurpation of chaotic, subliminal information about nothing,

stated in an unclear voice which cannot be heard. An on-going construction of unintelligible fictions that try

to escape the manufactured cultural forms manifesting the function of narrating our biographies.

Unsound (44”, 4:3)

luciakooiman@hotmail.comTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 25

Luciano Pinna

Direction + Production – Luciano Pinna

Performers – Martje Brandsma, Ammon Faithfull, Guido Vijverberg

Camera – Hans de Vries

Production Assistant – Rik Spann

Thanks to – Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek & Teresa van Twuijver

A research into the inner workings behind a directed performance.

Invision of I (6’, 16:9)

www.lucianopinna.comTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 26

Paul Roncken

Bomenzee (29”, 4:3)

Schoolplein (47”, 4:3)

Stier (3’24”, 4:3)

Struikgewas (35”, 4:3)

Zandmannetjes (2’04”, 4:3)

www.paulroncken.nlTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 29

PJ Bruyniks

An open space harbours silence and calmness. A scooter is often associated with noise and annoyance. What

happens when one takes out the essential elements of each? Perhaps the open space embraces the scooter

and the scooter loses its sound.

Untitled (50”, 4:3)

Untitled (54”, 4:3)

Untitled (2”, 4:3)

www.pjbruyniks.nlTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 30

Robbert Weide

The shape of a funnel is the transition between 1D and 2D. Moving on the periphery is 3D.

51-60 (8’56”, 16:9)

www.robbertweide.nlTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 33

Sara Palomeque Monje

Experience is not arrayed before me as if I were God, it is lived by me from a certain point of view; I am

not the spectator, I am involved, and it is my involvement in a point of view which makes possible both the

finiteness of my perception and its opening out upon the complete world as a horizon of every perception.

(Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, 1962. Translation by Colin Smith)

The Geometry of Space Gets Transformed by Multiple Projections (various durations, 16:9, 4:3)

www.sarapalomeque.comTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 34

Teresa van Twuijver & Marijn Korff de Gidts

The End / Old is the time and many birds are snowing / In the emptiness in the distance / One becomes tired

and the voices / Are stiff as nails on even the purest of lips / Rough and low roams the rain / Where have the

days of light gone / Where to are the clouds now / Everything is mute and of stone / Alone is his

weirdness counting the elements / Bending trembling like a lashing / Giving the last sound: the song / Has

the life eternal (Lucebert)

Voice Beat II (triptych, 1’05”, 2’11”, 13”, 16:9)

www.teresavantwuijver.nlTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 37

Tzvetana Tchakarova

In film sound usually plays a supportive role. Sound is added to images to create suspense, to accentuate

emotions or to give meaning. In this piece sound is the point of departure. ‘Whispers’ investigates the stories

of three people and their experience of listening.

Whispers (3 video’s, 2’, 4:3)

www.tzvetanatchakarova.comTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 38

Wim Jongedijk

Mazu is the name of the goddess of the sea who protects sailors and fisherman. She originally occurs in

several Asian - mainly Chinese - legends of Lin Moniang (960 AD). Her name means ‘silent girl’ for she

didn’t cry at birth. About this woman it is said she became a divinity when saving (while in trance

meditation) her father and brother during a typhoon at the age of 28.

Wim Jongedijk (concept, film) and Catharina Bruijning (concept, actress)

Mazu, The Silent Girl (5’41”, 4;3)

Zondag (3’15”, 4:3)

www.villalogica.nlTHE SOUND OF SHADOW 41

Symikony

The Sound of Shadow is both an exhibition and a gesamtkunstwerk that researches into how sound affects image

in the time-based arts by excluding it. Newly commissioned films, videos and unstable media works invite, both

individually and collectively, the camera (and eyes) to stand in for the microphone (and ears). Showing the works

in the shape of an orchestered symikony (‘visual symphony’) in three movements, using beamers and a ‘surround’

constellation of transparent screens in a large space, The Sound of Shadow underscores the significance of

silence, its prevailing absence in present-day time-based arts and the acoustic merits of silent images.

The symikony (a freshly coined word consisting of the Greek ‘Sum’ meaning harmony and ‘Ikona’ meaning

image) is carefully composed and revolves around three movements in time in which tempo, frame, camera

choreography and collision play manifest roles. The Sound of Shadow has a slow first part, an up-beat middle

and a pacing end. In the first movement emphasis is given to space, junction and collage; the second shows all the

works simultaneously, the third focuses on tonality and plays with repetition, blanks and pauses.

The Sound of Shadow 38’15” (Andante 12’45”, Adagio 12’, Andantino 13’30”)THE SOUND OF SHADOW 42

Supported byColophon

Concept, Symikony Composition, Organisation – Teresa van Twuijver

Curating – Teresa van Twuijver, Eelco Wagenaar

Production – PJ Bruyniks

Exhibition Design – Sara Palomeque Monje

Exhibition Installation - Daphne Koopman, Eelco Wagenaar

Website – Esther Verhamme

Art Design – Anne-Marie van Meel, Robbert Weide

Press – Leonie Oortgijsen, Dirk Moons, Wim Jongedijk, Britt Kootstra

Catalog – Tzvetana Tchakarova, Daniëlle Davidson, Sara Palomeque Monje

www.soundofshadow.com © 2010 Catalog € 5,– THE SOUND OF SHADOW 43

Ensemble – Anne-Marie van Meel, Britt Kootstra, Daniëlle Davidson, Daphne Koopman/Leonie Oortgijsen, Dirk Moons, Eelco Wagenaar, Esther Verhamme, Lucia Kooiman, Luciano Pinna, Paul Roncken, PJ Bruyniks, Robbert Weide, Sara Palomeque Monje, Teresa van Twuijver/Marijn Korff de Gidts, Tzvetana Tchakarova, Wim Jongedijk