Gabriëlle Schleijpen, course director DAI as well as head of program / curator in chief Studium Generale Rietveld Academie kindly draws your attention to

VOICE ~ CREATURE OF TRANSITION

a conference-festival taking place at

De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam

 March 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 

"[...] the voice is elusive, always changing, becoming, elapsing, with unclear contours [...]" – Mladen Dolar in: A Voice And Nothing More (2006)

With the artistic research project VOICE ~ CREATURE OF TRANSITION the Rietveld Academie has invited it's students to investigate the potential for 'pleasure' and 'power' offered by the voice in the 21st century.

Practice and theory will now come together in De Brakke Grond, a theater space in the heart of Amsterdam's old city center.  

An exhibition displaying the student's findings will frame a four-day symposium convened and moderated by:

– Lawrence Abu Hamdan (London)
– If I Can't Dance I Don't Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution (Amsterdam)
– Ruth Noack (Berlin)
– Mark Beasley (New York)

These guest curators have each inaugurated a discursive and performative program of one day. If around in Amsterdam you are most welcome to join.

Wednesday, March 19
The opening day will feature unique interactive performances and presentations by the students. Analog sound works, multimedia installations, opera and silent works will form an ongoing setting for the symposium. The show will feature more than 35 individual and collective contributions, including contributions from the 3 Studium Generale masterclasses led by Quinsy Gario, Andre Castro and Clare Butcher, respectively.

Thursday, March 20
"The Right To Silence," curated and presented by Lawrence Abu Hamdan
A daylong exploration of how voices are both heard and silenced; listening itself will be interpreted in its many forms and affects, allowing us to understand both the frontiers of the voice and the tireless battle to govern and contain it.

With contributions by Noah Angell, Ali Kaviani (Silent University), Anna Kipervaser, Maha Maamoun and Haytham El-Wardany, Kobe Matthys (Agence), Niall Moore, James Parker and Tom Rice.

Friday, March 21
"Resonance and Transmission: from one voice to another," curated and presented by If I Can't Dance I Don't Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution.
Taking as a starting point the idea that each voice has a 'uniqueness' - a concept proposed by the Italian philosopher and feminist thinker Adriana Cavarero - the day will consider questions across the guests' various interests and projects: how do voices resonate not only in their sound but also over time? How are they transmitted from one body to another? And how can and do we speak for someone else?

With contributions by Frédérique Bergholtz, Federica Bueti, Susan Gibb, Sharon Hayes, Alex Martinis Roe, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Francesco Ventrella and Camilla Wills.

Saturday, March 22
'Speak up, child!'—Voicing The Void Between Subjectivity And Subjection," curated and presented by Ruth Noack
Focused on children's speech, this day of listening and responding to the voices inhabiting an in-between space generated by language will start out with Danica Dakić's video projection Emily (2010), in which image and sound encounter each other in an uncanny alliance. Emily seems to be a willing subject in her own subjection to language, possibly because her command of language gives her a voice in the first place, thus granting her access to subjecthood.

With contributions by May Adadol Ingawanij, Lina Campanella, Danica Dakić, Anna Daučíková, Luis Jacob, Yunjoo Kwak, Natascha Noack, Ruth Noack, Imogen Stidworthy and Simon Wachsmuth.

Sunday, March 23
"Must a Song always be a Song!," curated and presented by Mark Beasley
"Must a Song" presents four vocalists, performers and composers with unique histories and connections to vocal composition and Extended Vocal Technique, ranging from the popular to the avant-garde. The day will include listening sessions and talks connecting the vocal compositions of Luciano Berio with those of Whitney Houston and DJ Screw.

With contributions by Joan La Barbara, Gelsey Bell, Mark Beasley, Nicholas Bullen (Napalm Death, Scorn) and Sue Tompkins (Life Without Buildings).

VOICE ~ CREATURE OF TRANSITION will be brought to a close with the first public performance by the Grand Rietveld Choir, directed by composer Samuel Vriezen. The world premiere of his new piece "This is a voice" incites more than a hundred first-year Rietveld students to demonstrate how their unique voices can form a vocal community.

VOICE ~ CREATURE OF TRANSITION at De Brakke Grond is the outcome of a collaboration between to programs within the Rietveld that are both aimed at students and faculty across all departments and disciplines, as well as the general public:

Studium Generale Rietveld Academie is an annually settled, rambling theory program. It explores how art is entangled with the world, how our 'now' is linked with past and future, our 'here' with 'elsewhere'. The framework for VOICE ~ CREATURE OF TRANSITION's preliminary lecture program as well as the conference was conceived by Gabriëlle Schleijpen and realized by Nikos Doulos, Jort van der Laan and Joris Lindhout in collaboration with numerous others in and outside the academy.

Rietveld Uncut is a dynamic presentation revealing the experimental process of making within the Rietveld Academie to the outside world. Rietveld Uncut is initiated and supervised by Tomas Adolfs and Tarja Szaraniec, this year in collaboration with Robin Vanbesien.

Reservations: reservationvcot@gmail.com

voicecreatureoftransition.rietveldacademie.nl

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