THURSDAY 30 SEPTEMBER, AMSTERDAM – On 28, 29 and 30 October, FIBER 2021 will settle down at their homebase Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam Noord for an adapted festival programme. The three-day digital arts and music event around the theme Mutation consists of hypnotic audiovisual performances, immersive art installations and captivating conversations. During these three autumn days, visitors roam through the mystic worlds and soundscapes that are created in the different rooms of FIBER 2021.
A meeting place for fans and creators of groundbreaking digital art and performances, the Amsterdam organisation showcases new and forward thinking artists who enhance other worldviews. Through the lens of the arts, FIBER reflects upon the ever shifting impact of technology on society and the environment.
With the new multi-year theme ‘Mutation’, the programme will explore the (in)ability to shapeshift into new ways of being. Mutation can be seen as an unwanted development but might also present opportunities to change habits and minds. In the face of global emergencies, like the current pandemic and the climate disaster, the Western societies will need to leave behind their illogical separation from ‘nature’ and embrace fluidity. FIBER 2021 preludes a regular festival edition in May 2022.
Artefakt presents Days Bygone (Dutch Premiere, Live); Boris Acket (Light scenography); CAO (Live); Camille Barton (Talk); DJ Leoni (DJ); Entangled Others Studio (installation); Jonathan Castro (Dutch premiere, Live A/V); Leanne Wijnsma (Talk); Mika Oki (DJ); Naone (DJ); Nelly Dragon (DJ) & Leeza Pritychenko (Visuals); Orit Halpern (Talk); Robin Koek & Zeno van den Broek (Installation); Sahej Rahel (Talk); Saša Spačal (Talk); Sissel Marie Tonn (Installation); Špela Petrič (Talk); Tammo Hesselink & Sjoerd Bartlema (Performance); Thomas D. Moynihan (Talk); Tim van Hooft (Installation); Torus & Mark Prendergast present These Cars Do Not Exist (Live A/V); upsammy & Sjoerd Martens (Live A/V); Woody92 (DJ); Zohar & Jeisson Drenth (Live A/V); Zoë Mc Pherson & Alessandra Leone present Fugue Extended (Dutch premiere, Live A/V).
Music & Performance programme with Zoë Mc Person & Alessandra Leone, Mika Oki, Tammo Hesselink & Sjoerd Bartlema, CAO, Jonathan Castro and Artefakt and many more
Likewise, FIBER’s carefully curated music programme seamlessly coheres with the Mutation-theme, presenting a notable line-up with A/V sets, live sets and live performances. Artefakt (Live), CAO (Live), DJ Leoni (DJ set), Jonathan Castro (Live A/V), Mika Oki (DJ set), Naone (DJ set), Nelly Dragon & Leeza Pritychenko (DJ set/Live visuals), Tammo Hesselink & Sjoerd Bartlema (Live performance), Torus & Mark Prendergast (Live A/V), upsammy & Sjoerd Martens (Live A/V), Woody92 (DJ set), Zoë Mc Pherson & Alessandra Leone (Live A/V) and Zohar & Jeisson Drenth (Live A/V) make an appearance in either Tolhuistuin’s garden, Tuinzaal or Concert Hall (Paradiso Noord). All artists masterfully combine organic and technological sounds and images, fusing rhythms, folklore, mysticism, the real and the fictional.
FIBER 2021 takes a small trip across the River IJ to invite artists Zeno van den Broek and Robin Koek to the Muziekgebouw. For the past four years, the duo have been working on an innovative sound art installation. Raumklang is a sound sculpture that is exclusively observable through hearing, as sensors detect the visitor’s physical movement through the piece. The sculpture could be seen as an acoustic distillation of the Atrium, Muziekgebouw’s immensely high hall, and its direct environment with trains, ships and a buzzing city. The premiere of Raumklang is in collaboration with our long-standing partner The Rest Is Noise | Muziekgebouw.
On both Thursday, Friday and Saturday, visitors attend intriguing talks covering a wide range of topics within FIBER 2021’s main theme Mutation. On Thursday, guests can dive into ‘Mutant Making: Artistic operations in more-than-human metabolisms’ with postmedia artist Saša Spačal and media/data researcher Orit Halpern. Writer and historian Thomas D. Moynihan will address the behavioral science provoked by the possible impending human extinction, discussed in his new book X-Risk. On Saturday, Špela Petrič, Maggie Roberts and Stephanie Moran explore interspecies communication through AI and the arts. Interdisciplinary artist Camille Barton presents a talk on body activism and healing, reflecting on Mutation.
In addition to the ‘Raumklang’ premiere at Muziekgebouw, FIBER 2021 presents a small yet captivating selection of four installations at Tolhuistuin. Entangled Others Studio demonstrates an AI’s re-imagination of what the ecosystem looks and sounds like in ‘Hybrid Ecosystems’ (2021) with a hypnotic, vivid video landscape. Alternatively, Sissel Marie Tonn’s video work ‘Becoming a Sentinel Species’ (2020) zooms in on a future in which humans explore and reflect on becoming a ‘sentinel species’ as an eyewitness to environmental pollution. The film follows two researchers who experimentally introduce microplastics collected from the sea into their own bodies, with profound neurophysiological consequences.
Especially for FIBER 2021, media artist Timaeus (Tim van Hooft) combined two of his existing works into a new version of his immersive video installation ‘Anthropocene Monster’ (2021) in which he explores the horrors humans have created by grossly interfering with earth’s ecosystems. Another commissioned work will be found throughout the festival location, as visitors will meet a mesmerizing light scenography by Dutch artist Boris Acket.
FIBER 2021 is made possible with the generous support of Amsterdam Fund of the Arts and the Creative Industry Fund NL. We thank Tolhuistuin, Paradiso Noord, The Rest Is Noise and Muziekgebouw for their partnership.
Raumklang is co-produced by V2_, Lab for the Unstable Media. Raumklang is supported by V2_, Lab for the Unstable Media, Creative Fund NL, Gerrard Street and STEIM.
FIBER 2021 launches the multi-year theme Mutation, which will be discussed further during the full festival in May 2022. One of the most well-bespoken cases of mutation are, of course, the current COVID-19 variants and our constant mitigation with these shapeshifting viruses. But also the DNA of our planet is transforming. Mutation can be seen as an unwanted development but might also present opportunities to change habits and minds. In the face of global emergencies, like the current pandemic and the climate disaster, the Western societies will need to leave behind their illogical separation from ‘nature’ and fluidity.
The once-established social binaries to categorise the world must give way to new fusions. Mutation, explored and practiced as the blurring of separations, could provide us with both speculative and actionable manners of moving towards a new existence. From an artistic viewpoint, we examine the (in)ability to shapeshift into new ways of being.
About FIBER
FIBER is an Amsterdam based interdisciplinary organisation, that presents new developments in audiovisual art, digital culture and the experimental and deeper corners of electronic music. The team works year round with a vibrant network of artists, designers, researchers and developers, who aspire to introduce mind bending experiences to a broad audience. Special attention goes out to the support of up and coming talents across numerous creative disciplines.
Next to small-scale events and exhibitions, the team organises the recurring FIBER Festival in Amsterdam, which brings together a diverse crowd of new talent, established artists and curious visitors. FIBER aims to explore hybrid forms of art, the power of media- and network technology, and encourages an exchange of views between the makers and their audience.
Contact details
-
Download vCard
- Jarl Schulp
-
Artistic Director
press@fiber-space.nl
jarl@fiber-space.nl
+31 (0)6 41 23 56 24