FIBER Festival 2017 Programme Guide

Audiovisual art, digital culture & electronic music

Amsterdam

Shelter, EYE De Brakke Grond Looiersgracht 60 Makerversity

PROGRAMME GUIDE

WELCOME

THE FESTIVAL Dear visitor, After a two-year break, we are more than happy to invite you to be part of the fourth edition of FIBER Festival, an international meeting place for makers and enthusiasts of audiovisual art, digital culture and electronic music in the city of Amsterdam. With this edition - our biggest event so far - we offer a platform for talented newcomers as well as leading artists/researchers, who are both operating at the frontlines of interdisciplinary creation. For three days you can navigate a programme of cutting-edge performance art, installations, live sets, in-depth lectures, inspiring showcases and - above all - meet an adventurous audience.

Together with our partners De Brakke Grond, Looiersgracht 60, Makerversity, Shelter and many others, we’re able to assemble a full new FIBER experience: a two-day talks programme (Conference), a 10-day Exhibition with 16 installations, and two nights of mesmerising audiovisual shows and music concerts.

Hungry for more? We present the new LAB programme (May 6-11), which is focused on igniting new interdisciplinary artistic projects, and joined forces with the EYE Film Museum (May 9) for a cinematographic introduction to the festival theme Prima Materia.

This year’s festival will draw connections between the ancient field of alchemy, art, matter and modern day technology.

From the start in 2011, FIBER Festival is all about linking a wide spectrum of perspectives and sharing skills and knowledge to create narratives, compelling images and tangible expressions that make sense of our complex digital society. The artists give us their unique perspective, and by listening to their vision or tuning into physical (audiovisual) live sets we can look back into the world and perceive it in radical new ways.

We wish you a wonderful festival.

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PRIMA MATERIA ALCHEMICAL MAKING AND THINKING IN ART, DESIGN AND MUSIC Modern day technologies have a profound, disruptive effect on nature. We’re suddenly waking up to the idea that the ‘digital’ is not an ephemeral world of it’s own, but an inherent part of nature.

We build it ourselves from natural resources: matter.

Our groundbreaking technological innovations are running on rare earth metals. At the same time it is getting harder and harder to predict our own relationship within these fast technological developments that are operating our modern world: the explosion of automated technology, artificial intelligence in combination with huge amounts of data.

Paradoxically enough, these technologies also give us the opportunity to sense the world in completely different ways.

They challenge our understanding of nature and let us experience the world on many different levels. It often feels like we are caught in between unimaginable forces. Instead of responding with either apathetic paranoia or euphoric technological dreams, artists and researchers are finding new ways of dealing with these developments through the approach of art, design, research or philosophy.

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FIBER Festival 2017 brings together a wide variety of makers and thinkers to address these issues and explore the idea of Prima Materia; a central concept in ancient Alchemy. Doing so, the festival draws a comparison between the practice of alchemists and contemporary artists, designers, coders, engineers, musicians and researchers that strive to understand the essence of the matter surrounding them, through creation and speculation. Alchemists - spread across Europe, Asia and parts of the Middle East - sought to discover the design of the universe. They experimented and speculated with the raw materials of the earth, based on their belief in the so-called prima materia: the metaphysical substance that was said to connect everything in the cosmos.

FIBER FESTIVAL 2017

— Denisa Kera, philosopher

FESTIVAL THEME

“We understand alchemy as artistic and scientific practice concerned with the transformation of matter represented on various scales from the human to the non-human and cosmical.”

Trying to create artificial life (which they called the Homunculus, or ‘small human’) and experimenting with the transmutation of regular metals into rare metals (with gold as their holy grail), they hoped to uncover the blueprints of nature and find the sublime position of mankind between the soil and the stars. Dismissed for centuries as occult and pseudo-scientific, alchemy is now enjoying a renewed appreciation as an unmistakable interdisciplinary predecessor of modern science and the development of our material knowledge.

Much like the alchemists, contemporary artists, designers, coders and engineers strive to understand the essence of the technologies surrounding them and to ascertain their impact. As their alchemist predecessors combined materials, mixed ideas and transgressed disciplinary boundaries, these artists engage with multiple scientific and artistic disciplines. They experiment with new ways of learning about hybrid materials and question the building blocks of the digital revolution. They visualise the transmutation of data in gold (finance) and play with the relationships between our human ways and automated technology. Working with matter in an artistic context to learn from its behaviour, understand its true materiality, or speculate on its impact.

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EXHIBITION OPEN MAY 12 — 21, 12:00 – 20:00, FREE (WED – SUN) OPENING THURSDAY MAY 11, 17:00 — 20:00

The Modeling - Rotation I (2017) Michiel Pijpe

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FIBER and Looiersgracht 60 are delighted to present the FIBER Festival exhibition Prima Materia, gathering 16 interdisciplinary art and design projects that question and reimagine the relationship between man, technology and matter. In their attempts to speculate and experiment with matter and the building blocks of our modern digital world, their ways of working share remarkable similarities to the centuries-old practice of the alchemists: the pre-17th century scientists/artists who searched for the connection between the raw materials of the earth and the design of the universe. Prima Materia draws a comparison between the alchemist and contemporary artists, designers, coders and engineers that strive to understand the essence of the matter surrounding them, through creation and speculation.

FIBER FESTIVAL 2017

EXHIBITION

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS Amy Whittle (NL), Sebastian Wolf (DE) & Michael Kugler (US/DE), David Benqué (UK), Nicky Assmann & Joris Strijbos (NL), JODI (NL/BE) & MPF (UK), Ralf Baecker (DE), Quadrature (DE), Students Digital Media at the University of the Arts Bremen (DE), Monique Grimond (US/NL), Terra0 – Paul Seidler, Paul Kolling, Max Hampshire (DE), Luiz Zanotello (BR), Michiel Pijpe (NL), Semiconductor (UK), Waltz Binaire (DE), Mischa Daams (NL).

Origin: Sustained (2017) Mischa Daams

The works in the exhibition are divided in three parts, each related to a different aspect of alchemy. The part States of Matter is about new ways of looking at matter. Artificial Perception uses artificial intelligence and programmed instruments to help to bring our world into focus and New Ecologies speculates about a future in which we experience the connections between technology, geology and the universe in a new way. Together, they offer speculative imaginations of our future and new perspectives on our place between the earth where we stand and the stars above us.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION Prima Materia forms a part of the 2017 FIBER festival and runs from May 12 – May 21, 12:00 - 20:00.

(Wed – Sun) Looiersgracht 60’s ongoing commitment to interdisciplinary approaches to art, architecture and design makes it a natural fit for an exhibition inspired by the age-old practice of alchemy. www.looiersgracht60.org www.fiberfestival.nl

EXHIBITION ARTIST TALKS WED 17/5, 18:00 — 20:00 LOOIERSGRACHT 60 THU 11/5, 20:30 — 01:00 | STRUIK, ROZENGRACHT 160 OPENING AFTERPARTY — FIBER X STRUIK

PRIMA MATERIA

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CONFERENCE MAY 12 & 13 DE BRAKKE GROND

De Brakke Grond - Photo: Jessica Dreu

The two-day lecture programme is an international meeting place for frontrunners in art, design, research, music and everyone with an adventurous mind. Expect an inspiring programme of keynote speakers, artist talks and informal panels about new developments in digital culture and the influence of technology on art and society.

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In the Main Hall we’ll explore the Prima Materia theme in depth. Via a structure of sub-themes we connect the ancient legacy of alchemy to contemporary art and design practices. Here, Moderator Michelle Kasprzak (CA/NL) guides us through the day. The Red Space focuses on interdisciplinary practices within art, design and (artistic) research. Artist talks and panel discussions will range from emerging talent and leading design studio’s. The Garden Room is our festival hub where the visitors can relax, drink a beer and discuss their findings.

FIBER FESTIVAL 2017

10:00 — 18:00

MAIN HALL 10:00 — 12:00 ALCHEMICAL MAKING AND THINKING: Exploring the history of alchemy and its relevance for the contemporary age.

Cis van Heertum, Thijs Hagendijk, Denisa Kera and Thought Collider In the early modernity, alchemy and the arts were closely connected. Just as any other other art form, alchemy was seen as a way of imitating and even improving nature. How does the legacy of alchemy relate to contemporary art & design practices? And what can we learn from their ways of thinking as they apply to contemporary issues?

Cis van Heertum [Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica] (NL) is a curator at the Ritman Library and offers the audience a crash course on the history of alchemy. In addition she explains the social relevance of the hermetic philosophy for the present day.

CONFERENCE — FRIDAY MAY 12

FRIDAY MAY 12

Thijs Hagendijk [Utrecht University] (NL) is a PhD candidate who explains how the art of alchemy encourages us to marvel at the material world and helps us to reflect upon what it is to make and create things.

Denisa Kera (CZ) is a philosopher and designer. In her talk she reflects on how every new interface and technology is like an alchemist emblem, an experiment pushing the boundaries between between humans and minerals, agency and passive matter.

Thought Collider (UK/NL) is an art, design and research practice exploring metabolic processes, bodies and spaces. They’ll reflect upon how the transformation of biochemical information into sensory encounters might broaden an ecological perspective.

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CONFERENCE — FRIDAY MAY 12

13:00 — 14:30 DEEP TIME: Minerals = media, media = minerals

15:00 — 16:30 THE TRANSMUTATION OF MATTER

Jussi Parikka, Femke Herregraven and Semiconductor

Paul Prudence, Ralf Baecker, Nick Ervinck

Deep Time, a concept of media scientist Siegfried Zielinski, offers an alternative history of media and technology by applying non-human timeframes and scales that lets us think about the often hidden material and archeological side of media. The presentations pose different perspectives on how our technological culture is connected to Earth’s history, geological formations, and ecological processes.

Dr. Jussi Parikka (FI/UK) is Professor at the Winchester School of Art (University of Southampton) and Docent at University of Turku.

His research ranges from network culture to the archaeological roots of contemporary research.

Artist Femke Herregraven (NL) tries to make the geological effects of economic structures tangible and visible in games, how-to-manuals and physical traces. She’s currently a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam.

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Semiconductor (UK), consisting of sound and video artists Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt, work closely with scientists and brand new technologies of recording and registering the transmutations and forming of the earth.

FIBER FESTIVAL 2017

Just like the ancient alchemists, contemporary artists conduct various experiments to transmute various media with digital processes into hybrid forms. With 3D printing, audiovisual compositions and revealing the fundamental workings of computing, these artists explore the expressive possibilities of hybridisation and reflect on the intrinsic natural processes that ground them.

Paul Prudence (UK) is an audio-visual performer. His work focuses on the ways in which sound, space and form can be cross-wired to create live-cinematic visualmusic experiences.

Ralf Baecker (DE) is an artist working at the intersection of art, technology and science. Through installations and machines, Baecker explores fundamental mechanisms of action and effects of new media and technologies.

Nick Ervinck (BE) applies tools and techniques from new media, in order to explore the aesthetic potential of sculpture, 3D prints installation, architecture and design.

CONFERENCE — FRIDAY MAY 12

Random Access Memory (2016) Ralf Baecker

17:00 — 18:00 THE IRONY OF EFFICIENCY: A philosophical view on ‘natural’ and technical processes of efficiency that structure our lives Yoni van den Eede and Cecilia Jonsson We perceive technology in essence as something that makes us more efficient--better able to achieve a specific goal, with an optimal use of resources. But thinking in terms of efficiency is historically speaking a relatively recent phenomenon. As “natural” as it is for humans to want to achieve goals, there are different ways of defining and experiencing this process--the alchemistic view being one of them.

Yoni van den Eede (BE) works at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel where he researches the philosophy of media, technology and media ecology.

In his talk he discusses technology in relation to efficiency and the goal-oriented ways of thinking have dominated previous eras.

Cecilia Jonsson (SE/NO) is setting out on a journey into the biological, technological and metallurgical transformations of iron. She explores how iron is essential to life and thinks about what precious metal​s​ are, suggest, or could be when nature and the social collide​s​.

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Motionfield – Waltz Binaire (DE)

CONFERENCE — FRIDAY MAY 12

RED SPACE

11:15 — 12:00 CHRISTIAN ‘MIO’ LOCLAIR (DE) TALK: Moonwalk on Motherboards Christian ‘Mio’ Loclair (DE), creative director at Waltz Binaire, is a media artist and choreographer who explores the harmonic friction of human bodies, movement and nature colliding with digital aesthetics.

13:00 — 15:00 PANEL: MOVING MATTER(S): On code, choreography & dance data Scott de Lahunta [Motion Bank] (UK/DE), Maaike Bleeker [Utrecht University] (NL) moderator, Ruairi Glynn [Bartlett School of Architecture] (UK), and Gaby Wijers [LIMA] (NL)

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Within the framework of the 8th Choreographic Coding Lab, this panel presents current day practices with research and education institutes that are connecting the worlds of creative coding, interaction design, dance, and choreography.

FIBER FESTIVAL 2017

16:15 — 16:45 MARTIN HOWSE (UK) TALK & EXPERIMENT: Dissolutions Martin Howse is occupied with an artistic, interdisciplinary investigation of the links between the earth, software and the human psyche. The ‘Dissolutions’ lecture/experiment describes various cyclings of the dissolving and return of the materials of technology (mined from the earth) to the prima materia of alchemy.

Cedric Kiefer is an artist and designer from Berlin. In 2010 together with Julia Laub, he founded “onformative;” a studio specialized in digital art and design. As the creative lead, he’s constantly searching for new forms of creative expression.

GARDEN ROOM 13:00 — 14:00 | FREE FIBER X V2: Emerging Practices FIBER teams up with V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media from Rotterdam to organize two sessions that will introduce the audience to emerging talents and young professionals from the fields of art & design. In each session a selection of students, graduates, and alumni will present their projects followed by a Q&A.

18:00 — 18:30 | FREE PANEL: ARTEFACT EXHIBITION On Alchemy and Magic Interviews with the artists of the exhibition ‘On Alchemy and Magic.’

With: Femke Herregraven (NL), RYBN (FR/BE), Tobias Revell (UK) & Natalie D. Kane (UK). Moderation: Karen Verschooren (STUK, Leuven).

JA JA JA NEE NEE NEE ONLINE RADIO

CONFERENCE — FRIDAY MAY 12

17:00 — 17:30 ONFORMATIVE (DE)

Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee is online radio dedicated to the arts.

Their broadcasts, developed in close collaboration with FIBER, offer an intimate space for reflection on artistic practices and communities present at the festival. All shows are in the Garden Room and entrance is free.

Listen live at http://jajajaneeneenee.com 11:00 — 12:00 Vibrant Matter: How can we relate to matter when we focus on our ears?

A conversation with three artists working with sound. With: Els Viaene (BE), Martin Howse (UK/ DE), Valery Vermeulen (BE) 16:00 — 16:30 Young Talent Show What does the next generation of artists have in store for us?

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SATURDAY MAY 13 10:30 — 18:30

ScanLAB Projects (UK)

MAIN HALL

10:30 — 12:00 MAGICAL THINKING AND VISIONARY ALGORITHMS Tobias Revell, Nicolas Nova and David Benqué More often than not, we do not fully understand the technologies that shape our life. Although they are the fruits of rational science, their workings have become so complex that we perceive them as esoteric powers. In response, people expect technology to have all sorts of magical and predictive qualities. This cluster sets out to discover how people incorporate new technologies and media into their daily life and habits.

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Tobias Revell (UK) is a British artist and designer whose work centers on critical engagement with contemporary technopolitics. In his work he explores how the notion of ‘magic’ is embedded in how we think about technology and the technical reality.

FIBER FESTIVAL 2017

Nicolas Nova (FR/CH) works as a Professor at the Geneva School of Arts and Design and as co-founder of the Near Future Laboratory. He practices peripheral ethnographies: unconscious gestures and odd rituals are his field of research.

David Benqué (FR/UK) is a designer and researcher. His design practice aims to creatively question the roles that science and technology play in society. In his talk he re-visits the almanac as a creative format to investigate and question monistic beliefs in predictive machines.

CONFERENCE — SATURDAY MAY 13

13:00 — 14:30 ENHANCED SENSIBILITIES & CODED MATTER Quadrature, Refik Anadol and ScanLAB Projects Networked technologies, big datasets, and sensors enable us to augment the build environment and the experience of our surroundings. As alchemists of our time this selection of speakers will explore how these tools offer an increased sensibility and enhance our sensibility of time and space.

Quadrature (DE) is a collective for arts, light and robotics. Their work, such as SATELLITEN and STONES connects us to other scales of time and space and remind us of the urgency to rethink our position as humans on this earth.

Refik Anadol (TR/US) is a media artist and director from Istanbul though currently based in Los Angeles where he teaches design media arts at UCLA. He is renowned for developing a hybrid form of architecture where data streams materialise on site specific locations.

Will Trossel [ScanLAB Projects] (UK) is an architect and co-founder of ScanLAB Projects, an award winning creative studio that explores the usage of 3D scanning on an enormous scale - building, landscapes, objects, events - and the possibilities that it creates for architecture, museums and the creative industries.

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CONFERENCE — SATURDAY MAY 13

15:30 — 16:30 ORA ET LABORA: Critical making as a model for art practice in the digital age

17:00 — 18:30 THE HOMUNCULUS: Posthuman creativity

Critical Making Consortium and Stefanie Wuschitz

Darius Kazemi, Elisa Giaccardi and Memo Akten

Ora et Labora was the ancient motto of the alchemists: work and pray.

Their experiments set out to understand the workings of the universe, and by doing so they believed to enlighten their spirit and become better man. What is the critical potential of current practices in art, design and technology? Does ‘the maker’ have the potential to enlighten us in times of creative industries policy?

Critical Making Consortium (NL): Prof. dr. J.C. Wesseling (Universiteit Leiden), dr. J.J.F. Cramer (Willem de Kooning Academy), Marie-José Sondeijker (West Den Haag) en Klaas Kuitenbrouwer (Het Nieuwe Instituut). To what extent can ‘Critical Making’ as artistic method potentially connect the separate discourses of art, design and technology?

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Stefanie Wuschitz (AT) works at the intersection of research, arts and technology, with a focus on feminist hackerspaces, open source technology and peer production. She founded feminist hackerspace Miss Baltazar’s Laboratory in 2009 and finished her PhD in 2014.

FIBER FESTIVAL 2017

Recent developments in the field of artificial intelligence have made this technology accessible for artists and designers. Like the ancient alchemists were recreating life in their labs, they too are training neural networks to function as an autonomous creative agents. What is the aesthetic potential of these artificially intelligent ‘companion species’? And how does this change our idea of (human) creativity?

The Homonuculus

11:30 — 12:00 TELLART (INT) Darius Kazemi (US) is an internet artist under the moniker Tiny Subversions. He has a small army of Twitter and Tumblr bots that he builds because they make him laugh. He founded NaNoGenMo, where participants spend a month writing algorithms to generate 50,000 word novels, and Bot Summit, a yearly gathering of people who make art bots.

Prof. Dr. Elisa Giaccardi (IT/NL) is Chair of Interactive Media Design at Delft University of Technology, where she leads the Connected Everyday Lab. She is currently focusing her research on thing­ -centred design, a novel design approach that looks at artifacts as potential co-­designers in practice-­ oriented research methods, design processes, and material strategies.

Memo Akten (TR/UK) is an artist from Istanbul, based in London. He is currently doing his PhD on artificial intelligence, exploring the ways in which computers, data and algorithms can collaborate with humans in making new artistic expressions.

Exploring the soul of the computer and the possibilities of a more poetic approach to collaboration between man and machine.

Tellart is an award winning international design studio that creates interactive objects, immersive spaces and digital experiences for brands, museums and multi­national companies.

13:00 — 13:30 HACKERS & DESIGNERS H&D is a Amsterdam based non-profit cross-disciplinary community of programmers, engineers, designers, and artists. They run series of workshops and small events to empower designers and artists with the tools of the digital realm, introducing technologists to the vocabulary of designers and artists.

CONFERENCE — SATURDAY MAY 13

RED SPACE

13:45 — 14:15 HANNAH DAVIS (US) Hannah Davis is a programmer, data scientist and musician based in New York. She does research in data visualization, music generation and machine learning, among many other subjects. In her project TransProse, she used software to analyse emotions in literature and transpose these to a musical composition.

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Panelists: Raphaël de Courville [moderator] (FR/DE), Nick Verstand (NL), Peter van der Es [Unfair Amsterdam] (NL), Valery Vermeulen (BE), Anja Groten and Catinka Kersten. A panel about Art, entrepreneurship, inclusivity and the art market: Building a career for oneself as an artist uses a lot of the same skills as building any kind of business. How do you approach the business end of your work? In which way does it affect the rest of your practice?

15:45 — 16:15 UTOPIA BLU* (UK/NL) Spider Dress in collaboration With Anouk Wipprecht Picture: Jason Perry.

CONFERENCE — SATURDAY MAY 13

14:30 — 15:30 PANEL: ART ‘N COMMERCE: On how to create a sustainable art practice

The creative duo of Philip H Wilck and Tiia Vahula focuses on design for 3D printing and creative fabrication. By using various digital tools numerous projects are investigating cutting edge digital fabrication methods and limits of physical forms. They shape the future by pushing boundaries of art and science and merging complex geometry with technology.

16:30 — 17:00 THINGCLASH (US/NL) Thingclash is a project of Changeist, designed to allow critical exploration of scenarios around the ever-expanding Internet-of-Things (IoT), with a view to making these products and services better, safer, and more secure for everyone. This talk will be presented by Susan CoxSmith and Sjef van Gaalen.

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FRIDAY MAY 12 JA JA JA NEE NEE NEE ONLINE RADIO Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee is online radio dedicated to the arts.

Their broadcasts, developed in close collaboration with FIBER, offer an intimate space for reflection on artistic practices and communities present at the festival. All shows are in the Garden Room and entrance is free.

12:15 — 12:45 | FREE PARLOR OF FUTURES: A public reading of 21st century tarot cards Denisa Kera (CZ) & Daniël Erasmus (ZA/NL) will perform a public reading of Tarot Cards to discuss a 21st century science & technology controversy. The reading creatively connects our past with the future, science and technology with poetic imagery, and identifies actions and attitudes towards future scenario’s.

13:00 — 14:00 | FREE FIBER X V2: Emerging Practices FIBER teams up with V2_, Lab for the Unstable Media from Rotterdam, to introduce the audience to emerging talents and young professionals from the fields of art & design. In each session a selection of students/ graduates/alumni will present their project, followed by a Q&A.

CONFERENCE — SATURDAY MAY 13

GARDEN ROOM

09:30 — 10:15 | Morning Show A conversation with FIBER curators about the upcoming programme.

11:00 — 11:30 | Modern Love Tamar Shafrir (IL/NL) & Füsun Türekten (TR/NL) How do we think about love in the age of online dating 11:30 — 12:00 | Parlor of Futures Denisa Kera (CZ) & Daniel Erasmus (ZA/NL) How can the age old divination techniques of tarot reading prepare us for the future?

13:00 — 14:00 | Alchemical Sounds Music & Performers talk about the alchemical element in Saturday’s performance programme 15:45 — 16:15 | Emerging talents on the cross-section of media- and fine arts With: Peter van der Es [Unfair Amsterdam] (NL), Jarl Schulp [FIBER] (NL). What role do Art fairs and festivals play in the development of emerging talent?

PRIMA MATERIA

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MUSIC & PERFORMANCES MAY 12 DE BRAKKE GROND MAY 13 SHELTER

Phylotaxis - Joris Strijbos & Daan Johan (Macular)

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Two evenings and one night of state-of-the-art audiovisual performances, live and DJ sets. On Friday De Brakke Grond is transformed into an alchemic laboratory where sounds and images collide. In the Main Hall we present four audiovisual performances that experiment with rotating lights, panoramic projections, archive material or navigate the space between digital and physical matter. In the Red Space, the focus lies more on the music, with three performances of advanced electronics, clouds of noise and warm drone baths. In the Alchemical Foyer you will find the sonic endeavours of DJ’s Izabel, Arif, SÊbastien Robert and Merites.

FIBER FESTIVAL 2017

20:00 — 01:00

Paul Prudence

MAIN HALL 20:00 — 20:45 THE MIRROR AND THE MASK: Pierce Warnecke (US/ES) & Yair Elazar Glotman (BG/DE) LIVE AV Audiovisual performance ‘The Mirror and the Mask’ plays with the boundaries of space, time and identity, seamlessly blending manipulated physical objects with their digital counterparts. A world of smoke and deception.

21:00 — 21:40 PHYLOTAXIS: Joris Strijbos & Daan Johan (Macular) (NL) LIVE AV – PREMIERE Joris Strijbos and Daan Johan of artist collective Macular present the brand new project Phylotaxis.

A pulsating, hypnotic audiovisual work that follows the natural process of emergence: a pattern starts, particles collide and something new emerges that even the artists could not have predicted.

22:15 ­— 22:50 THE HISTORY OF DARKNESS Recent Arts (DE/CH) LIVE AV Man’s fascination with the universe is as old as mankind itself. Audiovisual performance ‘The History of Darkness’ takes us through different chapters in the never-ending impulse to understand ourselves and the universe that surrounds us.

MUSIC & PERFORMANCES — FRIDAY MAY 12

FRIDAY MAY 12

23:00 — 23:30 THE MYLAR TOPOLOGY: Paul Prudence (UK) LIVE AV A universe slowly evolving and expanding. Multi-screen performance ‘The Mylar Topology’ is a meditative, panoramic performance piece that shows an amorphous zone of bubbling liquid deformation, scored by binaural drones.

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Pan Daijing – Photo: ursss.com

MUSIC & PERFORMANCES — FRIDAY MAY 12

RED SPACE 21:30 — 22:20 ALI WADE (UK) LIVE Meditative, laptopless electronic ruminations from UK late bloomer Ali Wade, that ebb and flow like natural processes of evolution, growth and decay. Expect a modular journey through deep geomorphic sounds of his debut Geomorphology

23:30 — 00:10 PITA (AU) LIVE With a new ‘modular’ set up Pita has continued playing live with fresh dimensions added to the idiosyncratic beauty/hostile tension that resides in all of his work.

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00:15 — ­ 01:00 PAN DAIJING (BE) LIVE Pan Daijing is a Berlin based artist and musician who brings together an explosive combination of experimental techno, clouds of noise and dark tones. She is inspired by feminism and sexuality and is known for her aggressive and physical performances.

CO2RO: MARCO BROEDERS (NL) On both Friday and Saturday our two festival locations are transformed by light artist Co2RO (Marco Broeders).

Creating a unique festival atmosphere with optical effects, analogue light projections and reflecting surfaces.

19:00 — 21:00 MERITES [PHOTIC FIELDS] (NL) DJ Dutch DJ Merites plays a subtle, intriguing mix of gritty, melancholic ambient and slow, brooding electronics. Merites played a set last January at FIBER X The Rest Is Noise in Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ and we’re very happy to have him back at the festival.

21:00 — 22:30 IZABEL [LULLABIES FOR INSOMNIACS] (NL/AU) DJ For those of you who are navigating the internet radio waves of Red Light Radio, visit The Rest Is Noise events at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t Ij, or hang out at the lush garden of De School, the name Izabel must spark some adventurous emotions. Izabel is known for crafting DJ sets and podcasts with a diverse spectrum of sounds, genres and cultural ideas.

22:30 - 23:30 SÉBASTIEN ROBERT [FIELD RECORDS] (FR) DJ Sébastien Roberts’s (Field Records) work is the result of several encounters and experiences across the globe. Wherever he lived, he tried to get a grasp of the local culture and caught the atmosphere that he later implements in his own music. He managed to create his own musical identity, an exquisitely sonorous world occasionally full or imagery, abstract at times, then more comfortable, therefore constantly destabilising the listener.

MUSIC & PERFORMANCES — FRIDAY MAY 12

ALCHEMICAL FOYER

23:30 — 01:00 ARIF (NL) DJ Arif plays a wide variety of experimental dance music. As part of the duo Cosime, he produces minimalistic house music for the Nous’klaer Audio label. He is a resident at Red Light Radio and was the founder of the now-defunct DJ collective Malawi which held a residency at Club Trouw. Since then, Arif has played solo at, amongst others, Dekmantel Selectors, De School, :// about:blank, BAR Rotterdam and PIP Den Haag.

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SATURDAY MAY 13 CONCERT 20:30 — 00:00 CLUB NIGHT 23:00 — ∞

On Saturday we enter the deep void of Shelter for a multi-sensory concert programme, followed by a sonic club journey. We start the evening with three performances of intoxicating electronics and occult beats.

From 23:00 till the bright early morning and beyond we invite you to dance to hypnotic sets by DJs and one live set. Dive in!

CONCERT 20:30 — 21:20 SKY H1 (BE) LIVE Belgian producer SKY H1 turned many heads with her EP ‘Motion’ last year. Her joyful, dreamlike productions intoxicate and seduce.

21:30 — 22:10 TVO (UK) LIVE Scottish producer and sound artist TVO brings a new work created especially for FIBER Festival and this year’s theme of alchemy: ‘Hell Is Empty’. Dark, occult post-techno full of literary allusions.

22:20 — 23:15 SENDAI (BE) LIVE

SKY H1

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A shapeshifting, hypnotic ambient beast that never rests: Sendai’s post-techno machine music disorients, fascinates and confounds the listener.

MATTIKK (NL) DJ The Amsterdam based Mattikk (Thijs van de Wijngaert) is a longtime FIBER friend and highly skilled DJ and selector. He started playing and collecting records over 10 years ago where his focus throughout this period has always been on the darker side of music.

Along this road his taste evolved from deep and grimey bass music to the unstructured rhythms of techno and electro.

ENA (JP) DJ Strange shifting rhythms, bubbling clouds of finely shaped noise, and distant techno patterns. Ena is not your normal club DJ. This craftsmen will invite you to lose yourself in the sounds of Tokyo city in the depths of Shelter Amsterdam.

TM404 (SE) LIVE TM404 (Live) is Andreas Tilliander from Sweden. Everywhere he goes he brings two 202s, four 303s, two 606s, a 707 and an 808 to create a dense, acid-infused live set from thin air. Last year we witnessed him play two massive sets at Nachtdigital and Berlin Atonal, so we’re thrilled to invite him over to Amsterdam.

MUSIC & PERFORMANCES — SATURDAY MAY 13

TM404

CLUB NIGHT

NATURAL/ELECTRONIC. SYSTEM (IT) DJ natural/electronic.system have been a force within techno’s underground since 2004. The duo has worked with musicians such as Donato Dozzy & Neel and gained international respect through their much revered podcasts for cult websites such as mnml ssgs and Smoke Machine, as well as their international DJ sets.

At FIBER Festival they will play in The Netherlands for the first time.

PRIMA MATERIA

25

PLASM (2014) TeZ

Rogue Waves (2015) Femke Herregraven

SIDE PROGRAMME

26

FILM

EXHIBITION

EYE ON ART & FIBER FESTIVAL PRESENT ‘ALCHEMICAL VISIONS’ 9 MAY | 20:00 — 23:00 EYE | CINEMA 2

FIBER AND DE BRAKKE GROND INVITE: Artefact Festival 12 MAY — 2 JULY DE BRAKKE GROND

A special double edition of EYE on ART about cinema and alchemy.

Explore matter at very different levels: witness the beauty of natural processes from close-up, follow the global trade in rare metals and imagine being at the nano-level to witness atomic processes. Films by artists and filmmakers who, like the ancient alchemists, speculate and experiment with new materials.

De Brakke Grond, together with FIBER, has invited Artefact (Leuven) to curate a themed exhibition titled On Alchemy and Magic. Curator Karen Verschooren selected artists who are using concepts such as ‘alchemy’ and ‘magic’ to search for a way to deal with the complex technologies that have come to play such a determinative role in our everyday lives.

Films by: Professor Patricia Pisters (NL), Füsun Türetken (TR/NL), Tarik Barri (NL/DE), TeZ (IT/NL) and Karel Doing (NL/UK). Audiovisual performance Presque Vu by Mark IJzerman (NL).

Featuring works by: Tobias Revell, Frederik De Wilde, RYBN.org, Femke Herregraven, Natalie Kane and Verena Friedrich.

FIBER FESTIVAL 2017

Opening

Friday 12 May 18:00 - 20:00

SIDE PROGRAMME

Refik Anadol

CCA

MEETUP

FIBER LABS

FIBER X CREATIVE CODING AMSTERDAM PRESENT ‘SUNDAY MEETUP’ 14 MAY, 15:00 — 19:00 OPEN COOP, TOLHUISWEG 2

FIBER invites over 50 international makers and thinkers to participate in the new LAB programme:

Sunday closing event & intimate concert To close the FIBER Festival 2017 in style, we invite you to join us at the FIBER headquarters in the North of Amsterdam for a festive chill-out Sunday together with Creative Coding Amsterdam. We organise an afternoon filled with short presentations, drinks and an intimate closing performance by The Void*.

Doors 14:30 Start 15:00 Performance 18:15

LAB 1: CHOREOGRAPHIC CODING LAB MAY 6 — 11 A four day lab that brings together coders and dancers. In collaboration with De Brakke Grond, Motion Bank, ICK Amsterdam.

LAB 2: ARCHITECTURAL INTELLIGENCE MAY 9 — 10 A two day prototyping lab for data-architecture. With Refik Anadol.

In collaboration with Makerversity, NS, Ngage, Waag Society.

LAB 3: MATERIALS ART BOTS BY DARIUS KAZEMI MAY 11 A one day lab about creating bots.

In collaboration with The New Institute.

PRIMA MATERIA

27

FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017 MAIN HALL 10:00

45 11:00 15 30

Alchemical Making and Thinking

15 30

RED SPACE

GARDEN ROOM

Welcome

45

Cis van Heertum Thijs Hagendijk Denisa Kera Christian ‘Mio’ Loclair Artist Talk

Thought Collider

JJJNNN Radio: Vibrant Matter

Lunch break

45 14:00

Jussi Parikka

Deep Time

15 30

Femke Herregraven Semiconductor

15 30

Break

45 15 30 45 16:00 15

Transmutation of Matter

15:00

30

15 30 45

Irony of Efficiency

17:00

Gaby Wijers Maaike Bleeker Scott de Lahunta Ruairi Glynn

FIBER x V2 Emerging Practices

Meetup & Drinks BG Café Break

CCL Panel Discussion & Q&A

Paul Prudence Ralf Baecker Nick Ervinck Break

45

CCL: Moving Matters

13:00

Yoni van den Eede

Martin Howse Performance/lecture

JJJNNN Radio: Young Talent Show

Cedric Kiefer Artist talk

Cecilia Jonsson

18:00

Panel: Artefact exhibition panel

15

Opening Artefact exhibition

30

Drinks

45

NIGHT TIME MUSIC & PERFORMANCE 15

FOYER

30 45 20:00 15 30

MERITES (DJ) [Photic Fields]

Pierce Warnecke & Yair Elazar Glotman (DE)

45 21:00 15

Joris Strijbos &Daan Johan [Macular] (NL)

Room open

30 45

Ali Wade (Live performance)

22:00 15 30

The History of Darkness: Recent Arts (DE/CH)

45 23:00 15 30 45 00:00 15 30 45

IZABEL (DJ) [Lullabies for Insomniacs]

SÉBASTIAN ROBERT (DJ) [Field Records]

The Mylar Topology: Paul Prudence (UK) Live AV Pita (Live performance)

ARIF (DJ) Pan Daijing (Live performance)

SATURDAY 13 MAY 2017 MAIN HALL

RED SPACE

GARDEN ROOM

10:00 15 45 11:00 15 30 45

Magical Thinking & Visionary Algorithms

30

Tobias Revell Nicolas Nova

JJJNNN Radio: Modern Love Tellart Artist talk

David Benque

JJJNNN Radio: Parlor of Futures

12:00

Lunch break

15

Lunch break

30

Lunch break

Parlor of futures Lunch break

45 Enhanced Sensibilities & Coded Matters

13:00 15 30 45 14:00 15 30

Quadrature Refik Anadol

Break

15

15

ORA & LABORA: Critical Making

16:00

Critical Making Consortium

30 45 18:00 15 30

The Homonuculus

15

Darius Kazemi Elisa Giaccardi [TUDelft] Memo Akten

FIBER X SHELTER CONCERT 20:30 — 23:00 Doors 20:00

JJJNNN Radio: Radio Fiber X Unfair

Thingclash [Changeist] Artist talk

Break

17:00

Utopia blu Artist talk

Stefanie Wuschitz [Mz Balthazar lab]

30 45

Drinks in café JJJNNN Radio: Alchemical Sounds

Art and Commerce: Raphaël de Courville [moderator] with guests Panel

45

45

FIBER x V2_ Emerging practices

Hannah Davis Artist talk

ScanLAB Projects

15:00 30

Hackers & Designers Artist talk

SKY H1 20:30 - 21:20

TVO 21:20 - 22:10

SENDAI 22:10 - 23:15

FIBER X SHELTER CLUB 23:00 — END MATTIKK

ENA

TM404

natural/ electronic. system

PRACTICAL INFO Should you have further questions or need additional assistance, please visit our Guest Desk located at De Brakke Grond: Nes 45, 1012 KD Amsterdam, or feel free to call +31 (6) 587 574 30.

Did you buy a Passe-Partout or a Conference ticket? Please check in at the Guest Desk at De Brakke Grond festival site to collect your festival pass and/or a wristband.

CONTACT INFO FIBER FOUNDATION Tolhuisweg 2 1031 CL, Amsterdam info@fiber-space.nl Facebook fiber Twitter @fiberfestival Instagram fiberfestival

PREFERED HOTELS We partnered with Volkshotel, and Clink Hostel Noord to offer FIBER ticket holders a better deal during your stay in Amsterdam.

Volkshotel Wibautstraat 150, Amsterdam Clinq Hostel Noord Badhuiskade 3, Amsterdam Please read more about the terms and conditions before booking your hotel at: fiberfestival.nl/info/accommodation

30 FIBER FESTIVAL 2017

PRACTICAL INFO

LOCATION INFO 4

5

3

1 2

1

De Brakke Grond Nes 45

4

Shelter Amsterdam Overhoeksplein 3

2

Looiersgracht 60 Looiersgracht 60

5

EYE Film Museum IJpromenade 1

3

Makerversity Kattenburgerstraat 5

31 PRIMA MATERIA

LOCATIONS

VLAAMS CULTUURHUIS DE BRAKKE GROND NES 45 AMSTERDAM After years of working together to organize the event series “Coded Matters”, we chose the Flemish Culture Centre De Brakke Grond an interdisciplinary haven for art, design, theater, literature and photography - as our main festival hub.

A true gem, the venue is situated a stone’s throw away from the Dam Square www.brakkegrond.nl

32 FIBER FESTIVAL 2017

LOOIERSGRACHT 60 LOOIERSGRACHT 60 AMSTERDAM Looiersgracht 60 is a non-profit exhibition centre for art, design and architecture located in Amsterdam’s gallery district. The institute’s ongoing commitment to interdisciplinary approaches makes it a natural fit for Fiber’s exhibition Prima Materia. www.looiersgracht60.org

LOCATIONS

SHELTER OVERHOEKSPLEIN 3 AMSTERDAM

EYE FILM MUSEUM IJPROMENADE 1 AMSTERDAM

Shelter is one of Amsterdam’s newest clubs with a stellar sound system.

Hidden in the depth’s of the former Shell Tower, it’s a subterranean headquarter for a wide variety of electronic sounds and minds. FIBER Festival and Shelter Amsterdam joined forces to organise a multisensory concert and club night.

EYE is the national museum for film located on Amsterdam’s IJ harbour, and manages more than 40.000 films from all genres. The collection represents an outstanding sample of film history, from classics and blockbusters to cult films. EYE curated a pre-festival film night on the theme Prima Materia on Tuesday.

www.shelteramsterdam.nl

www.eyefilm.nl

MAKERVERSITY KATTENBURGERSTRAAT 5 AMSTERDAM Makerversity is the brand new makerspace and community at the Marineterrein; an old navy site in the heart of the city. Makerversity’s mission is to catalyse innovation and boost local economies in city centres around the world. They facilitate diverse creative and tech startups, a learning lab for 21st century skills, ‘makerthons’ and corporate consultancy. We chose Makerversity as the location for the FIBER LAB 2 Architectural Intelligence with Refik Anadol. www.makerversity.org PRIMA MATERIA

33

COLOPHON TEAM

FUNDING &

Festival director & Curator → Jarl Schulp

https://we.tl/UHkGLn939R MAIN PARTNERS

Curator → Fabian van Sluijs Music & Performances Co-curator → Luuk Meuffels Head of Production → Siuli Ko Head of Marketing & Communication → Sandra van Beers Communication Copywriting & Social Media → Benjamin van Vliet Copywriting & Education, Education, Press Support → Lyndsey Housden Content Manager → Greta Jakutyte Social Media → Sietse van der Meer Communication Support → Elinora Wilde Sponsoring Support → Tessa Giller

SPONSORS

Documentation → Jessica Dreu, Tanja Busking Production Assistant Producer → Katelyn Brand Artist Handling → Valentina Schreuder CCL Coordination & Education Support → Danai Kleida Technical production DBG → Bram Snijders

MEDIA PARTNERS

Executive Production DBG → Julia Nuesslein Production / volunteer coordination → Iva Berkovic Ticketing / Art Transport → Elinora Wilde Festival Team

CREATIVE PARTNERS

Exhibition technical support → Richard Bierhuizen Exhibition support → Carolien Teunisse, Art van Weerelt Stagemanager DBG → Vincent Schrijnemakers Stagemanager DBG → Karlijn Eickmans Runner → Marcel Moerenhout Design Spatial design exhibition → Kjell van Norel Festival identity & website → HOAX Light Scenography → Marco Broeder (Co2RO) Webmaster → Toine Kamps Supervisory Board Kitty Leering, Michel van Dartel, Judith Veraart

34 FIBER FESTIVAL 2017

TECHNICAL PARTNERS

For information on our exhibition programme please visit our website www.looiersgracht60.org

NGAGE MEDIA, PROUD PARTNER OF FIBER Let’s introduce ourselves! Ngage Media is a publisher of digital public screens.

Our network consists of 41 massive digital walls, spread all over the Netherlands.

41 digital stages, which we’d love to see exhibiting versatile digital art. Together we can put mesmerizing digital, and even interactive art in public spaces on the map.

Your art could be seen by nearly 2 million people in just a week, a creative way to truly contribute to public spaces!

Are you in?

Contact us at content@ngagemedia.nl

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Tickets & programme WWW.FIBERFESTIVAL.NL