Student Workshop

An art machine goes to the cinema...

During this workshop, media artists Bas van Koolwijk, Gert-Jan Prins and Joost Rekveld will take you on a wondrous tour through the world of art machines: from analogue to computational techniques. Get to know the history and here and now of technological machines and their use in art practices, from a practical and theoretical perspective. And of course you’ll get the chance to experiment with them yourselves!

Bas van Koolwijk & Gert-Jan Prins will discuss various analog audio visualiser examples, concluding with the Synchronator: their self-developed audio to video device that builds upon medium specific experiments between image and sound from the early years of video art.

Joost Rekveld will look at the history of machines built by artists and focus on the way artists have worked with signals. He will take their analogue and early digital machines as an example to look at larger questions about who gets to make decisions about the technologies that surround us.

The day ends with a screening of the film The Future is not what it used to be, on the Finnish artist Erkki Kurenniemi, pioneer in the field of electronic arts. This film will be introduced by Rekveld.

About the artists

Bas van Koolwijk
Bas van Koolwijk uses both sound and image, be it analogue or in numerical code, as interchangeable data. He produces visual and acoustic compositions in which both manifestations powerfully interact. His works can often be seen as an attack on the illusion of the medium itself.

Gert-Jan Prins
Gert-Jan Prins focuses on the sonic and musical qualities of electronic noise and percussion and investigates its relationship with the visual. While he started his career as a drummer, his works include performances, sound-installations, compositions, electronic circuits and collaborations with other musicians, visual artists, composers, and dancers.

Joost Rekveld
Joost Rekveld is motivated by the question of what we can learn from a dialogue with machines. He explores the sensory consequences of systems of his own design, inspired by the poetry found in forgotten corners in the history of science and technology. His films, installations and performances are an attempt to reach an intimate and embodied understanding of our technological world.