TodaysArt.NL 2015: Announcement world premier of 4DSOUND: Circadian in Electriciteitsfabriek

TodaysArt.NL 2015 will stage the world premier of the new 4DSOUND program: ‘Circadian‘, an interdisciplinary work from a diverse set of artists – all created exclusively with and for 4DSOUND. In addition to the ‘Circadian’ program, the festival will stage performances as part of the 4DSOUND ‘Techno is Space‘ program. The program of interactive spatial sound performances feature Lisa Park, Marco Donnarumma, Kazuya Nagaya, Robert Jan Liethoff, Oscar Mulero, Cassegrain, the overnight A/V meditation project ‘Noqturnl‘ by John Connell and Florence To, and more to be announced.

The TodaysArt festival program runs from the 24th until the 27th of September. From Thursday the 24th of September until Sunday the 27th September, you can experience the performances on the 4DSOUND installation in the Electriciteitsfabriek. In the evenings and nights on Friday 25 September and Saturday 26 September, the festival will be centered around The Pier in Scheveningen for a weekend filled with installations, performances, presentations and club nights.

“4DSOUND is to surround sound what surround sound is to a wind-up phonograph, a development in sound art and music as transformative as the shift from black & white to color.”

The Arts Desk

4DSOUND is a fully omnidirectional sound environment, where the listener can appreciate Spatial Sound images in a virtually unlimited spatial continuum. Sound can move infinitely distant or intimately close to the listener: it moves around, as well as above, beneath, in between or right through them. Instead of listening to speakers, one is listening to space.

The venue for the 4DSOUND program is the Electriciteitsfabriek, E.ON’s power plant at the Constant Rebecqueplein in The Hague which produces daily electricity and heat for the city. Part of this plant – a former turbine – is no longer in use for energy production. This impressive industrial factory hall of 40x40x60 meters provides an ideal space for 4DSOUND.

4DSOUND’s ‘Circadian‘ investigates how spatial listening influences conscious states throughout the day and night and its performances will explore how to physically connect the listener with the surrounding space through movement, bio-physical media and psycho-acoustic stimulation. The program, to be held at the Electriciteitsfabriek. features sound and movement workshops, immersive sonic meditation, participative spatial performances, overnight collective dreamstate and an opening conference.

“The power of the [4DSOUND] system is that it transform the perception of sound into a physical experience: you feel the sound around you and you literally walk right through it …sound embraces you from all directions …sound is not only full or thin, but you can localize it and almost touch it … The way you experience sound becomes more personal and individual, dependent on where you are in the space.”

DJ Mag

Visual artist and art director Florence To creates light installations using the identity of first space, then sound, exploring the emotional depth of the audience’s perception. Her work with visual space translates how organized elements in architecture can create either tension or harmony in consideration of motion and adaption through live performance. Florence will collaborate with sound designer and 4DSOUND’s Creative Director, John Connell to present ‘Noqturnl‘, an overnight audiovisual meditation exploring collective dreamstate. Noqturnl will take listeners through a series of ‘rooms’ as they drift between waking and dreaming states. Conveyed through shifting soundscapes, these rooms contain individual dream scenarios with distinct environments and moods, encounters and interactions. Beginning with a short meditation, Noqturnl offers participants the chance for self-reflection, processing of memories and perceived mental and physical blockages and, ultimately, a dialogue with non-ordinary states of self-awareness at a deeper level.

New York-based artist Lisa Park has developed a series of performances using biosensors (brainwave and heart-rate devices) as a vehicle for manifesting her inner states. Lisa’s recent works “Eunoia” and “Eunoia II” involved using a commercial brainwave (EEG) headset as a self-monitoring tool to measure her physical and psychological states. These performances obtained real-time feedback of her emotional reactions- an investigation into a new form of expression and trans-sensory experience by visually and audibly reflecting her inner states into tangible forms. For 4DSOUND: Circadian, Lisa will engage with participants in a new interactive performance that works with spatialised sound derived from neurofeedback, participant interaction and manipulation of physical space to explore boundaries of intimacy, fear and social connection.

Marco Donnarumma is a performance artist, sound artist, musician and writer whose work in the last six years has focused on how to configure human bodies and machines through sound. He uses biotechnologies, software algorithms and body sensors to create intensely physical performances, concerts and live installations. For ‘Circadian’, he will invite visitors to take part in a communal, visceral experience of sound and light. Using the ‘Xth Sense’, his bio-wearable musical instrument, vibrations from the visitors’ bodies will be turned into physical sonic constructions that will grow and fall apart through time, space and frequency: a total space of networked bodies.

Robert Jan Liethoff is a Berlin-based actor, dramaturgist and voice movement teacher. His work draws on aspects of voice physiology as a departure point for the development of sound-oriented bodywork. He is fascinated by the body’s own intelligence: his compositions often begin from the concept of a raw, or formless space-state, from where they begin to move towards clearer specific forms and structures. Robert will host a sound and movement class and lecture for 4DSOUND: Circadian inviting participants to explore a ‘physical’ listening practice, investigating how we perceive sound composition: what the body considers a ‘healthy’ sound texture, our ability to perceive sound internally as well as externally, and the influence this has on our spatial awareness- of space both internal and external, and the sense of physical self that emerges from this understanding.

Kazuya Nagaya is a Japanese artist who creates immersive, ritualised compositions through the use of bronze bells, gongs and singing bowls. Since releasing his first album ‘Utsuho’ in 1999, he has composed music for a range of projects, ranging from collaborations with Tibetan Buddhist monks to a remix for Plastikman. His performance for 4DSOUND will be a sonic immersion working with gong and beat tones tuned to specific frequencies, to induce deep meditative state.

Techno Is Space is an experimental project exploring the spatial forms and energetic movements within techno. 4DSOUND will showcase succesful performances from our recent Artist Residency series in Amsterdam that integrate wearable tactile bass technology from SubPac with 4DSOUND’s spatial system. Veteran Spanish DJ and producer Oscar Mulero will perform a highly charged spatial reworking of his acclaimed album ‘Muscle and Mind’ on Pole Group, while Berlin-based duo Cassegrain delve further into the spatially sensitive psycho-techno of their powerful recent LP ‘Centres of Distraction’ on Prologue.