Sonic Acts is an interdisciplinary arts organisation based in Amsterdam. 

Founded in 1994 to present new developments in electronic and digital art forms, Sonic Acts has gained prominence with its biennial international festival — an intensive art, theory and technology gathering motivated by changes in the ecological, political, technological and social landscape.
 
Sonic Acts is a leading platform for international projects, research and the commissioning and co-production of new artworks, often working together with local and international partner organisations such as independent and institutional cultural incubators, universities and kindred festivals.

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An interdisciplinary organisation, publishing press and Biennial celebrating the intersection of art, technology and science.

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Sonic Acts

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Daphina Misiedjan

“Being able to adapt to climate change is now a privilege.” Researcher **Daphina Misiedjan** reflected on water as a fundamental right in her talk at Sonic Acts Biennial 2022’s Symposium _Leaving Traces_, presenting her work on access to water for vulnerable and marginalised communities. 

In a new interview with Down to Earth magazine, published on 17 October, she extends this conversation by discussing climate justice and its link to socio-economic inequality.  Misiedjan raises questions of power, rights for nature, as well as reparations and action for the Dutch Carribean and further afield. 



→ Read the interview in Dutch [here](https://downtoearthmagazine.nl/de-blinde-vlek-van-klimaatoplossingen/) or an English translation [here](https://arias.amsterdam/the-blind-spot-of-climate-solutions-an-interview-with-daphina-misiedjan/)

On the second day of the symposium, Misiedjan joined filmmaker Aura Satz, performer Thomas Lamers from Collectief Walden, with Annelinde Bruijs and Dominic Kraemer, and researcher Mikki Stelder as part of the panel Climate Imaginaries at Sea, co-curated with ARIAS. Each explored water as  a transformative being and way of being in the context of sea level rise.  All talks will soon be available to [watch](https://www.youtube.com/c/SonicActsFestival) or [listen](https://soundcloud.com/sonicacts) to online. 


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Daphina Misiedjan talks about climate justice and privilege

Sonic Acts Biennial 2022 attended to questions of non-linear time, entangled ecologies, and pollution through an expansive exhibition, a provocative sound art programme, and an interdisciplinary symposium. This slow immersion into the environmental humanities is reflected in the design of the Biennial T-shirts and tote bags, available now in the Sonic Acts webshop. 



[→ Buy your merchandise here](https://shop.sonicacts.com/product-category/merchandise/)

Additionally, the third issue of _Ecoes_ magazine corresponds to the explorations of toxicity taken up by the Sonic Acts Biennial 2022. _Ecoes_ #3 includes essays, stories, and interviews by biennial contributors including **Andrea Galano Toro**, **pantea**, **John Grzinich**, **Aura Satz**, **Antonia Alamp**i, and many more. _Ecoes_ #3 can be purchased individually, or as part of a subscription, through the [Sonic Acts webshop](https://shop.sonicacts.com/). 


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Ecoes #3

Sonic Acts Biennial merch now available to buy online

Maryam Monalisa Gharavi

Sam Lavigne

What does it mean to place narrative limitations on oil, where infinity is assumed? Commissioned by Sonic Acts, _OBIT_ by **Maryam Monalisa Gharavi** and **Sam Lavigne** can now be streamed online, after having been first exhibited in the form of an installation as part of the exhibition _one sun after another_ during Sonic Acts Biennial 2022. 

Drawing from semi-public databases containing the dates drilling began and the dates wells were abandoned, the work unscrolls the ‘birth’ and ‘death’ of all abandoned oil wells in the U.S., generating a ‘public obituary’ of oil. The ‘finality’ of _OBIT_ coincides with the flood of information each unit measures, or 314,452 total dead wells. Seemingly infinite, the work encloses and gives finitude via a closed scroll and text, placing appropriate narrative limitations on oil where infinity is assumed.


[→ Explore OBIT online](https://obit.sonicacts.com/) 


The multinational, multiconglomerate oil industry divulges myriad streams of data about its operations, which when looked at in both the macro (314,452 oil well deaths) and micro (distinct obituaries for each one) yield surprising and discordant findings. _OBIT_ synthesizes ‘oily’ data that reveals its own significance the very moment it is divulged. Through scraping, a technique developed by Sam Lavigne, it seeks data from within its own knowledge domains and industry collection sites. 


A former OVEREXPOSED resident, **Maryam Monalisa Gharavi** has been collaborating and working with Sonic Acts for several years. As an artist, poet, and theorist whose work deals with the paradoxes of our interactions with matter and immateriality, she explores the interplay between aesthetic and political valances. With _OBIT_, Gharavi works alongside artist and educator **Sam Lavigne** to dive deeper into the ‘twin’ extractive commodities of oil and data. Lavigne’s work plugs into the interlocking interfaces of data, surveillance and policing, as well as natural language processing and automation. Harnessing digital tools to perform online interventions, Lavigne brings to light the often opaque political and economic conditions moulding computational technologies.


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Extractive Logic with Maryam Monalisa Gharavi

Supercuts: Sabotage by Montage

Artwork OBIT can now be streamed online

MELT

Following their installation as part of Sonic Acts Biennial 2022 exhibition _one sun after another_, **MELT** (**Ren Loren Britton** and **Iz Paehr**) invite listeners and readers to join their online guided meditation _presence-past presence-present presence-future_. As part of _never odd or even_, the ongoing project for their Sonic Acts OVEREXPOSED residency, MELT feel into futures in which Trans* and disabled presences might be fully embraced, dreaming towards being in time differently. 


Commissioned by Sonic Acts, _never odd or even_ explores multiple overlapping perspectives on numerous temporalities. As the project unfolds in various stages and formats, this latest development presents an online meditation for a plurality of joyful Trans* and disabled futures. _presence-past presence-present presence-future_ looks to futurity in non-normative, non-linear time. Sen(s)(d)ing desires, wishes, and intentions, MELT tunes towards timelines that instead of writing Trans* and disabled folks out of time, make presence a present for them to thrive in and bend the clock. 


As you click along, time stretches into the past through collective and ancestral memories and into the future with meditations for Trans* and Disabled futures. When we travel time as disabled and Trans* people, when do we go? What if ableism and binary gender mattered less, and had less pull on our shared spacetime? When we sync with crip spacetime, we move what matters towards a plurality of joyful disabled and Trans* futures. 


Presented as well as part of the exhibition _one sun after another_ during Sonic Acts Biennial 2022 in the form of an installation and a guided meditation, _presence-past presence-present presence-future_ invited visitors into non-linearity, loops, circles, palindromes, discontinuities, slowness, and attention to pace within their time. 


[→ Follow MELT’s guided meditation online](https://overexposed.sonicacts.com/neveroddoreven/meditation)


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Rest Assured: A Reading Group by MELT

MELT – never odd or even

MELT add meditation to 'never odd or even'

Farah Fayyad

What does oil say when it tells on itself? Newly commissioned by Sonic Acts Press, _Oil News 1989 – 2020_  is an artist book by **Maryam Monalisa Gharavi** and **Sam Lavigne** that enables the narrativising of oil. The artist book, designed by **Farah Fayyad**, was first presented in the context of Sonic Acts Biennial 2022, and is now available for purchase from the Sonic Acts webshop.


Using a process called scrapism, defined by Sam Lavigne as ‘reverse engineering the web for critical ends’, _Oil News 1989 – 2020_ scrapes every main headline from _Oil & Gas Journal_, the petroleum industry’s leading publication, beginning with the 24 March 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster up to the 2020 global oil price crisis. 

Together with its companion work _OBIT_, also by Maryam Monalisa Gharavi and Sam Lavigne, _Oil News 1989 – 2020_ culls and organises massive amounts of data on petroleum from within its own industry. _OBIT_, an installation commissioned by Sonic Acts and exhibited as part of the exhibtion _one sun after another_ during Sonic Acts Biennial 2022, scrolls through the birth and death announcements of all abandoned oil wells in the U.S.,  gradually projecting a public obituary for 314,452 dead wells. 


Both works spring from Oil Research Group (ORG), a one-person art and research collective founded by Gharavi in 2019 to explore oil and data as contiguous extractive economies. The multinational, multiconglomerate oil industry divulges myriad streams of data about its operations, which when looked at in both the macro (314,452 oil well deaths) and micro (distinct obituaries for each one) yield surprising and discordant findings. Gharavi and Lavigne work is spurred on by the hypervisibility of debates around environmental crisis and the lack of material visibility on/about oil and its constituent parts: oil labour, abandoned oil wells, oil job postings, oil and gas news tickets, and more. 

_Oil News 1989 – 2020_ and _OBIT_ synthesise ‘oily’ data that reveals its own significance at the very moment it is divulged. Through scraping, both works seek data from within their own knowledge domains and industry collection sites. Seemingly infinite, each work encloses and proffers finitude via a closed scroll and text, placing appropriate narrative limitations on oil where infinitude is assumed. Oil ‘tells’ on itself while resisting attempts to totalise its profound impact on human life systems. 


A former OVEREXPOSED resident, Maryam Monalisa Gharavi has been collaborating and working with Sonic Acts for several years. As an artist, poet, and theorist whose work deals with the paradoxes of our interactions with matter and immateriality, she explores the interplay between aesthetic and political valances. With _Oil News 1989 – 2020_, Gharavi works alongside artist and educator Sam Lavigne to dive deeper into the ‘twin’ extractive commodities of oil and data. Lavigne’s work plugs into the interlocking interfaces of data, surveillance and policing, as well as natural language processing and automation. Harnessing digital tools to perform online interventions, Lavigne brings to light the often opaque political and economic conditions moulding computational technologies.

[→ Purchase a copy of _Oil News 1989 – 2020_ via our shop ](https://shop.sonicacts.com/product/oil-news-1989-2020/)

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Release of new Sonic Acts publication Oil News 1989 – 2020

Aura Satz

Arie Altena

Artist, Freelance Journalist & Photographer

Agnès Villette 

Anthea Caddy

Ameneh Solati

Angeliki Diakrousi

HC Gilje 

Áine O’Dwyer

Kali Malone

Lucy Railton

pantea

Lucky Dragons

Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou

Anika Schwarzlose

Brian D. McKenna 

Louis Braddock Clarke

Zuzanna Zgierska 

Félix Blume

Curator, Researcher, Educator & Soothsayer

Dani Admiss

Angeliki Balayannis

Sophie Dyer

Sasha Engelmann

Mary Maggic

Andrea Galano Toro

Julian Ross

Mina Kim

Nerea Calvillo

Cesar Majorana

Leanne Wijnsma

Sarah McNair-Landry

Seline Buttner

Julian Charrière

Danny Osborne

Patrick Thompson

Alexa Hatanaka

Eric McNair-Landry

Erik Boomer

Kent Chan

Enrico Malatesta

Bloedneus & de Snuitkever

DEBIT

Maria Komarova

séverine

Ausschuss

april222

Olivia Block

Hüma Utku

Soda Plains

Tarek Atoui

Nina Garcia 

Jessica Ekomane

Ale Hop

Tatiana Heuman 

Ben Bertrand

Stephen O'Malley

Tomoko Sauvage

Aho Ssan

Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh

Music Research Strategies

Dirar Kalash

u-matic & telematique

Sarah Davachi

Nemø ensemble

Mazen Kerbaj

Soundcamp

Loma Doom

Async Figure

Soft Break

Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca

Ola Hassanain

Kate Donovan

Tati au Miel

Thomas Lamers

Dominic Kraemer 

Mikki Stelder

Saranghwae

Jules Négrier 

Jaap Vink

FARWARMTH

Marcin Pietruszewski

Over the past few weeks, through thought-provoking interventions, experimental sound performances, and critical discussions, Sonic Acts Biennial 2022 asked how we can care, collectively and despite the exhaustion of energies, for what we cannot see or understand. Attuning and responding to ecological thinking, the Biennial interweaved an exhibition, performances, lectures, sound installations, artist presentations, workshops, excursions, and many more activities, engaging with the urgency of pollution in different and multi-faceted ways.


We would like to thank everybody who attended and engaged with the Biennial during this time. We are eternally grateful to all of our artists and speakers and to all of those who committed their time and energy in making it all happen, our production support and technicians, our amazing crew, our partner organisations and their staff, our photographers and film crew, and our invaluable team of volunteers. 

Sonic Acts Biennial 2022 would not have been possible without the generous support of our funders: Creative Industries Fund NL, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, Mondriaan Fund, Fonds 21, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Performing Arts Fund NL, Stichting Hartwig Foundation, Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, Arts Council Korea in collaboration with ISAC, and DutchCulture. 


Capturing it all, our team of photographers and videographers made sure that this Sonic Acts Biennial is one we can always look back on. A small selection of photos from each week are now available to view on our [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/SonicActs/photos/?ref=page_internal) and [Flickr](https://www.flickr.com/photos/sonicacts/albums) pages. More photos as well as videos of the symposiums will be online soon on our social media and video channels [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/c/SonicActsFestival) and [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/sonicacts).  [Subscribe](https://sonicacts.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f8f2c0dae61384c2dba08e8ec&id=87c02476f0) to our newsletter to stay up to date and be notified when they are published. 


If you visited any of the programmes, we kindly ask you to fill in this short [online survey](https://sonicacts.typeform.com/to/CHqjJR1H) (10 minutes) to help us evaluate the Biennial and to improve future editions. We appreciate your feedback and hope to see you again at one of our events in the near future. By filling in the survey, you have a chance of winning either a Passepartout for the next Sonic Acts Biennial, the latest issue of _Ecoes_ magazine, or a Sonic Acts Biennial 2022 t-shirt & tote bag. 



In the meantime, continue engaging with the topics of the Biennial by subscribing to _Ecoes_ – a periodic magazine from Sonic Acts about art in the age of pollution. Subscriptions are available on a recurring or one-time basis. More information can be found [here](https://shop.sonicacts.com/). 



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Thank you to all who contributed to Sonic Acts Biennial 2022

We value the thoughts and experiences of all of our visitors and are always looking for new ways to develop Sonic Acts even further. For that reason, we would love to get to know more about you and your experience at the Biennial.

By filling out this survey you can help us improve future editions as well as be in with a chance of winning a special Sonic Acts reward, including a Passepartout for the next edition of the Biennial, the latest issue of _Ecoes_ magazine, or a Sonic Acts Biennial 2022 T-shirt and tote bag. We appreciate your feedback! 

→ Fill out the survey [here](https://sonicacts.typeform.com/to/CHqjJR1H)

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Share your feedback! What did you think of Sonic Acts Biennial 2022?

Antonia Alampi

Nishat Awan

Natalie Dixon

Climate Imaginaries at Sea

Annelinde Bruijs

Extending a warm thank you to all presenters, performers, and audience members, we look back on _Leaving Traces_ with joy. The symposium took place on 15 and 16 October, inviting an array of artists, researchers, curators, designers and scholars to reflect on creative approaches to the climate crisis. These discussions, spanning extractive colonial histories and sea-level rise to DIY earth imaging and biohacking methods, were complimented by the two evening programmes, _Preemptive Listening_ and _Breathtune_. 

Check out some of the highlights of the weekend below! More photos can be found on our [Flickr page](https://www.flickr.com/photos/sonicacts/albums/72177720303015854).

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Photos from the third weekend of Sonic Acts Biennial 2022

John Grzinich

Félicia Atkinson

Lance Laoyan

Arnaud Rivière

Leila Bordreuil

Samson Young

Dania

Nicole L'Huillier

Beatriz Ferreyra

François Bayle

Farida Amadou

Michèle Bokanowski 

Matthias Puech

Bernard Parmegiani 

Iannis Xenakis

Presenting a wide range of concerts, sound transmissions, installations, workshops, and field explorations, the Sound Art programme _Inner Ear(th)_ at Het HEM from 7 October to 9 October was a full success – a collective listening experience that explored our capacity to resonate. We would like to wish a huge thank you to everyone who attended across the weekend.

Check out some of the highlights of the weekend below! More photos can be found on our [Flickr page](https://www.flickr.com/photos/sonicacts/albums/72177720302749049).  

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Photos from the second weekend of Sonic Acts Biennial 2022

With the next weekend of Sonic Acts Biennial 2022 almost here, we’ve compiled a guide with everything you need to know ahead of your visit this weekend, with a two day symposium, screenings and performances coming up.

### **1. Getting to Likeminds**

The _Leaving Traces_ symposium – as well as _Preemptive Listening_ on Saturday evening – takes place on 15 & 16 October at Likeminds in Amsterdam Noord. Likeminds can be reached by metro from Amsterdam Centraal.

**Travelling by ferry:**

Visitors can travel by ferry to Likeminds. From Amsterdam Centraal, catch the F2 ferry to Amsterdam IJplein. From there it is a 5 minute cycle or 17 minute walk to Likeminds.


**Travelling by metro:**

We recommend visitors to get the M52 metro from Amsterdam Centraal (direction Noord) and get off at Noorderpark. Metros run regularly throughout the day. From there it is a short walk (less than 15 minutes) to Likeminds.

### **2. Getting to Singelkerk**

_Breathtune_ takes place on Sunday evening at Singelkerk in central Amsterdam. Singelkerk is easily reachable by public transport from Amsterdam Centraal.

Visitors can catch the 2 or 12 trams from Amsterdam Centraal towards Nieuwe Sloten, and then get off at Amsterdam Koningsplein. From there it is a very short walk to Singelkerk via the entrance at Herengracht 431.


### **3. Tickets & Wristbands**

Tickets are still available via the [Tickets page](https://www.sonicacts.com/biennial/biennial-2022/tickets) and from the Info Desk. 

Passepartout- and Weekend Pass-buyers can exchange their e-ticket for a wristband at the Info Desk. Info Desk opening times and locations are as follows:

**Saturday 15 October**

10:00–23:00 Likeminds

**Sunday 16 October**

10:00–18:00 Likeminds
19:30–23:00 Singelkerk (Herengracht 431)



### **4. Evening Programmes**

For the two evening programmes, _Preemptive Listening_ and _Breathtune_, we recommend that **visitors bring earplugs** due to high volume levels.

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A practical guide for Leaving Traces, Preemptive Listening and Breathtune

BJ Nilsen

Sonic Acts is proud to present **Aura Satz’s** new film _The Future Waters of the Storm Surge_, made in collaboration with Amsterdam-based sound artist **BJ Nilsen**, and warmly invites visitors to its premiere on Saturday 15 October 2022 at _Preemptive Listening_, the evening programme of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2022’s symposium.

_The Future Waters of the Storm Surge_ explores the Oosterscheldekering barrier as both a bridge, connecting the Zeeland islands, and storm surge, protecting the Netherlands from being flooded by the North Sea. With the film, Satz reimagines emergency sirens in an age of intersecting human-made and ecological disasters, engaging with the site visually and sonically, speaking to ‘the centrifugal chaos of storms to come’. 

Following the film’s premiere on Saturday, Aura Satz welcomes all interested in delving deeper into its theme and her work to attend the Leaving Traces symposium on Sunday 16 October. As part of the panel ‘Climate Imaginaries at Sea | Rehearsing Disaster’, the filmmaker will give a talk on water as being a threat.  

The panel ‘Climate Imaginaries at Sea | Rehearsing Disaster’ is curated in collaboration with Climate Imaginaries at Sea, an ARIAS coalition coordinated and organised by Nienke Scholts.


Tickets are still available for [Preemptive Listening](https://www.sonicacts.com/biennial/biennial-2022/programme/symposium-leaving-traces/preemptive-listening) and [Leaving Traces](https://www.sonicacts.com/biennial/biennial-2022/programme/symposium-leaving-traces), and can be purchased [here](https://www.sonicacts.com/biennial/biennial-2022/tickets). 