- 27 March:
Archive for the ‘12_series’ Category
Spatial Investigations
This year Telcosystems has been working at Baltan on elaborating the spatial and interactive features of their 12_series system, as part of the ongoing Poème Numérique research programme. This post will focus on their spatial endeavors; the next one will be on interactivity.
The Flux/S festival invited us to fill the first floor of the former Philips SDM building, approximately 3000m2 divided into three rooms. The spaces are less than 3 meters high and filled with a grid of thick columns, one every six meters or so.
This was a perfect setting for us to come up with a new spatial strategy since there was no clear line of sight to install a simple straight audiovisual horizon. We modeled the space in 3D and made a variety of 2D and 3D sketches in order to find out what could work and what would definitely not work. (more…)
Flux/S – Drafts Establishing Future
| 09/09/2010 to 12/09/2010 |
Flux/S takes the transformation of Strijp-S from the former – restricted access – Philips industrial estate to a cultural and dynamic city centre as its inspiration for a cross-disciplinary arts manifestation. To mark the first ten years of this long-term development of 27 hectares of dismantled industrial heritage and wasteland, Flux/S invites artists to respond to these developments through visual arts and performance, interventions and dance, architecture, music, new media and poetry & literature. The developments on the site reflect the topical emphasis and practical ‘playground’ nature of the place, resulting in an ever-changing arts festival.
In the second episode in 2010, Flux/S will focus on draft structures, choices and proposals in the broadest sense. As the conceptual and architectural aspects are becoming less abstract in the development of Strijp S, the contours of projected social behaviour point to the basic interpretation of essential conditions. Flux/S – Drafts Establishing Future examines the how and why of these conditions, their underlying mechanisms and the shapes they might take. Invited artists offer alternative approaches, factual and fantastic structures and models, and unexpected opposites, correlations and influences.
BALTAN Laboratories is pleased to collaborate with Flux/S in presenting the Dutch premiere of 12_Series by Telcosystems, developed at BALTAN Laboratories under the umbrella of BALTAN’s Poeme Numerique programme.
12_series book + DVD
Published by Spatial Media Laboratories
Design by Femke Herregraven
Book, 64 pp., English text, illustrated
Contains essays by Arie Altena, Joost Rekveld and Murray Horne
In a pitch black room twelve screens and twelve speakers form an audiovisual horizon. The sound in the space is an ever changing soundscape of digital noise, while abstract computer generated visuals unfold on the twelve vibrating and flickering screens. The images and sounds that make up this overwhelming immersive environment are generated in real time by computers, the software running on the computers is written by Telcosystems.
What makes this work fascinating, interesting and important? How do the artists think about the technology they use? What do they hope to achieve with their work and what defines such an artwork to be a success?
The book 12_Series, published by Spatial Media Laboratories in Rotterdam, contains essays by Arie Altena, Joost Rekveld and Murray Horne and sheds light on the ideas, working methods and research Telcosystems has been conducting for this installation.
Telcosystems’ work is developed through a tight-knit dialogue with the computer, often forcing the computer to its limits. They use evolutionary models in their algorithms for generating their audiovisual compositions. The complexity in their work emerges out of variation and mutation of rudimentary patterns. But this publication also shows how Telcosystems conducted research into the experience of spatiality, and the place their works claim between installation, film and sound. Images, photos and technical details make the picture complete.
12_Series is the first publication of Spatial Media Laboratories, a foundation dedicated to the production of and publication on works of art.
The installation 12_Series was developed at BALTAN Laboratories as part of the Poème Numérique investigations.
Interview with Lucas van der Velden (part 2)
Interviewed by Ties van der Werff
Photo: Boudewijn Bollmann
Lucas van der Velden, Gideon Kiers and David Kiers work together under their collective moniker Telcosystems. With Geert Mul and Marc Maurer they form BALTAN’s artistic board and together they work on new forms of audio-visual spatiality under the banner Poème Numérique. Based on tangible projects, they explore the contours of BALTAN as a media lab.
In the first part of this two-part interview, Lucas van der Velden reflected on Poème Numérique, the research process and the collaboration with other artists at BALTAN. Part 2 discusses BALTAN’s role as a new media lab, knowledge-sharing through artistic research and the necessity of a sanctuary in the periphery.
Through the research that you do at BALTAN you also shape BALTAN as a new media lab. How do you envisage BALTAN as a lab of the future?
Seen from an historic perspective, interesting research and development laboratories were mostly located in companies and universities, because the means and funding were available there. For a long time, new technology was very expensive, limiting its access. In the last twenty years, a lot of technology, like computers, cameras etc., was fleshed out to consumer level, making it readily accessible and affordable. Many artists now dispose of this technology, so the question arises, does the media lab still have a purpose? Of course, there is still a lot of technology that has not yet been developed, because it is not commercially viable for example, but that nevertheless interests artists. At BALTAN, we research if we should develop this kind of hardware and software ourselves, outsource it or leave it to ‘market forces’. (more…)
A session on spatialisation – report from BALTAN goes NATLAB 3
Friday, May 29, 2009 saw the third in our BALTAN goes NATLAB series of presentations, this time devoted different strategies of spatialisation in audiovisual art and how this alters our understanding of technology-driven forms of art. This evening was moderated by Lucas van der Velden from the collective Telcosystems.
Norwegian artist HC Gilje explored how audiovisual technology can be used to transform, create, expand, amplify and interpret physical spaces. He presented the research he has been doing over the last three years during his research fellowship at the National Academy of the Arts in Bergen (KHIB).