2022

Sails, Sugar, Silicon
Exhibition | 5 May 2022 - 28 February 2023
Sails, Sugar & Silicon is an exhibition in which two Dutch and Taiwanese artists reflect, through performative experiences that play with technology and the senses, on the 400 year history of material exchanges between The Netherlands and Taiwan. The exhibition presents works by Dutch artist Marije Baalman and Taiwanese born, naturalized Dutch Wen Chin Fu. Both artists approach the intertwined history of their native countries by making audiovisual creations using invented instruments. Marije Baalman makes music out of the wind playing with kites, electronic sensors and software. She grew up on the coastal province of Friesland where the strong winds make an ideal environment for flying kites. These same winds in the 17th century filled the sails of Dutch ships making their way towards Taiwan. In Frisian the word for kite ‘draakje fleane’ is closely related to the English word drake or dragon. During her stay in Taiwan Marije Baalman will be learning about Taiwanese kiting traditions. Taiwan today is also the world’s larger exporter of silicon chips, the basic building blocks of the mobile digital instruments that Marije Baalman engineers to sonify the wind. Before exporting silicon, during the Dutch colonial period Taiwan was an exporter of sugar, with the Dutch establishing sugar plantations on the island to expand the production of what was then a new colonial good. Soulangh Cultural Park, which hosts the exhibition, was itself in origin a sugar refinery. Wen Chin Fu works with sugar as primary material. She was inspired by a candy whistle from her childhood, a sweet that made sound until it melted in the mouth. Wen Chin Fu uses candy making techniques to create simple percussion instruments, which she calls Tang, the Chinese word for sugar, which also conveys onomatopoeically the sound of the instrument. Tang is an instrument that can be played musically, but who’s chemical cristallisation process becomes a source of fascination for the experimental film made in collaboration with artist Tseng, Li-Chun, also featured in the exhibition. Sails, Sugar & Silicon is the first exhibition starting the 2022-2024 exchange program between iii in The Hague and Soulangh Cultural Park in Tainan, leading up to the 400 anniversary of relations between The Netherlands and Taiwan. The participation of iii in this exchange program is supported by The Creative Industries Fund NL.
read more... | project Taiwan - Tainan - Siao-Long Cultural Park

Presentation at Kick-Off event The Turbine Plays
Presentation | 13 December 2022 | 11:00 - 16:00
The Turbine Plays will showcase its first collaboration plan at the kick-off event on Tuesday 13th December 2022 at EnTranCe in the Energy Barn in Groningen. ‘The Turbine Plays’ is organised by Knowledge Centre Arts & Society and Centre of Expertise Energy. The Turbine Plays is designed around questions such as: How can public involvement and acceptance be stimulated in the transition from fossil to renewable energy sources, such as wind energy? What contribution can creative professionals make in a process of knowledge production on wind energy together with various stakeholders? Anyone who is curious about where creative professionals and scientists can take us in the landscape transition and wants to increase their knowledge in this field is welcome to attend the kick-off in the Energy Barn. The projectThe Turbine Plays is an artistic-driven research project initiated by Frouke Wiarda and further developed in collaboration with Judith van der Elst. Several speakers, artists, musicians and researchers will contribute. The day will be led by Wilbert van de Kamp (moderator of the day).
read more... The Netherlands - Groningen - The Energy Barn, Hanze Hogeschool

Future forms of alternative housing
Presentations | 26 November 2022 | 15:00 - 16:30
Welcome to the city of the future: There is sufficient living space for creatives and artists and alternative forms of living can easily find financing. What is happening now and where are the opportunities to make the city of the future a reality? It's 2022: The Amsterdam housing market is pretty much locked up. Buying is already out of the question for many and rents continue to rise. The municipality is doing its best by building new homes, but this has little or no effect on affordability. Meanwhile, there are artists who have to leave the city. Not because they don't have a studio, but because they can't find an affordable place to live. The scarcity is now high for both. Yet there are possibilities. For example, Bajesdorp has built homes itself, there are homes in temporary incubators and corporations contribute to living spaces for artists. But that is not enough. Together we want to find out how we can get more done despite the difficult market. We invite you to an Inspiring session about alternative ways to make living possible for creatives. Based on the case of the enormously inspiring club behind Bajesdorp, we explore the process and invite you to the following quest:: What challenges did the team encounter along the way? What challenges can be expected for the future? What are the opportunities for other parties?  What financial alternatives are there to made alternative forms of housing possible?   Which parties are needed to make this possible?
read more... The Netherlands - Amsterdam - De School

AA Talk #14 - Van broedplaats naar vrijplaats
Panel | 25 November 2022 | 14:00 - 16:00
Over het opzetten en verkrijgen van collectieve woon- en werkplekken a.k.a. vrijplaatsen. Op 25 november van 14:00 tot 16:00 organiseren Amsterdam Alternative, Platform Beeldende Kunst en de Kunstenbond in de OT301 een publieke discussie over de status en de toekomst van vrijplaatsen in Amsterdam. Een programma waarin cultuurwerkers, vrijbuiters en andere stadsgenoten vertellen over hun gezamenlijke acties, zoektochten, hindernissen en successen in de strijd om betaalbare en duurzame woon- en werkruimte voor kunst, cultuur en buurtinitiatieven, in een steeds duurdere en ontoegankelijkere stad. Het pleidooi voor meer gezamenlijke woon- en werkplekken in collectief beheer of bezit, steekt af tegen het huidige broedplaatsenbeleid in Amsterdam, Hierin zijn tijdelijke contracten de norm, wordt kunst en cultuur ingezet voor gentrificatie, hebben buurtbewoners weinig toegang tot de vrijgekomen panden in hun buurt voor sociale initiatieven en verdwijnt uiteindelijk veel sociaal vastgoed op de markt. Na 20 jaar broedplaats-beleid is het tijd voor nieuw beleid, waarin de gebruikers centraal staan in plaats van de portemonnee van de vastgoedontwikkelaar. Deze Talk is onderdeel van de samenwerking tussen het Vrije Ruimte Festival en de Envisioning Free Space conferentie die wordt georganiseerd door Amsterdam Alternative en Space of Urgency. Een meerdaags programma met veel muziek, kunst, docu’s en discussies over nachtcultuur, inclusieve stedelijke ontwikkeling en vrije ruimte.
read more... The Netherlands - Amsterdam - OT301

Keynote at Symposium "Serendipity - the unsought discovery"
Presentations | 16 November 2022 | 10:15 - 11:00
I will give a keynote talk on serendipity in the making of electronic interactive art
read more... Belgium - Ghent - Orpheus Institute

Lecture-performance at Flipchart #5
Performance | 22 October 2022 | 18:30 - 21:00
I will perform the lecture-performance 'Composing an Interaction' created for the book launch at V2_ on this event
read more... | project The Netherlands - The Hague - iii workspace

Book launch event 'Composing Interactions'
Presentation | 14 September 2022 | 19:30 - 22:30
This event we will celebrate the launch of my book into the world. There will be presentations by SuperPosition, STUKK and myself, and a performance by Andi Otto
read more... | project The Netherlands - Rotterdam - V2_

Wind Instrument at Lytteevent #5
Performance | 9 July 2022 | 14:00 - 16:00
Performance of Wind Instrument at Regelbau411, during the iii retreat to the Sound Art Lab in Struer, Denmark. Supported by Regelbau411, SPOR Festival and Sound Art Lab.
read more... | project Denmark - Struer / Tyholm - Regelbau411

[POSTPONED] Book launch event 'Composing Interactions'
Presentation | 30 June 2022 | 19:30 - 22:30
This event we will celebrate the launch of my book into the world. There will be presentations by SuperPosition, STUKK and myself, and a performance by Cathy van Eck
read more... | project The Netherlands - Rotterdam - V2_

Wind Instrument Building workshop
Workshop | 17 June 2022 | 13:30 - 18:00
Flying dragons, deers, owls, octopus, or parrots - in different languages across the world, kites are named in all sorts of imaginary ways. In this wind instrument building workshop, we will explore how kites fly, try to measure this with self-built sensors, and use the data to create sound or visuals to bring alive the dragons, deers, owls, octopus and parrots. Hosted together with Enrique Tomás
read more... Austria - Linz - AMRO Festival

Lecture in Experimental Instrument Design Course
Presentation | 8 June 2022 | 19:30 - 20:30
During this course you will design and build your own experimental electronic or electro-acoustic instrument or sound installation. You will learn about the development of experimental instruments, sound design, music practice and performance. You will test ideas, build a small synthesizer, explore sounds and styles of playing and use the available makerspaces at X and TU Delft Science Centre to develop your own instrument or sound installation. With artists Marije Baalman, Rafaele Andrade, Mihalis Shammas, Teun Verkerk and Riccardo Marogna.
read more... Netherlands - Delft - TU Delft

PANT public Taiwan
Presentation | 14 May 2022 | 15:00 - 17:00
During this special Taipei edition of the Platform Artists Netherlands Taiwan, we will present the outcome of the workshop given earlier in the week, and I will contextualize it in my work with Wind Instruments, amongst which the exhibition in Soulangh.
read more... Taiwan - Taipei - National Taiwan Science Education Center

Wind Instrument building workshop
Workshop | 10 - 12 May 2022 | 10:00 - 17:00
Flying dragons, deers, owls, octopus, or parrots - in different languages across the world, kites are named in all sorts of imaginary ways. In this wind instrument building workshop, we will explore how kites fly, try to measure this with self-built sensors, and use the data to create sound or visuals to bring alive the dragons, deers, owls, octopus and parrots.
read more... Taiwan - Taipei - National Taiwan Science Education Center

Lecture at National Cheng Kung University
Lecture | 6 May 2022 | 09:10 - 11:00
At the invitation of Ming Turner, I will give a lecture titled 'Composing Interactions with Light and Sound'.
read more... Taiwan - Tainan - National Cheng Kung University, Institute of Creative Industries Design

Residency at Siou-Long Cultural Park
Residency | 23 April - 5 May 2022
Leading up to the Sails, Sugar, Silicon exhibition, I will be artist in residence at Soulangh Cultural Park to prepare the presentation of the work VLIG in the exhibition.
read more... | project Taiwan - Tainan - Sioa-Long Cultural Park

Sounding Kite workshop in Copenhagen
Workshop | 19 March 2022 | 12:30 - 17:30
We explore kites as musical instruments. The workshop is facilitate by the Dutch artist and researcher, Marije Baalman. She works in the field of interactive sound art. During the workshop we will build a simple kite (sled kite) with electronically conductive materials with which we can sense the air pressure and turbulation on the kite. We will experiment with different ways of building sensors for the kite. Thereafter, the sensed data will be sent to a computer, where it is visualized and sonified in realtime. Participants will learn about kite building, building sensors from conductive materials, and using sensor data to create sound. This workshop is a part “Play it on the Sky – Borderless Praxis with Kites“ which is Faculty of Senses’s continuous interest on the kite as a form of art. Last year in September, we held the workshop “How can we translate an urban space into kite?” by Toshie Takeuchi, Victor Valqui Vidal and Anne Eisensee. Play it on the Sky is an experimental platform to explore building and flying kites; its traditional yet generic multicultural aspect, its sensoriality, its potential for metaphorical story-telling, it as community building and it as manifestation. Play it on the Sky wishes to continue making space for building, gathering and happenings over a long term.
read more... Denmark - Copenhagen - Korsgade 30, Kbh. N (CPH Music Maker Space)

On constructing experiences: Documenting the craft of interactive art
Presentation | 17 March 2022 | 14:30 - 16:00
How can you create an interactive, digital artwork? How can you shape an interactive experience? The artistic practices in which interactive, digital technology plays a role range from music, dance, and theater to visual art, media art, film, and beyond. Each of these disciplines brings along a different aesthetic context from which the use of interactive technology is approached, leading to different considerations on what are meaningful choices in shaping the experience elicited by these works. In this open talk, Baalman will discuss her method for documenting interactive artworks, to share knowledge, crafts and best practices across time, programming environments and artistic disciplines.
read more... | project Denmark - Aalborg - Aalborg University

Guest lecture, Master class and Open talk at Aalborg University
Presentation | 14 - 17 March 2022
I'm invited to give a guest lecture, master class and open talk at Aalborg University
read more... Denmark - Aalborg - Aalborg University

Guest lecture at Conservatorium van Amsterdam
Presentation | 10 February 2022 | 16:00 - 17:30
A guest lecture for the composition department. I will talk about my work and the book 'Composing Interactions'
read more... The Netherlands - Amsterdam - Conservatorium van Amsterdam

On-the-fly Hacklab at ZKM
Workshop | 28 - 30 January 2022
Join the »on-the-fly: Live Coding Hacklab« 2022! From January 28-30, 2022, all coding enthusiasts can program collaboratively with international experts. The weekend will be opened by a variety of exciting live coding performances. The Hacklab will connect live coding with areas ranging from machine learning to spatial sound to programming visuals. There will also be a special on the format of Algorave. Each of these areas will be supervised by international mentors: Alexandra Cárdenas, Anna Xambó Sedó, Antonio Roberts, Iván Paz, Lina Bautista and Marije Baalman. On the occasion of and during the two-day Hacklab, live coding masterclasses (with Shelly Knotts, Olivia Jack and Kıvanç Tatar) and workshops for beginners (children, teenagers and adults) will be offered. The results of the workshops will be presented in evening presentations and »from scratch sessions«.
read more... Germany - Karlsruhe - Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (ZKM)