Sonic Acts is an interdisciplinary arts organisation based in Amsterdam. 

Founded in 1994 to present new developments in electronic and digital art forms, Sonic Acts has gained prominence with its biennial international festival — an intensive art, theory and technology gathering motivated by changes in the ecological, political, technological and social landscape. Sonic Acts is also a leading platform for international projects, research and the commissioning and co-production of new artworks, often working together with local and international partner organisations such as independent and institutional cultural incubators, universities and kindred festivals.

In the course of its 30-year history, Sonic Acts has been a site for experimentation: a place to exchange, think, create, learn, and act. By presenting artistic investigations and research, Sonic Acts aims to advance experimentation and in turn provide a podium for dynamic perspectives that can be tools for discovery, growth, development, and emancipation – vital to understanding the complexities of our contemporary world.
 
With a focus on talent development, Sonic Acts supports a community of emerging artists through the residency and mentorship programmes [Overexposed](https://sonicacts.com/discover/overexposed) and [Underexposed](https://sonicacts.com/discover/underexposed), as well as through the commissioning and production of new artworks. The festival and year-round activities bring together artists, curators, critical thinkers and a curious, diverse audience. Next to its biennial festival, Sonic Acts organises [Workshops](https://sonicacts.com/archive/filter/Workshops), reading and listening groups focused on applied knowledge and addressing ecological concerns; and [Night Air](https://sonicacts.com/discover/night-air), a programme about pollution combining in-depth talks with films, live performances, and a club night. Sonic Acts publishes the magazine _[Ecoes](https://sonicacts.com/archive/ecoes )_ about art in the age of pollution, as well as books, music releases, and online publications in connection to its festival, commissioned works, and research projects.
 
Through this wide range of cross-disciplinary programmes, Sonic Acts explores the rapidly changing relationship between art, science, technology, and politics. The exhibitions, club nights, screenings, workshops, and symposia are grounds for radical audiovisual performances and installations, contemporary visual art, avant-garde film, progressive club music, and innovative new media, celebrating and fuelled by compelling artistic and critical perspectives.
 
Sonic Acts partners with a number of institutions across projects. As an ongoing member of both de [Zaak Nu](https://www.dezaaknu.nl/over-ons) and [MOKER](https://moker.amsterdam/), they join local forces to support the presentation and development of visual arts in Amsterdam and the Netherlands. Other completed collaborative projects have included the four-year art, research and commissioning project [Re-Imagine Europe](https://re-imagine-europe.eu/), initiated by Sonic Acts and organised in collaboration with ten cultural organisations across Europe; the [Progress Bar](https://sonicacts.com/discover/progress-bar) series, highlighting the latest tendencies in radical sound and club culture alongside urgent conversations about politics and society at large; the [Sonic Acts Academy](https://2020.sonicacts.com/about), a biannual forum dedicated to artistic research; and [Murmansk Prospekt](https://murmanskprospekt.net/), a collaboration exploring the impact of human beings on the planet. Earlier projects include the international research and commissioning project [Dark Ecology](https://sonicacts-frontend.vercel.app/discover/dark-ecology), as well as the programming of three editions of the [Kontraste Festival](https://sonicacts-frontend.vercel.app/discover/kontraste) in Krems, Austria.

History

The Sonic Acts Archive collects documentation about works, events, and people, including audio-visual material, essays, interviews and publications that have been presented across Sonic Acts’ multi-faced programming.

Having evolved from a niche event for enthusiasts, blending academic music with cutting-edge electronic sounds, into a thematic festival and commissioning body that foregrounds the cross-pollination of art, music, science and technology, the institutional archive generated as a result focuses on the production of new media art. It documents the processes of creating new media works and practitioners’ engagement with “new technologies”, the networks of people (artists, curators, producers, and technicians that attend to it) and the material histories of tools and procedures used by artists (across visual, sound and film media) to present and create such works. Finally, it illuminates the crucial role of the festival as a site of creation of artistic work, equivalent in importance to the artist's studio, the darkroom or the writer’s desk – a goal that echoes the intentions behind the very founding of Sonic Acts Festival back in 1994.

The Sonic Acts Archive advocates for social memory, for sensorial experiences and ‘hard to discipline’ artworks and performances that require specific presentational formats and participatory audiences of a festival setting to exist.

The physical archive is currently accessible by appointment. Access to material or assistance with research projects can be arranged by contacting us at [archive@sonicacts.com](mailto:archive@sonicacts.com).

Colophon

**Funders 2023–2024**\
[Creative Industries Fund NL](https://www.stimuleringsfonds.nl/en)\
[Amsterdam Fund for the Arts](https://www.amsterdamsfondsvoordekunst.nl/en/)\
[Cultuurloket DigitALL](https://cultuurloketdigitall.nl/)\
[Mondriaan Fund](https://www.mondriaanfonds.nl/en/homepage-2/)\
[Provincie Noord-Holland](https://www.noord-holland.nl/)\
[Netherlands Film Fund](https://www.filmfonds.nl/)\
[Fonds 21](https://www.fonds21.nl/)\
[Hartwig Art Foundation](https://www.hartwigartfoundation.nl/)\
[Het Cultuurfonds](https://www.cultuurfonds.nl/)\
[Cultural Participation Fund](https://cultuurparticipatie.nl/)\
[Performing Arts Fund NL](https://fondspodiumkunsten.nl/)\
[Stichting Zabawas](https://www.zabawas.nl/)\
[Gravin van Bylandt Stichting](https://www.bylandtstichting.nl/)\
[Re-Imagine Europe](https://re-imagine-europe.eu/), co-funded by the European Union\
[Erasmus+](https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/)

**Partners, Collaborators & Friends**\
A4, Academy of Motion Pictures Museum, All Rent, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, Antenne Books, ArtScience Interfaculty, ArtEZ, Atheneum, BeamSystems, BEK – Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts, Berlin Art Book Fair and Festival, Bimhuis, Borealis Festival, Canal++, De Appel, de Bijloke, De Zaak Nu, Disruption Network Lab, Elevate Festival, Environmental Humanities UvA, Eye Filmmuseum, Field Station Friesland, FieldARTS, Forte Marghera, Garage Noord, Galerie Khoshbakht, Goethe-Institut Niederlande, Hackers & Designers, Het Hem, Het Lage Noorden, Hogeschool voor Kunsten Utrecht, Idea Books, INA GRM, Institut Français NL, Jacuzzi, JaJaJaNeeNeeNee, kanaal40, Kentalis, Kontejner, Kontrapunkt, La Biennale di Venezia, Ledlease, Looiersgracht 60, Michel Waisvisz Archief, MOKER PO_i, Muziekgebouw, NADD, Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis, Nieuwe Instituut, OT301, Oude Kerk, Paradiso, PAV – Parco Arte Vivente, Partyzaan, Radio Web MACBA, Radio Worm, Rijksakademie, Ruigoord, Rupert, SALWA, San Seriffe, Semibreve, Showcare, Singelkerk, SoundLAB, Spatial Media Laboratories, Stack Magazines, Stichting de Vrolijkheid Almere, Stichting Huygens-Fokker, Stichting IMC Weekendschool, Studio405, STUK, Subbacultcha, Teatro alle Tese, Tempel, Underbelly, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Universiteit Utrecht, University of Hong Kong, W139, We Are Public, WG Theatertechniek, Willem Twee Studios, Zone2Source


Funders

Stichting Sonic Acts is door de Belastingdienst aangewezen als culturele Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling (ANBI). Deze status geeft donateurs de mogelijkheid een financiële gift fiscaal van de belasting af te trekken.

**Bank- en factuurgegevens**\
KvK: 34198520\
BTW NR: NL814129201B01\
RSIN: 814129201\
IBAN: NL31RABO0115136169\
BIC: RABONL2U\
Adres:

Stichting Sonic Acts\
Weteringschans 6-8\
1017SG\
Amsterdam

**Directeur**\
Lucas van der Velden

**Raad van Toezicht**\
Mariette Dölle\
Nduka Mntambo\
Joost Rekveld (Voorzitter)


Sonic Acts hanteert de salarisrichtlijn van De Zaak Nu. De raad van toezicht verricht haar werkzaamheden onbezoldigd.

**Doelstelling**\
De stichting heeft ten doel het bevorderen van activiteiten en onderzoek op het gebied van de electronische muziek, de nieuwe media, kunst en cultuur en voorts alles wat daarmee inde in de meest brede zin des woords verband houdt of daartoe bevorderlijk kan zijn.

[Annual Report 2021](https://portal.sonicacts.com/uploads/Sonic_Acts_Annual_Report_2021_38ba1ba1d3.pdf?updated_at=2022-10-12T08:18:44.351Z)\
[Annual Report 2022](https://portal.sonicacts.com/uploads/Sonic_Acts_Annual_Report2022_LR_81c55f78bd.pdf?updated_at=2023-09-14T14:58:52.187Z)\
[Annual Report 2023](https://portal.sonicacts.com/uploads/Sonic_Acts_Annual_Report_2023_10ca0867bc.pdf?updated_at=2024-11-27T16:47:31.474Z)

[Jaarrekening 2021](https://portal.sonicacts.com/uploads/Sonic_Acts_Jaarrekening_2021_c5c97ce666.pdf?updated_at=2023-04-11T11:23:29.806Z)\
[Jaarekening 2022](https://cms.sonicacts.com/uploads/Sonic_Acts_Jaarrekening_2022_79954f3f5c.pdf)\
[Jaarrekening 2023](https://portal.sonicacts.com/uploads/uploads/Sonic_Acts_Jaarrekening_2023_5cf5cd5027.pdf?updated_at=2024-10-15T13:22:57.836Z)

[Download het Standaardformulier publicatieplicht ANBI algemeen](https://cms.sonicacts.com/uploads/standaardform_pubplicht_anbi_algemeen_2023_900a94ce57.pdf?updated_at=2024-10-16T08:40:05.774Z).

[Hoofdlijnen beleidsplan](https://portal.sonicacts.com/uploads/25501789_f26cec10d2.pdf?updated_at=2023-04-11T11:25:54.092Z).


ANBI

We do not have any vacancies at this time.

Vacancies

Sonic Acts aims to provide a safe and open forum for everyone. We are committed to creating a positive experience for our audience and artists free of intimidation, harassment, discrimination, aggression, sexism, and threatening or disrespectful language or behaviour regardless of gender identity, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, ethnicity, or religion. 

We follow and uphold this Code of Conduct in everything we do and it applies to everyone involved – both working or visiting Sonic Acts events. We also communicate it to all participating artists, our employees, partners, and freelancers who work with us. 

Sonic Acts reserves the right to revoke access to events for those who engage in inappropriate behaviour. If someone reports a breach of this Code during our events or in our online spaces, we will work with the complainant to determine an appropriate response. Please notify our staff members or email us at [info@sonicacts.com](mailto:info@sonicacts.com).

Remember to…\
… encourage a safe environment free from harassment and discrimination\
… be actively inclusive and challenge all discriminatory behaviours\
… respect boundaries and be mindful that each person has different boundaries\
… be aware of and challenge your own prejudices and privileges\
… respect how people choose to identify\
… listen if someone challenges you about your own behaviour\
… take care of your health and safety\
… respect the privacy of others

Code of Conduct

These house rules apply to both Sonic Acts organisation and employees and the visitors of its events. When buying a ticket to our events you agree to the following conditions and instructions given by the (event) staff. For all cases and/or situations not provided for in the house rules, the organisation reserves the right to impose additional rules verbally and/or in writing to which the visitor is bound.
 
The regulations have been drawn up to ensure order and safety during events:
 
- If ticket irregularities are discovered, such as false and/or duplicate tickets, or an attempt to gain access without a valid ticket, access will be denied, and a report will be made to the police.
- Tickets purchased online are strictly personal and non-transferable. You may be asked to identify yourself with a valid ID.
- Entering the event site is entirely at the visitor's own risk. The organisation is not liable for any injuries or damage caused to visitors and/or visitors' goods. This also includes theft and loss.
- Bringing professional sound recording and video equipment is not permitted, unless accreditation has been agreed in writing with the organisation.
- It is not permitted to distribute flyers, undertake promotional activities or trade goods on or near the event site without consultation with the organisation.
- The judgment of the security staff is binding. If prohibited items are found, you will be handed over to the police. Confiscated items will not be returned.
- During Sonic Acts events photo and sound recordings are made. Upon arrival, visitors tacitly give the organisation permission to reproduce, make public and/or use these recordings for promotional purposes. Would you rather not have us use a photo of you? Please contact us at [info@sonicacts.com](mailto:info@sonicacts.com) and we will remove the photo(s) in question.
- The house rules of the location have priority over these rules. If there are no house rules, rules drafted here will apply.
- In the event of disruptive behaviour, Sonic Acts and/or the venue reserves the right to remove individuals, as well as deny further access to the site and/or to the Sonic Acts events for a specified or indefinite period of time on the basis of Article 138 of the Criminal Code and Sonic Acts Code of Conduct.

House Rules

If you have any questions for Sonic Acts, including press enquiries, booking proposals or shop-related queries, please contact us at the relevant email address:

info@sonicacts.com\
residency@sonicacts.com\
press@sonicacts.com\
shop@sonicacts.com\
bookings@sonicacts.com

Sonic Acts\
Weteringschans 6–8\
1017 SG Amsterdam\
The Netherlands

Contact

An interdisciplinary arts organisation based in Amsterdam.

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Sonic Acts

An interdisciplinary arts organisation based in Amsterdam. 

This conversation is one of a three-part series documenting the [Underexposed 2024 mentorship programme](https://sonicacts.com/archive/underexposed), a Sonic Acts initiative that focuses on supporting artists at the beginning of their careers. Explore how each participant’s project has evolved throughout the programme by following up on interviews with [**Hanchen Zhang**](https://sonicacts.com/archive/reverberations-of-power) and [**Jurel Bakker**](https://sonicacts.com/archive/jurel-bakker-lichen-and-azolla) on our website.

Objects are never truly inert. They give shape to existence, holding histories and collecting imprints, responding to the touch of time. From the clothes we wear to the spaces we inhabit, materials interact with us – they absorb, become stained, and regenerate. This notion of object agency, or what theorist Jane Bennett calls ‘thing-power’, is central to **Joseph Rouhana**’s practice. Their work considers how non-human substances – fibres, dyes, and biological matter – participate in cycles of transformation, blurring the boundary between subject and object, human and environment.

A Lebanese filmmaker and media artist, Rouhana first explored these ideas in the digital realm, treating the internet as a ‘hyperobject’ – an omnipresent force that constructs and deconstructs identity. Their past installation performance, _All About Eva_ (2021), examined this fluidity, engaging with digital culture’s perpetual remixing. With the ongoing artistic project, developed during the Underexposed mentorship programme, _MKATLE_ (مكتلة) – meaning ‘clustered’ in Lebanese Arabic – Rouhana shifts into the physical realm, working primarily with fabric and embroidery. Yet their core inquiries remain the same: How do materials act upon us? What stories do they tell? How do breakdown and replenishment exist in constant flux?

At the centre of the multimedia installation of _MKATLE_ is a shroud – a traditional linen burial cloth – reimagined as a living entity, containing memories and narratives of metamorphosis within its very weave. Inspired by ancient textiles and crafted from fibres sourced from the human body, it blurs the line between decay and renewal. Drawing on the Lebanese practice of _mouneh_ (المونة) – the seasonal conserving of food through fermentation, pickling, and curing – this hybrid garment becomes a site of transition rather than finality. Accompanying the shroud, film and visual art elements expand on posthumanist themes, creating a space where materiality, myth, and storytelling converge. 

In this interview, Rouhana reflects on permanence, urging us to reconsider the boundaries between what is discarded and what is preserved, between what is alive and what lingers.


**Dominika Mikołajczyk: In _MKATLE_, cycles of decay and renewal are woven into biological, cultural, and crafted materials. What drew you to these themes, and how do they connect to your broader practice?**

**Joseph Rouhana**: I'm deeply interested in how decay, destruction, regeneration, and creation are forces in constant flux. These concepts permeate all of my research – the idea that existence itself is fluid, with every state of being in constant motion. In the past, I explored this through the virtual realm – a space of infinite modulation, which is being continually remade by online communities and pop culture. The digital world – where it is possible to project, distort, and reassemble oneself – became a reflection of how identity and materiality are never static. 

These ideas continue to shape my ongoing project, _MKATLE_. In my research for this work, I became fascinated by the breaking down and reassembling of matter. Just as digital entities can be remixed, so too can the physical. Where I once deconstructed and reassembled my body in virtual form, I now work with flesh, fibre, and organic matter, pushing my exploration of material impermanence into the tangible world.

**DM: Central to your installation is the shroud –  a traditional linen burial garment. Can you share more about its symbolism?**

**JR**: Western burial rituals have always felt foreign to me – the coffin, the open casket, the formal viewing of a body. In Lebanon, the deceased is wrapped in a shroud, and mourning is communal, centred on gathering rather than spectacle.

The first corpse I saw in real life was my grandfather’s. He wasn’t in a coffin but laid on a table, his head lying on a pillow, and his body covered with white cloth. Around him, my mother and her sisters wailed, their bodies rocking in rhythmic grief. But my earliest memory of death was neither familial nor domestic – I remember watching a news segment showing bodies wrapped in white fabric after an explosion in Beirut. These encounters were catalysts for me – I realised death was not just an abstract concept but something material, something that could happen suddenly.

As I grew older, I witnessed the same practice repeated in different contexts. My Muslim friends also wrapped their dead, reinforcing the shroud as more than fabric – it was an extension of the body, much like clothing, shaping presence even in death. This made me think of the function of fashion and dressing, which, to me, is intentional; it transforms, mediates, and carries meaning. The shroud does the same – it is a final gesture of care that acknowledges the body’s continued existence in another form.

In Lebanese culture, cremation is taboo. As a child, I saw it as a defilement of the body – an unnatural severance. But I now understand it as another form of evolution rather than erasure. Still, its abruptness unsettles me. Unlike laying a body in a shroud or mausoleum, which honours continuity, cremation feels like a rupture I struggle to reconcile with even today.

The body, even as it decays, retains agency – it decomposes, changes, and interacts with its surroundings. The shroud, more than just a garment, becomes a site of transition, where fabric, flesh, and the outside world engage in an intimate, chemical kinship – a concept explored by researcher Vanessa Agard-Jones.[1](#footnotes)


**DM: You incorporate materials like blood, nails, and food waste into the fabric of the shroud. What is the significance of these elements, and how do they contribute to the larger themes of the project?**

**JR**: I see these materials not just as extensions of myself but as independent agents with their own presence. My body isn’t a singular entity – it is shaped by and interacts with external forces. Skin, for example, isn’t just an organ; it’s a threshold, absorbing and imprinting on the fabrics I wear. Hair oxidises, changes with time, and reacts to chemicals. Blood carries microbial life. These substances, often discarded – hair, dried blood, dead skin – become central in my work, preserved rather than erased.

I’m drawn to the idea of objects as hybrids. Creation and decay aren’t opposites; they feed into each other. The organic materials I use in the installation stain, erode, and transform the fabric, turning it into a living record, a cyborg-like artefact inscribed with time. There’s also something ritualistic about using body parts in this way – it recalls ancient practices where blood was a dye. It was a sacred marker – a mythical substance.
When people engage with my installation, I want them to recognise these traces – the stains and stray hairs – and feel a moment of familiarity, but also unease. Something intimate has been displaced, transformed into something ritualistic and sacred.



**DM: Myth-making is a key thread in your work, particularly through the story of Adonis and the Ibrahim River. Can you explain what happens in this myth; what is it about it that resonates with you, and how does it unfold within your work?**

**JR**: Like all myths, this one has many versions. The story I know goes like this: Adonis (or Tammuz تَمّوز), god of vegetation, was so beautiful that Astarte (عشتروت), goddess of fertility, love, and war, fell in love with him. In some retellings, a jealous Ares – god of war and one of Aphrodite’s lovers – transforms into a boar and fatally wounds Adonis by the river. As his blood spilt, it stained the water red, giving birth to the anemone flower – a symbol of life emerging from death. (Today, of course, we know the Ibrahim River turns red when rain disturbs its iron-rich clay).[2](#footnotes) My mother told me this story whenever we passed the river or visited the nearby village named after Adonis, describing how Astarte wept over his blood until the flower appeared.

Another version tells of a dispute between Astarte and her sister, resulting in Adonis splitting his time between the underworld and the earth, mirroring the seasons. This cyclical framing of death and renewal fascinates me, especially how it is tied to tangible places – the river and a cave, the Afqa Grotto, that still exist today. The Ibrahim River is where I grew up, swimming, exploring, and making my own stories. Even the name ‘Tammuz’ survives in Lebanese Arabic as the word for July –  a linguistic thread lost in other dialects.

My work is deeply tied to storytelling – it considers how myths shape identity, how places hold narratives, and how rituals connect us to the past. In centuries past, the Ibrahim River was a sacred site, linked to the cult of Adonis, where his followers performed lamentations. My ancestors once gathered at the river to mourn and celebrate, just as people do now, though today it’s more about parties than grieving a dying god. Yet, echoes of ancient mourning persist in contemporary funeral rites and gestures of grief passed down through generations – such as wailing, rocking, and the tightening of clothes.

**DM: Can you talk a bit about the tradition of _mouneh_ (المونة)? How would you describe its significance, and what role does it play in the narrative you’re constructing?**

**JR**: _Mouneh_ is a traditional Lebanese practice of conserving seasonal produce and animal products. To me, _mouneh_ has always been synonymous with nature’s gifts – the care we take to preserve and transform what the land provides. It blends science and intuition, method and magic. Every year, my mother, aunts, and grandmother would take me to my grandparents’ house, where this ritual of preservation unfolded. My grandfather and I would gather grapes, figs, olives, cucumbers, herbs, and flowers, while inside, the real alchemy began – fermenting, drying, crushing, bottling, and sun-curing flavours to last throughout the year.

_Mouneh_ is both communal and deeply intuitive, shaped by superstition and ancestral knowledge. Within my work, I’m drawn to this interplay between ritual and preservation. _Mouneh_ is about extending life, shifting states, and breathing new meaning into what might otherwise be discarded. My practice continues this ancestral lineage, preserving not just materials but also knowledge and memory. 


**DM: You use techniques like solar dyeing, fermentation, and biohacking to create fabrics that grow, evolve, and decay. How do these experimental methods connect with the project’s themes?**

**JR**: My practice bridges the ancient and the futuristic, blending ancestral knowledge with experimental processes. Techniques like solar dyeing [which uses the heat of the sun], fermentation, and biohacking align with the ethos of _mouneh_ – they require patience, transformation, and working with organic elements rather than against them.
These methods challenge our perception of durability, embracing decay as part of an object’s lifecycle rather than something to resist. The textiles in my installation are not static; they shift, react, and decompose, mirroring natural ecosystems where nothing is truly discarded – only repurposed. This ties back to the myth of Adonis, where death and renewal flow cyclically.

Sustainability is central to this approach, but not in the way it’s often framed today. In many cultures, sustainability isn’t an effort – it’s simply how life is lived: saving, reusing, and transforming materials through inherited techniques. Contemporary discourse often treats sustainability as a challenge, shaped by corporate and political interests, but for my ancestors, it was an intuitive, natural way of being.

In my work, I reject the notion that sustainability has to be difficult. Instead, I embrace cyclical methods, treating materials not just as objects but as participants in a larger ecological and historical conversation. 

**DM: Can you expand on what you mean by ‘biohacking’ in this context?** 

**JR**: When I talk about biohacking, I’m referring to the experimental manipulation of biological materials within my garment – such as organic food waste, as well as my own hair, skin, and blood. At this stage of my research, it’s less about human augmentation in the transhumanist sense – where technology is used to extend human abilities – and more about transforming the garment itself into a hybrid entity – through dyeing, fermentation, and bacterial growth – which I connect to the practice of _mouneh_.


**DM: Beyond materials, you also plan to include audio-visual elements like ritualistic imagery, archival footage, and abstract visuals in your installation. Can you tell us more about these?**

**JR**: At heart, I’m a filmmaker and audiovisual artist, and these elements are crucial to the installation. I want to capture the essence of the cave, river, and ruins of a centuries-old temple – real, physical spaces that hold personal and cultural significance. I plan to record the sounds of the cave and the river, document my body moving through the water, and integrate clay from the site into the fabric. Alongside this, I want to archive my family’s _mouneh_ practices in a first-person, video-diary style, interwoven with speculative narration, footage of mourning rituals, and imagery of bloody rivers and burial rites. Rather than a linear narrative, these will form a fragmented glimpse into an ever-evolving myth.

These visuals will be directly embedded into the installation. The lower panels of the hybrid garment will act as floating screens, displaying projections with no visible source – giving the impression that the garment itself holds memory, history, and cultural imprint.


**DM: How has your experience in the Underexposed programme influenced the direction of _MKATLE_? Did any unexpected ideas or perspectives emerge? And looking ahead, are there any new themes or mediums you’re excited to explore in future work?**

**JR**: Underexposed shaped _MKATLE_ in ways I couldn’t have anticipated. Sonic Acts, especially curator Maud Seuntjens, provided crucial support – not just in terms of resources but as an engaged, thoughtful collaborator. Artistic practice can be isolating, and having Maud as someone who deeply understood my references and complexities helped me refine my ideas.

The project has evolved drastically from its initial concept, yet every iteration remained true to my core instincts. The programme allowed me to sharpen the connections between elements, making them more intentional and layered.

Beyond the creative process, this experience also gave me insight into the Dutch cultural scene – how my work is perceived and, importantly, how to navigate the logistical and financial realities of sustaining an artistic practice. Accessing resources requires strategic positioning, and Sonic Acts helped me understand how to frame my research and proposals effectively.

Looking ahead, I want to push my exploration of materiality even further – experimenting with new organic processes, expanding on sound and audiovisual storytelling, and deepening my engagement with speculative fiction as a means of cultural preservation.


 Mythical Cycles of Renewal and Decay

This conversation is one of a three-part series documenting the [Underexposed 2024 mentorship programme](https://sonicacts.com/archive/underexposed), a Sonic Acts initiative that focuses on supporting artists at the beginning of their career. Explore how each participant’s project has evolved throughout the programme by following up on interviews with [**Joseph Rouhana**](https://sonicacts.com/archive/Mythical-Cycles-of-Renewal-and-Decay) and [**Jurel Bakker**](https://sonicacts.com/archive/jurel-bakker-lichen-and-azolla) on our website.

Infrastructure is designed to be silent, functioning seamlessly in the background. Microprocessors, networks, cables, and circuits govern daily life, yet this heavy-duty hardware often goes unnoticed. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the digital sphere, where data is framed as weightless, instant, and immaterial. Designer **Hanchen Zhang** challenges this illusion in _[Cloud of Polyphony](https://vimeo.com/1062256859/aab566e26d?share=copy)_ – an ongoing multimedia installation and artistic research project that was showcased during the Geo—Design MA (led by [**Metahaven**](https://sonicacts.com/community/metahaven)) graduation exhibition at Design Academy Eindhoven, and was further developed through the Underexposed mentorship programme with Sonic Acts.

_Cloud of Polyphony_ unearths the hidden infrastructures of the digital realm. It features a projection wall displaying documentary footage of the aftermath of the first Big Data Expo in 2013, a sculpture of a dormant 5G cell tower reappropriated into a speaker, and an unfolding soundscape based on field recordings and data gathered by a Lidar sensor. Through this interplay of mediums, Zhang explores the paradox of the digital ‘cloud’ – an airy term that denotes something transient and untethered, yet in reality refers to a vast extractive, energy-hungry infrastructure and global industrial supply chains.

Zhang’s research took him to Guizhou, a province in southwest China, once defined by mining and hydropower, now also home to major cloud computing centres and data warehouses, which form the physical backbone of the internet, supporting everything from everyday communication to machine learning. Yet their largely invisible presence is far from neutral – it encodes the hierarchies, policies, and power structures that shape both virtual and ‘real’ worlds. _Cloud of Polyphony_ is an investigation into how power manifests in materials – how ideologies encoded in concrete influence data flows and AI decision-making.

By attuning to infrastructure rather than simply using it, Zhang repositions systems as sites of inquiry and intervention. His work urges us to reconsider digital space as a deeply material construct – one built on labour, geography, and embedded human biases.


**Dominika Mikołajczyk: We often think of the 'cloud’ as something intangible, almost as if it exists somewhere in the digital ether. But in your practice, you explore the physical and ecological systems that support it. Why is it important to rethink our understanding of the cloud, and what role do you hope art can play in shifting this perspective?**

**Hanchen Zhang**: The term 'cloud' has been abstracted, detached from its physical infrastructure, becoming synonymous with an invisible, weightless network. This abstraction is convenient for the market and technology platforms, allowing us to indulge in seamless connectivity without confronting the material costs behind it. As we integrate into this hyper-connected world, spanning different time zones and political borders, we unconsciously accept a narrative of efficiency, stripped of ecological, ethical, and geopolitical complexities.

I attempt to use art language and design to approach abstraction. Through sensory experiences – visual, auditory, spatial – my practice exposes the infrastructure underpinning technological systems. It reintroduces the ‘cloud’ as a material entity, entangled with resource extraction, energy consumption, and territorial politics. My work aims to unfold these systemic issues, using art not as a tool for answers but as a method of inquiry, challenging the neutrality of technology and highlighting the hidden costs embedded within it.

**DM: Your practice more generally involves transforming images, sounds, and data into new materialities. Can you offer some examples – how do you approach this process?** 

**HZ**: Materiality is not just about physical properties; it's about context, history, and agency. I approach images, sounds, and data not as fixed entities but as malleable agents for storytelling. A field recording isn't just ambient noise; it's an archive of place, memory, and politics. A piece of scrap metal isn't just debris; it carries traces of labour, industry, and decay.

Each material carries its own weight, temperature, and cultural associations, which I incorporate into my work as part of an expanded lexicon. By juxtaposing these materials through installation, moving image, or sonification, I explore how their unique qualities can come together to create new syntaxes. This process allows me to engage with the materials in dynamic ways, revealing how their individual characteristics interact and shape the narrative.

_Cloud of Polyphony_ evolved through continuous shifts in mediums. Initially conceived through 3D modelling and digital renders, the project expanded into moving image and later into a sound installation. Each phase introduced new questions – what does it mean to 'see' infrastructure? How can sound make hidden processes perceptible? These lines of inquiry guided the project's transition from static representation to dynamic, site-responsive interventions. 


**DM: You've described the cloud as an act of 'terraforming'. What does that mean in the context of your project?**

**HZ**: Originating from science fiction, 'terraforming' refers to engineering environments to support human life on other planets. In the context of _Cloud of Polyphony_, I use the term to describe how data infrastructure reshapes the Earth. This process isn't about making barren, alien landscapes livable; it’s about transforming territories to serve technological, economic, and political imperatives.
In Guizhou, for example, the construction of data centres didn’t just overlay existing environments – it reconfigured them. The region, once defined by its ecological and cultural diversity, has been reshaped to support resource extraction, urbanisation, and data storage. The 'cloud' becomes a force of planetary-scale engineering, driven not by the pursuit of sustainability but by the logic of optimisation and control. I want to examine these transformations, questioning what is lost – ecologically, socially, and spiritually – when environments are moulded to fit data-driven compulsions.

**DM: Can you say more about Guizhou? What drew you to this region?**

**HZ**: The province of Guizhou exists at the intersection of extraction, state infrastructure, and the speculative narrative of techno-urbanism. What drew me to this region was its contradiction – historically overlooked, it is now at the centre of the state's technological expansion. I was interested in how the flux of resource trading inscribes itself onto landscapes. Through research, I traced patterns of interregional distribution: how certain regions are designated as energy reserves for others, fulfilling economic demands dictated elsewhere. Guizhou’s emergence as a data hub follows the same logic that historically positioned it as a resource hinterland: it provides an operational foundation for larger urban centres while remaining peripheral in terms of decision-making power.

In _Cloud of Polyphony_, I approach Guizhou as a site of layered transformations, where the remnants of past extractive cycles coexist with speculative futures. The moving image component of the project follows a journey through this evolving terrain. It begins with a search for the latest Big Data Expo, an annual event showcasing advancements in AI and data strategies. Framed as a demonstration of economic growth, the gathering attracts tech giants and seeks to expand investment potential in the Big Data market. This excursion, however, led me to an unexpected discovery: the site of the very first iteration of the Expo. Now partially abandoned, this space marks the inception of China’s Big Data era, a period shaped by state policies, large-scale data collection, AI development, and digital governance. 

The footage also weaves together archival materials of local prayer rituals with images of cultural symbols that have been repurposed or erased by rapid urbanisation. For example, I incorporate the _Lu Sheng_, a traditional instrument used by the Miao minority group in their prayer rituals to communicate with God for blessings on their harvest. This instrument has since been adopted as a symbol – its visual form serving as a reference for the capital city of Guiyang's central landmark, which emerged during a decade of intense urbanisation driven by state policy investments. The company responsible for constructing the landmark was involved in the Big Data industry but reportedly declared bankruptcy last year, underscoring the volatility of the market. Through this, I seek to highlight how Guizhou's social and environmental landscape is being reshaped by large-scale development projects.

This theme is further expressed by the sound component, which blends recordings of hydraulic power engines, the mechanical hum of data centres, and the environmental cost of resource extraction. The sounds of crumbling rock formations making way for infrastructure, echoes of machines, and fragmented oral histories come together to form a polyphonic soundscape. Within _Cloud of Polyphony_, Guizhou is not just a backdrop – it is an active agent, a landscape shaped by cycles of extraction and resistance.

**DM: The sound component you mentioned is broadcast by an antenna from a 5G cell tower, a structure which you transformed into a speaker, and which stands at the heart of _Cloud of Polyphony_ as a symbol of surveillance and extraction. Can you walk us through how you arrived at this idea and the significance of the various elements of the composition?**

**HZ**: I was drawn to the conceptual and structural parallels between electromagnetic transmission and sound waves. Both rely on oscillatory motion, yet their materialities diverge. While sound requires a medium, electromagnetic waves can propagate through a vacuum. I found that the way electromagnetic waves move mirrors data-driven terraforming: it too operates invisibly, restructuring environments without leaving immediately perceptible traces. Sound, however, could make these processes tangible.

The antenna, a ubiquitous yet often unexamined instrument, became a central symbol of this project. Its conventional role is passive – receiving and transmitting signals as dictated by the market. I attempted to invert this relationship, transforming the instrument from a listening device into a speaking entity.

This led to a sculptural intervention inspired by public address (PA) systems. By reconfiguring the antenna tower with PA system projection sound characteristics, the work confronts the asymmetries of communication within centralised networks. The sound composition embedded within the structure is layered, evolving based on audience interactions. Field recordings of industrial landscapes, synthesised electromagnetic hums, and spoken fragments of speculative futures form dynamic soundscapes, shifting in response to movement. The result is an infrastructure that not only follows its programming but also continually redefines how it communicates. 


**DM: Could you share more about the role of field recordings in your practice?**

**HZ**: Field recordings are not just acoustic documents – they are sonic archives of place, memory, and affect. I collect a range of sounds – mechanical drones from data warehouses, ambient noise from urban debris, and hearsay from local communities. These recordings are both raw materials and conceptual anchors. They capture the residues of human and non-human activities, offering sensory insights into environments often overlooked. In my practice, field recordings are manipulated, layered, and juxtaposed with synthetic sounds to create compositions that destabilise the boundary between the natural and the artificial, the past and the present.

**DM: Your work weaves together theory, fiction, and ambient sound to create polyphonic narratives. What does storytelling mean in your research and how does polyphony shape your approach?**

**HZ**: Storytelling is a method of assembling fragments, a way to navigate the complexities of lived and speculative realities. Polyphony, in this context, is not just a compositional technique but a philosophical stance – an acknowledgement of multiplicity and contradiction. My narratives resist linearity; they unfold through overlapping voices, dissonant sounds, and fragmented visuals. This approach challenges dominant historiographies, creating spaces where marginalised perspectives can coexist without being subsumed into a singular narrative. In _Cloud of Polyphony_, the layering of field recordings, archival materials, and algorithmically generated sounds forms an auditory tapestry that reflects the entangled histories of technology, ecology, and culture. 


**DM: Looking back at your time during the Underexposed residency, how did it impact the direction of your project? Were there any new ideas or insights that emerged during that period?**

HZ: The Underexposed residency provided a critical space for reflection and experimentation. It encouraged me to interrogate the methodological frameworks underpinning my practice, particularly the role of machine learning in interactive installations. The residency emphasised the importance of process over product, allowing failures and unexpected outcomes to inform the work. One key insight was the potential of sound as a spatial agent, not just an auditory one. I also considered how to legitimise the adaptation of the offline language model [AI-powered processing systems that operate locally without requiring an internet connection or cloud-based servers]. This realisation led to the development of interactive soundscapes, where visitor movements modulate sonic environments, creating a dynamic dialogue between bodies and data.

**DM: The dynamic relationship between humans and machines seems central to your practice. How has this theme shaped your previous works, and where do you see it going in the future?**

**HZ**: Machines are extensions of human cognition and desire, but they also possess their own logic and agencies. In my work, I explore this reciprocity, where machines are not mere tools but co-authors of meaning. Previously, I engaged with analogue devices, examining their material aesthetics and embedded politics. As my practice evolved, I became interested in algorithmic systems, particularly how machine learning models reflect and reinforce societal biases. The future direction lies in examining decentralised technologies and the ethics of artificial intelligence. I am curious about how autonomy and agency are negotiated within human-machine collaborations and how these relationships can be reimagined beyond utilitarian paradigms.


**DM: How has studying Geo—Design shaped your artistic perspective?**

**HZ**: Geo—Design bridges the gap between design, natural science, technologies, human systems, and critical inquiry. It introduced me to systemic thinking, where design is not confined to objects but extends to infrastructures, policies, and ecologies. This has significantly influenced my approach, allowing me to focus not on isolated artefacts, but on the networks and processes that shape them. The programme also foregrounds ethics, encouraging practitioners to engage with social and environmental justice. It taught me to see design as a form of research, capable of generating knowledge and fostering critical discourse beyond aesthetic considerations.

**DM: What directions are you excited to explore in your research in the future? Are there any emerging themes, technologies, or methodologies you're eager to dive into?**

**HZ**: I am particularly interested in the intersection of sound, moving image, machine learning, and spatial practice, as well as in exploring offline language models such as GPT4ALL, which open possibilities for creating autonomous systems that evolve through interaction. I am curious about how algorithms develop ‘biases’ or ‘preferences’ based on user input, and what this reveals about agency within non-human entities. Additionally, I want to investigate the ethics of algorithmic memory – how data systems remember and forget, and the implications of these processes on collective memory. These inquiries will continue to shape my work, expanding what design can express in response to technological and ecological crises.

Reverberations of Power in a Silent Grid

This conversation is one of a three-part series documenting the [Underexposed 2024](https://sonicacts.com/archive/underexposed) mentorship programme, a Sonic Acts initiative that focuses on supporting artists at the beginning of their career. Explore how each participant’s project has evolved throughout the programme by following up on interviews with [**Joseph Rouhana**](https://sonicacts.com/archive/Mythical-Cycles-of-Renewal-and-Decay) and [**Hanchen Zhang**](https://sonicacts.com/archive/reverberations-of-power) on our website.

Agriculture is an industry built on control – of land, growth cycles, chemical inputs, and biological processes. Still, beneath its structured systems, organisms constantly resist, adapt, and signal distress in ways that often go unnoticed. Multimedia artist and researcher **Jurel Bakker** listens to these quieter modes of communication. Her practice traces the hidden exchanges between ecosystems and industry, focusing on bioindicators – organisms that reveal the impact of pollution, climate shifts, and human interference.

In past projects, such as the installation _The Milking Carousel_ (2023), Bakker has highlighted the entanglement of industrial farming and ecological imbalance through _Xanthoria parietina_, a lichen that thrives in nitrogen-heavy environments. By bringing attention to such subtle yet telling markers of toxicity, she makes visible the overlooked consequences of agricultural excess – transforming natural phenomena into data, and data into immersive, visual environments through video art, film, and photography. More recently, as part of the Underexposed mentorship programme with Sonic Acts, Bakker developed _The New Azolla Event_, an ongoing research project exploring the Azolla fern and its cyanobacterium partner _Anabaena azollae_. Fifty million years ago, this small aquatic plant triggered a planetary shift, pulling vast amounts of CO₂ from the atmosphere and cooling the Earth. Today, it spreads over polluted waters, thriving in toxicity – mirroring the paradoxes of modern industrial farming. 

Azolla’s rapid growth also results in dire environmental consequences: blocking oxygen and sunlight pathways, thus suffocating the aquatic life beneath. This dynamic between suffocation and respiration is central to Bakker’s interest in Azolla and its often-overlooked presence in rural waterways – streams, ditches, and ponds. In this conversation, she unpacks her fascination with bioindicators, the intersection of agriculture and art, and how artistic interventions can help us see – and reimagine – the systems we take for granted. Bakker’s work positions Azolla as both a historical witness and a potential key to understanding restoration and care in the face of ecological crisis. 

**Dominika Mikołajczyk: Agriculture is often discussed in terms of its large-scale, visible environmental impacts, like expansive land use and exhaustive irrigation. But the less perceptible effects often go unnoticed. What role can art play in bringing these ‘invisible’ consequences into focus?**

**Jurel Bakker**: Indeed, the more measurable impact of agriculture tends to dominate the conversation, while subtle changes, like shifts in biodiversity, soil depletion, or water contamination, often fade into the background. I think that art can make these dynamics tangible, creating a deeper, more personal understanding of these issues beyond raw data. Rather than overwhelming with statistics, it invites a more intimate engagement with the living world, fostering a sense of care and responsibility. By bringing these layers to the surface, art encourages us to look beyond the obvious and recognise the complex connections that sustain ecosystems.

**DM: Bioindicators are central to your practice. What are they and why are they so important to understanding environmental issues?**

**JB**: Bioindicators are organisms – such as plants, animals, microbes, and lichen – that respond to environmental changes, making them valuable tools for detecting pollutants and assessing ecosystem health. They help us understand the impact of human activities on the environment by revealing shifts that might otherwise go unnoticed. For example, the lichen _Xanthoria parietina_ is a useful bioindicator of ammonia pollution. When _Xanthoria parietina_ begins to grow on oak trees, it signals a shift in the landscape. Typically, the acidity of the oak’s bark is unsuitable, but increased ammonia levels from agriculture or pollution neutralise it, making it more alkaline and allowing the lichen to thrive. Through monitoring bioindicators, we can trace these changes, noticing a story of health and degradation.

Beyond its scientific function, I regard mapping bioindicators as a way to deeply engage with an ecosystem. It requires close observation, not just of the bioindicator itself but also of its surroundings – the place it grows in, the relationships it forms, and the larger environmental context. I believe that keeping track of bioindicators can foster a form of ‘passionate immersion’, where attentively mapping and understanding these organisms can lead to a deeper sense of care and connection. Therefore, by paying attention to bioindicators like lichen, we not only gain insight into ecological changes but also develop a more intimate and affective relationship with the living world.

**DM: Can you tell us more about 'passionate immersion’?**

**JB**: Passionate immersion is about developing a close, attentive relationship with the more-than-human world. It stems from multispecies studies, which emphasise the importance of observing and immersing ourselves in the lives of more-than-human beings. For me, creating art starts with noticing – with a deep curiosity about the ecosystems and species around me. It requires careful attention to what matters to other organisms and the forces that shape their existence.

I see tracking bioindicators as a form of passionate immersion because it compels us to look closely, to notice small but significant changes in the environment. In my artistic practice, I use tools like my camera and photogrammetry to deepen this engagement, capturing details that might otherwise go unnoticed. Through my work, I want to encourage viewers to experience immersion – to step into the world of non-human life and learn from it. When we engage in this manner, we open ourselves to new ways of relating to nature, not just as observers but as active participants in shared environments.



**DM: In _The Milking Carousel_ (2023), you highlight the relationship between ammonia pollution and _Xanthoria parietina_. Can you elaborate on how these particular entities appear in the work and what drew you to them?**

**JB**: This work began while I was visiting dairy farms for another research project, which developed into the multimedia installation _Honderdtonners_ (2023). Around various large, highly efficient Dutch dairy farms, I kept encountering the bright yellow lichen _Xanthoria parietina_, which was recently brought to my attention during an inspiring course by the artist, writer, and xenologist, [Adriana Knouf](https://sonicacts.com/community/adriana-knouf). Its role as a bioindicator fascinated me – the lichen thrives in nitrogen-rich environments, making it a living marker of ammonia pollution. When I started monitoring bioindicators in these areas, I became more aware of the entanglements between this lichen, ammonia emissions, and the wider web of human and non-human actors involved – cows, for example, are not only producers of milk but also nitrogen in the form of ammonia. Their forced reproduction to sustain milk production directly fuels the conditions in which _Xanthoria parietina_ flourishes. This realisation led me to explore how these two seemingly different entities – the dairy cow and the lichen – are deeply connected through the mechanisms of neoliberal farming. In _The Milking Carousel_, I use this connection to examine the efficiency-driven nature of intensive dairy farming and its consequences on biodiversity. The installation mirrors the circular movement of the milking carousel, showing the cows stuck within this loop. This circularity also reflects on the bioindication method, where I mapped out the growth of _Xanthoria parietina_ around the trunks of oak trees. As the carousel keeps rotating, the viewer is invited to wonder: how much longer does the cow need to endure this before the oak turns completely yellow? 

**DM: Why is it important to visualise environmental data? Can you explain this process within your artistic practice?**

**JB**: Scientific data on environmental loss is often communicated in abstract numbers, making it feel distant or difficult to grasp. In my work, I focus on bridging that gap by connecting data to living beings and their responses to environmental changes. By making these interactions visible, I aim to create a more tangible and affective understanding of less visible ecological issues. My methodology begins with data collection – often through mapping bioindicators, I then translate this data into a visual form by linking it to more-than-human entities that respond to shifts in their environment. From there, I establish parameters, manipulating the data to explore different scenarios of pollution and ecological change. This process allows me to speculate on possible futures, making environmental transformations perceptible and encouraging deeper engagement with the living world.


**DM: During your recent participation in the Underexposed programme, you developed the project _The New Azolla Event_, which explores the symbiotic relationship between the Azolla fern and its cyanobacterium partner. What sparked your interest in their connection?**

**JB**: My fascination with Azolla began when I encountered a flooded ditch, completely covered by a dense blanket of the plant, close to the town of Berghem in North Brabant. It was a remarkable sight, almost as if there was no body of water underneath. As I began researching the plant, I became even more intrigued to learn that Azolla exists in symbiosis with the cyanobacterium Anabaena azollae and a floating fern.

The cyanobacterium fixates phosphate and nitrogen, making these nutrients available to the fern while also helping to purify the water. However, agricultural runoff from fertilisers and manure can fuel this process to an uncontrollable extent, leading to overgrowth. The resulting thick layer of Azolla on the water’s surface blocks sunlight, halting underwater photosynthesis, resulting in depleted oxygen levels, and thus suffocating aquatic life. What once was a process of purification, ultimately leads to an ecological dead zone, reducing biodiversity and disrupting the entire connected ecosystem. This means that in areas polluted by agriculture, symbiosis exists on the threshold between suffocation and respiration. To me, this dynamic is a powerful lens through which to explore the tension between pollution and care, suffocation and respiration in a rural landscape. 


**DM: Can you talk a bit more about the dynamics of suffocation and respiration? How exactly do you explore these concepts?** 

**JB:** _The New Azolla Event_ explores how Azolla’s rapid growth – driven by agricultural pollution – simultaneously purifies and disrupts aquatic ecosystems. The research project considers how these opposing forces reveal hidden, often harmful relationships within agriculture and how artistic fieldwork can contribute to ecological restoration and reciprocity among farmers, plants, underwater creatures, and microorganisms.

Through site-specific fieldwork in and around the Berghem ditch – a location that became the epicentre of the project – I immersed myself in the world of Azolla using methods such as photogrammetry, audio recordings, data collection, and direct interventions. These techniques allowed me to map and visualise the complex interactions between phosphorus and nitrogen pollution and the suffocating effects it has on underwater life.

Beyond observation, I have also actively engaged with these dynamics as an artist. One approach is intervention – harvesting Azolla to create breathing space for organisms beneath. In collaboration with farmers, I have experimented with repurposing the harvested Azolla – not through the lens of efficiency and mass production, but as a mindful and responsible act within the phosphate cycle. With this approach I hope to shift the focus from extraction to reciprocity, offering alternative ways to engage with agricultural ecosystems.

**DM: You mentioned photogrammetry as a methodology throughout your artistic fieldwork. What is it and why is it relevant to the story of Azolla?**

**JB:** Photogrammetry is one of several methods I use in this project. It involves capturing hundreds of overlapping photographs and using algorithms to generate detailed 3D models, making it possible to map and visualise ecosystems that are otherwise difficult to perceive. In The New Azolla Event, I explore both underwater and microscopic photogrammetry.

Underwater photogrammetry helps reveal the hidden world beneath the surface, offering a detailed view of aquatic life affected by Azolla’s rapid spread. Meanwhile, microscopic photogrammetry focuses on the microorganisms that play a crucial role in the ditch’s ecosystem, highlighting how they maintain ecological balance. These techniques allow me to document how Azolla’s growth interacts with environmental shifts and incorporate these visualisations into the broader research. The photogrammetry models also form the basis for videos used in the final audio-visual installation.

By sharing these visualisations with farmers, I hope to give them insight into the ‘hidden’ life around them as well as the influence their activities have on Azolla’s growth, fostering a more informed relationship with the land.


**DM: Could you share some insights into your creative process during Underexposed and how it influenced the direction of your current work?**

**JB:** The Underexposed mentorship programme, which offered weekly discussions with members of the Sonic Acts team, Maud Seuntjens and Lucas van der Velden, allowed me to critically examine my project. Their thoughtful questions challenged me to articulate my intentions more clearly – why this project matters, where it’s headed, and how it fits into my broader practice.

This process led to a significant shift in my approach. My work has often been observational, but the programme has pushed me toward a more active role – engaging directly through interventions rather than just documenting. It made me reflect on my position as an artist, not only as an observer but as someone who actively participates in the ecosystems I study.

Another key takeaway was the potential of sound in my practice. The mentorship encouraged me to explore how audio could be integrated more deeply into my work, and I’m excited to carry that into future projects.

**DM: It sounds like your work is continuously evolving. How do you see these new directions shaping your future projects?**

**JB:** Absolutely! I am particularly excited about using and further developing my new methodology in which I take an active role as an artist within the ecosystem. This approach is central to _The New Azolla Event_ and will serve as a foundation for what lies ahead.

My research continues to raise new questions that push me forward. For example, I have been working with lichens for some time, yet I continue to uncover fascinating new connections. Currently, I am beginning to investigate their role in the metabolic cycle of minerals – a field of study that presents an exciting fresh direction for my work.

I’m also collaborating with visual artist Michelle Kanters on another project about agriculture, working with farmers and looking into abandoned stables to examine shifts within the dairy industry.

Beyond this, I’m looking forward to expanding my collaborations with scientists, biologists, ecologists, and fellow artists. Interdisciplinary exchange is key – it opens up perspectives I wouldn’t reach on my own and brings new possibilities.









Neon Lichen and Toxic Blooms of Azolla

This article appears in the seventh issue of _Ecoes_, Sonic Acts' periodic magazine about 'art in the age of pollution'. Unearth much more compelling reads like this in print by [ordering a copy from our webshop](https://shop.sonicacts.com/product/ecoes-7).

The project Michel Waisvisz: Touched by Sound, presented and produced for the Sonic Acts Biennial 2024,[1](#footnotes) focused on activating a very specific media archive – that of Dutch composer, performer and instrument maker Michel Waisvisz (1949–2008), through a collective, cross-generational and transdisciplinary process. Waisvisz’ works and performances have touched on the universality of creation by using simple tools and methods full of playfulness, experimentation and DIY spirit, however, his reputation remains confined to a narrow circleof electro-acoustic creation. It is precisely the fact that his heritage is so inconspicuous that makes the archival layers of his work so precious.

During this project, a community of artists, students, teachers, educators, and people from very different backgrounds could discover, for the very first time and under the guidance of artists Tarek Atoui, Kristina Andersen, and Sonic Acts, the contextual fragments of the artist’s daily life. These elements have been mobilised as levers for new artistic encounters and activations during the Biennial.

From January to March 2024, I followed the process: I took part in various workshops and conducted audio interviews with artists and audiences involved in the project, in order not only to document and reestablish the polyvocality of the project, but also to place it in a broader perspective.[2](#footnotes) This text explores the process of the project with multiple audiences, at the crossroads of heritage and transmission, art and education, tangibility and corporeality, community and accessibility, personal and social memory.

Archives today occupy an established place in contemporary arts, both in artistic practice and research.[3](#footnotes) In a global context of deconstruction and decolonisation of narratives, methods, imaginaries, and cultural and scientific productions, the archive is an element of the contemporary continuum and no longer merely a mark of a bygone era. Far from being a neutral device, the archive institutes just as much as it can depose. It seals as much as it opens, reminding us of, or bringing to light, other realities and other histories. Other sonorities, too. In a sense, the question of polyphony is intimately linked to the question of memory and trace: where there is trace, there is language, there are signs and codes – a language that is sometimes buried and demands to be deciphered. Situated at the juncture of temporal categories, surviving between subjective and historical time, and dancing through the polyphony of interpretations, the archive acts as a spectre in search of the unheard-of actualisations, acting like a ghost looking for opportunities in the present time to come to life. In the words of philosopher Jacques Derrida, ‘A spectral messianicity is at work in the concept of the archive and ties it, like religion, like history, like science itself, to a very singular experience of the promise. [...] There are three doors to the future – which are also those of the archive: promise, indeterminacy, secrecy.’[4](#footnotes)

Michel Waisvisz – also known for having been the artistic director of Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music or STEIM[5](#footnotes) in Amsterdam, from 1981 to 2008 – left behind numerous traces, embodied in a variety of media. With the passage of time and through the care of the artist, researcher and his partner, Kristina Andersen, those items have become an archival collection, a set of memories and stories addressed to the present. Drawings, videos, photographs, slides, maps, scores, receipts, lists of actions, audiovisual media, audio recordings, commercial items, modified items, self-built instruments and their variations, and different technical equipment have all come to constitute an ‘everyday legacy’, testifying to a unique listening-posture of reality. Infinite as they are subject to contemporary interpretations, these archives contain a virtual dimension that can awaken our time, mapping out walking paths and space-time crossings. Structurally incomplete, the archive acquires new and unlimited meanings, transmitted by the reflection and gestures of the people who approach it.

>In the beginning, we wanted to label everything and have a good database that would gather up all the unknown connections along the way. Then
we realised that we don’t know the truth of stuff, and the things that we know are not necessarily the important or pertinent things. We began
to approach the archive as being a set of ephemeral objects, the main purpose of which is to act, to be present for re-performance and re- interpretation. That will be subjective and biased and particular, and of its time. But we’re keeping the evidence so that it can be re-interpreted and re-performed at a later stage with different outcomes. (Kristina Andersen)[6](#footnotes)

Enhanced by the power of interpretation, the archive grows. It is thus active and dynamic; stories are woven and oralities and sonorities become audible beyond its physicality. The Michel Waisvisz: Touched by Sound project explored some of these unpredictable pathways through creative and speculative processes within instrument-building, performance, conversations, and workshops together with artists inspired by his practice and former collaborators.

### COMPOSING THE NOW: THE GESTURE

Through his work, Michel Waisvisz observed, experimented with, and choreographed interactions between the body and machines, instruments
and technology. Recognised for the development of electroacoustic, and later digital instruments and software, such as the Crackle Box, the Crackle Synth[7](#footnotes) (1974), or The Hands[8](#footnotes) (1984), but also for his explorative sound performances, Waisvisz always consented to ‘the risk of the gesture’ at the heart of the whole work, as if it was its body, its heartbeat. How to deal with a heritage made up of artistic gestures committed to the intensity and presence of the moment? Repeating the gesture is as impossible as it is possible. If it is impossible to reenact the initial gesture, it is perfectly possible to reproduce its design, intention and function. It is possible to produce a series of ‘Waisviszian’ gestures consisting, in the logic of profound aesthetic materialism, of using the body as a creative power and receiver of sonic vibrations, a gesture that finds extensions and expansions in the present, with a variety of audiences. The focus here is no longer on the initial gesture, but on the functional process or the context of creation; no longer on the physical artefact, but on the very action that gave rise to the creation of the artefact.[9](#footnotes) What defines this creative process can also be applied to Waisvisz’ personal archive. As his instruments require a true engagement of the body – be it that of the player or that of a listener touched by sound – in order to be activated, played, shared and listened to, his archives rely entirely on a series of gestures as well.

Firstly, there are gestures of the archive holder, Kristina Andersen, who, having become an archivist ‘by accident’, as she phrases it, has collected, sorted, preserved and sometimes saved materials that now make up the collection;[10](#footnotes) there is a gesture of opening up the archives, unboxing or de-archiving them; the gesture of sharing the archives at the risk of their deterioration, the risk of the present;[11](#footnotes) the gestures of the artist himself, captured in some of these materials, which were, reappropriated by a younger generation, later repeated, recomposed and reinvented; and finally, the unpredictable gestures of those who, receiving and working with the archive, examining and then remembering it, produce new gestures; in this case, in the form of newly developed instruments based on the archive and the performance by the participants of the project.

The gesture here has a dual function; as a concept, it is a thread that binds Waisvisz’ heritage and the activation of his work, but as an act, it allows us to twist this thread, to take the risk of damaging it, out of paradoxical loyalty to the artist. In this polymorphous and equivocal narrative lies the speculative aesthetics dimension of the archive, its openness to contemporary fabulation through sounding or silent gestures of the assembly formed around the archival fragments.

By inviting an emerging generation of sound artists and former collaborators of Waisvisz’ – Boris Shershenkov, Görkem Arıkan, Ji Youn Kang, Julia Giertz, Kees van Zelst, Nico Bes, Pete Edwards, and Takuro Mizuta Lippit aka dj sniff – to work with archival elements such as photos, samples, drawings and objects, Tarek Atoui shifted the focus from personal to social memory. Through instrument building, performance, workshops, and sensory experiences based on touch, vision and vibration, the gestures dormant in the biographical corpus have generated collective action and reminiscence, a social memory woven of interpretations and representations. The past engendered imagination.

Playfulness is another dimension of Michel Waisvisz’ work and the archive.
On 3 March 2024, an improvisation concert featuring Tarek Atoui and the above-mentioned artists took place at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam. For this performance, instruments designed by Waisvisz, such as the Crackle Speaker and the Crackle Synth, were re-edited, while two others, the Wirwarp and the AudioPuller, were specifically created in the Waisviszian spirit (here is another unpredictable and inherited gesture!) – that is to say, invented based on the electroacoustic relationship between the body and the instrument and following the concept of ‘touching sound’. In the Waisviszian spirit, there is no distance between composing and playing: the musician can be both the composer and the improviser; they compose in the now and build a shared understanding of what might be (our) sonicity. Barely rehearsed, this concert was like a musical conversation between the artists, including Michel’s samples from the archive in multiple setups, a conversation not about, or in homage to Michel Waisvisz, but a conversation from Michel Waisvisz, in kinship, composing hic et nunc, in a collective now and for an audience touched by sound, revealing one of the countless possible narratives buried in the archives.

Artist Ji Youn Kang, who included the Crackle Speaker in her performance setup, remarks:

>The Crackle Box is speculative because you cannot easily replicate certain functions and sound gestures. The Crackle Speaker, especially with its feedback, has a certain aesthetic because of the crazy, harsh noise it reproduces. We can somehow guess what kind of sound quality
is going to come out of it, but there is excitement whenever I plug it in to see what it is going to bring. I think there was always an open side to it. I love the unstable figure as an instrument because it brings a certain result. My instrument goes really well with the concept of the ‘crackle speaker’, because it’s not meant to sound clean, beautiful and transparent. Rather, it gives a certain shape to it because of the way it’s built and because of all these lo-fi elements within the box, which match perfectly.[12](#footnotes)

In a sense, the archive is a producer, creating both the event and its aesthetics, and recording it. Thanks to the magic of correspondence addressed to the present, the irreducibility of the now, and the freedom with which the participating artists appropriated what were sometimes intimate materials, they were able to formulate their own questions and answers, and listen to each other.

This performativity of the archive is not unrelated to that of language, or more specifically, to orality. The concept of orality plays an important role in the work of Tarek Atoui, who sees himself as a transmitter of knowledge and vibrations, and in that of Michel Waisvisz, who constantly worked on the fluidity, malleability and plasticity of sound and technology to compose sound phrases in situ. Here again, the gesture occupies a privileged place. In his thesis on electroacoustic musical improvisation, musicologist João Eduardo Dias Fernandes[13](#footnotes) writes:

>[F]or the performers, the possibility of endowing the sound process with gestural expressivity is just as important: sound synthesis, spatialisation, sound transformations and all musical parameters can be controlled using a gestural device. In (collective) improvisation, gesture is the means of communication between musicians. Understanding the gestures of each musician is very important for following the development of musical ideas. This gesture is not only instrumental, but also carries musical information, as we have seen in relation to the interaction between the instrumentalists. For Michel Waisvisz, this is reflected in the decision- making process that can be transmitted to the audience: ‘Listening to the composer/performer’s decision-making process as merged with his/her physical movements will become a crucial part of the audience’s musical experience. This is how one can dig the music.’[14](#footnotes)

The work of preserving Waisvisz’ personal archives is itself imbued with this performative oral tradition. As Kristina Andersen observes,

>[W]e are repeating the gesture, rather than preserving the object; gesture and intention over preservation and instruction. This type of art-making, music-making, and instrument-building requires a process that’s much more craftlike and linked to oral traditions. In a sense, it’s much older than an archaeological or archival impulse. This brings us back to teaching – our pedagogical strategy is concerned with showing what’s possible, and from that, allowing a much broader range of things to be possible.[15](#footnotes)

### RECLAIMING THE KNOWLEDGE: A LEGACY ATTUNED TO EDUCATION

Michel Waisvisz’ work carries a strong pedagogical message: the way to play or appreciate sound depends not only on knowledge, but also on sensitivity, perception, intuition and imagination. At the heart of it all is human action, the curiosity and ability to play with vibratory space. The DIY spirit and STEIM’s idea that if you cannot open something, you will not know it, along with autodidacticism,[16](#footnotes) are not antagonistic to teaching protocols. Transmission and pedagogy have played an important role in the Michel Waisvisz: Touched by Sound project, which included a series of workshops and a masterclass.

Listening to the various protagonists involved in the project reveals that Waisvisz’ methodology is still relevant today, and that his approach is unencumbered by fashion, operating on a reductionist principle rather than a maximalist one-upmanship of technological developments. His former collaborator, dj sniff,[17](#footnotes) rightly points out:

>Michel really focused on how the body interacts with machines
and with electronic instruments and technology. This always comes back,
and then recedes, goes back as this relationship with the body and technology. We develop new technology, and this technology is often abstract or trying to be invisible, but then later, we always compensate with, or want a desire to have a physical contact. We’ve seen different waves of electronic music becoming very studio- and composition-based, and then swinging towards being more physical, people wanting to perform live. I think we can look at it in different trends and movements. And so, in the current moment in electronic music, people are moving away, or have moved away from using laptops, going into more modular systems, into more analogue gear. So, I could imagine [Michel’s] work getting picked up again.[18](#footnotes)

Artist Boris Shershenkov, who is involved in media archaeology and, as part of the project, developed a new instrument called AudioPuller based on a single image of Waisvisz’ Tape Puller,[19](#footnotes) adds that:

>[The interest for] a lot of the things Michel developed 20 or 30 years ago is slowly growing, even in the musical industry. We now see a demand for some kind of tangible approach, post-digital instruments, a combination of digital media with some kind of tactile interfaces, or gestural interfaces. Michel was one of the people who basically started this process, and
his works can lead, can show the way, in developing these types of interactivity further.[20](#footnotes)

To place the power of the body in resonance with the power of the instrument or the machine and to designate it as a source of knowledge is, in a way, to really reclaim the knowledge.

The artist and studio engineer at Elektronmusikstudion, EMS Stockholm, Julia Giertz, addresses the relevance of the Waisvisz-inspired learning model:

>[I]t’s about relearning and reclaiming the knowledge of how everything is done, making something from scratch. So, even though you are not sure of the actual path or each step of the path, you pursue it. I think it’s very important for young people to be reminded of this, because everything today is presented on ‘a clean slate’, so going into the dirt of it, opening it up, pulling things apart, looking at it, and creating your own knowledge out of that has a great relevance! [21](#footnotes)

Everyone can learn something – that is the gesture to be repeated! This is
one of the credos that Tarek Atoui inherited from Michel Waisvisz and that
he applies in his transversal practice at the junction of performance, musical composition, visual arts, and teaching. Following in Waisvisz’ footsteps, Tarek Atoui’s publication _The Whisperers, or Whispering Manual_[22](#footnotes) formalises a series of protocols for teaching the materiality of sound. By shifting knowledge to the senses and sound to the body, Atoui enables a wide range of audiences to become aware of the materiality, immanence and plasticity of the sound phenomenon. Some of these protocols, which are particularly playful, were used during a process with educators, on the one hand, and with deaf and hard-of-hearing children on the other.

How does deafness alter our relationship with space and musicality? Tarek Atoui has been asking this question for a long time. During a sound workshop with deaf and hard-of-hearing children from the Kentalis Signis school in Amsterdam, Atoui proposed exercises and experiments enabling the children to see, touch, and feel the sounds. Using electrical conductors, line drawings from the Waisvisz archive, magnetic paint, balloons, vibrating toys and loudspeakers, children gained access to an unheard-of dimension of sound, which often eludes even functional ears. Zada, 7 years old, said of the experience: ‘I felt the drums in my hands’, while Boet, 6 years old, recounted: ‘I can feel the sound in my belly and when I touch the ground.’

The question of listening was also explored during the project, and explored as a praxis, a materialist and aesthetic practice that goes beyond orality and the purely auditory dimension. By focusing on sound factors that have tactile, physical or visual origins, or that stem from gestures, Atoui taught a diverse audience how to listen through touch or gaze. Deductive rather than merely inductive sound, as the result of a radically playful and exploratory stance, reminds us of this archetypal world (of sound) as an inclusive playground. Tarek Atoui concludes:

>[P]layfulness can be seen in the context of Michel’s work and in the context of this project as a way of dealing with the complexity of the world, how you’re finding your own way through it. Playfulness is the gate to understanding deeper things. It is not about remaining on the surface of things and having fun or going from one thing to another without focus or attention. On the contrary, you develop skills through games.[23](#footnotes)

Childhood, the primary gesture of astonishment and discovery of the world and its playability, is perhaps the most sensible of Waisviszian gestures to cultivate within a legacy that is as elastic as sound.

_This text has been commissioned and is part of New Perspectives for Action. A project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them._

→ Order a copy of Ecoes from the [Sonic Acts webshop](https://shop.sonicacts.com/product/ecoes-7). 

The Gestures' Sound

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Magazines, books, music & more!

Sonic Acts invites you to apply to the archiving sound workshop _Voice as Legacy: Tracing the Unwritten_, led by multidisciplinary artists **ghenwa (noiré) abou fayad** and **Yara Said**. From 11 to 15 June, participants will take part in a five-day workshop in Amsterdam, during which they collectively create archives of unrecorded vocal traditions and sound art histories that re-shape the history of electronic sound. 

**Join the workshop! [Apply before 11 May.](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfTA0FemX9FCO-t8jw-kZJHJYcOnJ6TeBddAZk9-b-0uBH4fw/viewform)**

What happens when we listen beyond the present, tracing voices across history to uncover forgotten traditions, resistance, and untold stories? Archives have long been shaped by Eurocentric, male-dominated narratives, dictating which voices are heard and which fade into obscurity. This workshop shifts focus from convention to invention, inviting participants into a collective, fluid practice of re-archiving. Through sonic exploration, they will create an evolving archive that listens as much as it records. 

Hailing from the Levantine region and researching what reshapes sonic cultures, under the guidance of Said and noiré, participants will draw from the legacies of Egyptian experimental folk singer Mounira El Mahdiyya (1885–1965), known as the ‘Sultana of Tarab’, tarab being classical Arabic vocal music which loosely translated means ‘joy’; and electronic music pioneer Halim El-Dabh (1921–2017). El Mahdiyya’s music is characterised by its microtonal intervals and emotionally charged lyrics, while El-Dabh’s groundbreaking piece _Ta’bir al-Zar_ captures the voices of women in a healing ceremony, advocating for the transformative power of the voice.
 
**Note:** The workshop welcomes individuals, aged 18 to 25, with creative skills who have an interest in sound art and/or archiving. Because only a limited number of spots are available, priority is given to persons from the Levantine and African diaspora. We encourage applicants from diverse disciplines – including but not limited to artists, musicians, historians, cartographists – who are eager to engage in a collective journey to apply. The workshop culminates in a public presentation on Sunday 15 June. 

Applications can be submitted via Google Form until 10 May, 23:59. 

Feel free to share with a friend: **[bit.ly/voice-as-legacy](https://bit.ly/voice-as-legacy)**

Also visit: **[soundsweird.org](https://soundsweird.org/)**

Apply to the workshop now!

Support your local store! Find Sonic Acts Label Releases at [3345](https://3345.nl/?srsltid=AfmBOorLBRPmRTfXFL-YVXLzMvsmukWJ3bsF7-INZJ8ty7fEEe7sXCuP) and [Objects & Sounds](https://www.objectsandsounds.com/). 

Did you know that Sonic Acts also operates as a record label? The organisation has been releasing sound works for over a decade, publishing archival material, live recordings, multimedia works, and more. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, the imprint became more defined – at a time when artists faced widespread instability, the label emerged as a vehicle for sonic experimentation and support. It offers a space for commissioned and co-produced pieces to reach wider audiences – especially those invested in the outer edges of sonic practice.

Often working in collaboration with like-minded platforms such as [Important Records](https://importantrecords.com/) and [Arc Light Editions](https://arclighteditions.greedbag.com/), the Sonic Acts Label acts as a repository for the organisation’s deep dive into sound art, technological innovations, compositional techniques, and critical listening practices. 

On this Record Store Day, the annual celebration of independent record stores, bringing together fans, artists, and shops around the world, we are thrilled to spotlight a new chapter for the Sonic Acts Label. Our releases are now stocked by two outstanding stores – **3345** and **Objects & Sounds** – vital nodes in the global ecosystem of experimental music.

## 3345 
Situated in the heart of The Hague, 3345 is more than a shop – it is a cultural meeting point, hosting live performances, listening sessions, and more. With a sharp eye for both new and second-hand gems, 3345 cultivates intimacy with music, drawing in DJs, collectors, and curious wanderers alike. Within its adventurous and thoughtful collection, find the CD _The Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage_ by CC Hennix (co-released with Important Records), Lukas De Clerck's _The Telescopic Aulos of Atlas_ (co-produced by Sonic Acts, released by [Ideologic Organ](https://www.ideologic.org/)), as well as MÆKUR's _CONDITIONS – 1218​-​0719_, and _Transients I/O_ by Andreas Kühne. 


## Objects & Sounds
Located in Ghent, Belgium, Objects & Sounds approaches records not by genre, but by mood – inviting listeners to choose based on how they want to feel. This emotionally intelligent way of organising their stock makes it one of the most refreshing additions to the European record store scene. It is a place where ambient works, field recordings, and sound experiments find receptive ears. We recommend visiting the beautifully designed space in person, where you can discover the LPs _CONDITIONS – 1218​-​0719_ by MÆKUR and _Transients I/O_ by Andreas Kühne. 

Record Store Day 2025

Sonic Acts is seeking a new Marketing & Communications intern for 4 days a week from September 2025 through to March 2026.


As an intern you will be the right-hand of the communications team, giving you insight into the entire communications process as you participate in making the activities of Sonic Acts visible. In February 2026, the Sonic Acts Biennial will take place at various locations in Amsterdam and beyond, including Paradiso, Stedelijk, and W139. The programme will include a conference, workshops, exhibitions, performance and club nights and much, much more. During your internship, you will mostly be learning about this large-scale and exciting programme.

The ideal candidate has an affinity with Sonic Acts and its disciplines – art, music, science, and technology – and is adept at using various social media platforms. They can write fluently in English and live in Amsterdam or the surrounding area, or are prepared to travel to the office.

For this internship we offer €350,- gross per month for 4 days per week, in accordance with the guidelines of De Zaak Nu.

For any questions, please contact us via vacancies[at]sonicacts.com. 

→ [Find out more and submit your application via Homerun by 23:59 on 11 May](https://sonicacts.homerun.co/communications-intern-4/en) 


Internship: Marketing & Communications 

Sonic Acts is seeking a new Production intern for 4 days a week from October 2025 through to April 2026.


The production team of Sonic Acts is responsible for the practical realisation of all of Sonic Acts annual and Biennial activities. As production intern, you will be learning the ropes working alongside and assisting the experienced producers and their colleagues. The Sonic Acts Biennial will take place in February and March 2026, most of your activities will be geared towards the realisation of this large-scale and exciting programme which includes an exhibition, conference, performance and club nights as well as workshops and other programmes at venues like Paradiso, W139, Stedelijk, and other locations.

The ideal candidate has an affinity with Sonic Acts and its disciplines – art, music, science, and technology. They must be able to write and speak English, as Sonic Acts primarily communicates in English, and a strong grasp of Dutch is preferred. They should live in Amsterdam or the surrounding area or be prepared to travel when needed on-site or at the office.

For this internship we offer €350,- gross per month for 4 days per week, in accordance with the guidelines of De Zaak Nu.

For any questions, please contact us via vacancies[at]sonicacts.com. 

[→ Find out more and submit your application via Homerun by 23:59 on 18 May](https://sonicacts.homerun.co/production-intern/en) 


Internship: Production

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Ecoes #7

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Ecoes #3

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Ecoes #5

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All Thoughts Fly: Monster, Taxonomy, Film

Yara Said / Noise Diva

Performer & Multimedia Installation Practitioner

Ghenwa noiré

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Soundsweird 

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Dominika Mikołajczyk

Joseph Rouhana

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Underexposed – Mentorship Programme

Hanchen Zhang

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Jurel Bakker

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Sève I.V. Janssen

Michel Waisvisz

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**Ollie Paterson** (She/Them) is a cultural producer and filmmaker based in Rotterdam, where they are the producer for Spatial Sound Platform for Sonic Acts.

Ollie has worked as a producer in cultural institutions in Rotterdam, Utrecht and Amsterdam, where they have facilitated shows, symposia, workshops, educational programmes for various institutions.

In their personal film and video practice, Ollie conducts A/V experiments that often embrace mediums of sound work, 3D animation and live action footage to probe the uncanny and explore the relationships between artificial and indexical realities. They have worked collaboratively as a cinematographer for artist films and socially engaged documentaries in the Netherlands and the UK.

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Ollie Paterson

**Radina Aleksandrova** specialises in producing new media and digital art shows across Europe, specifically in Amsterdam. She currently focuses on event, exhibition and video production management.

With over five years of experience, Radina has worked both as a freelance producer at various music festivals and as a full-time producer at the Nxt Museum, contributing to a wide range of projects. She is currently working at Sonic Acts as Producer.

Alongside her production work, Radina is passionate about exploring the socio-political implications of the dance-floor as part of the videography team for Bogomir Doringer’s _Dance of Urgency_ research. Her work delves into the intersection of art, culture, and society, combining hands-on project management with in-depth cultural research.

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Radina Aleksandrova

**Irina Leifer** lives and works in Amsterdam. She is in charge of the educational program of Sonic Acts and curates exhibitions on the interface of heritage and contemporary art as an independent curator.  


Irina studied Museum Studies in Amsterdam and Digital Storytelling in Gent. She has been working in the field of education and creative production for various institutions such as Museum De Paviljoens, Reinwardt Academy, Huis Marseille Museum for Photography and Cinedans Festival. Irina is passionate about international collaboration and curated exhibitions and programs in most diverse places including Iran, China, Japan and Russia. Irina mediates between different cultures, heritage, art and the world outside museum walls. 

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Irina Leifer

**Kelly van Haastere** lives and works in Amsterdam. She is a part of Sonic Acts as Office Manager and teaches yin yoga on the side.

Born and raised in Amsterdam Oud-West, she went to the University of Amsterdam to study English Literature. She has worked as a writer for N8, an editorial intern for SSBA-Salon, and an office manager for the production company Bonkers BV. In 2016 she focussed on getting her degree in teaching yin yoga with Anat Geiger at the Yoga Garden, and spent the following 8 years teaching. Recently she started at Sonic Acts as an office manager, combining her love for arts and culture with teaching on the side. In her spare time, she loves to boulder, read, and take long walks with friends. She enjoys learning about herbs and alternative medicine and is slowly picking up playing the piano. 

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Kelly van Haastere

**Rik Dijkhuizen** lives and works in Amsterdam. He combines his artistic practice with working as a lecturer and writer, and as Marketing & Communications Manager at Sonic Acts. 

Rik studied Art History, English Literature and Aesthetics in Groningen and Amsterdam, and Fine Arts at Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam. He has been working in the field of communications, funding, writing and lecturing for various institutions such as Oude Kerk Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam and artist-in-residence Hotel Maria Kapel in Hoorn. His multidisciplinary artistic practice focuses around mental health, and often features water as a metaphor for collective embodiment. In his scenographic installations and imaginative narratives, he uses numerous references to create low-fi sanctuaries for well-being.

Rik recently started working for Sonic Acts, where he joined the Marketing & Communications team.


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Rik Dijkhuizen

**Sève I.V. Janssen** is an author and sound director, and a regular contributor to various magazines. 

As the Director of the BNA-BBOT (Bruxelles Nous Appartient-Brussel Behoort Ons Toe) since 2009, she is working on a sound archive, mainly vocal, of the city of Brussels through participatory and artistic methodologies.

[Instagram ](https://www.instagram.com/s.i.v.janssen/?locale=bz-hans&hl=am-et)
