The eleventh edition of the Sonic Acts Festival will be held from Thursday 23rd to Sunday 26th February 2006 in Paradiso and De Balie in Amsterdam.Entitled Sonic Acts XI — The Anthology of Computer Art, the festival will include a three-day international conference, three evenings and nights of live performances, an extensive film programme and an exhibition. A DVD and a book on the festival theme will also be published to coincide with it.
The three-day conference will provide a multifaceted and penetrating overview of computer art. International speakers from computer arts, film, the fine arts, music, the academic world, literature and art history will, from the perspective of their own background, discuss the historical developments, present the current position of computer art, and consider its future. Jasia Reichardt (UK) opens the festival at February 23 2006 with a Keynote lecture. Reichardt is writer and curator and made history in 1968 with the exhibit Cybernetic Serendipity. Speakers at the conference include Lillian Schwartz (US), pioneer in the field of computer-generated art and computer films; Curtis Roads (US), composer and author of the influential Computer Music Tutorial; Stephen Wilson (US), professor of conceptual design at the SFSU and author of the authoritative Information Arts, Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology; Joost Rekveld (NL), artist, produces abstract films and kinetic installations since 1991; Ben Fry (USA), artist, who's current research involves the visualization of genetic data.
With Casey Reas he is developing the open source programming environment Processing; Manfred Mohr (US), computer artist since 1968 and considered as one of the pioneers; Frieder Nake (DE), professor interactive computer-graphics in Bremen and one of the three artists in the first computer art exhibitions (1965, Stuttgart). A key-person in the field of computer art and information aesthetics since then; Andreas Broeckmann (DE), artistic director of the international media art festival Transmediale in Berlin. In texts and lectures he deals with post-medial practices and the possibilities for a 'machinic' aesthetics of media art; Matthias Weiss (DE), studied art history and philosophy and is considered an authority in the field of net-art; John Oswald (CA), composer and sound-artist. Became famous in 1990 with his Plunderphonics; Gerard Walhof (NL), announcer and journalist for the Dutch public broadcast company VPRO; Golan Levin (US), artist, composer, performer and engineer, develops new forms of interaction with audiovisual systems; Joan Leandre (ES), also known as Retroyou, artist working with modified games; Wolf Lieser (DE), curator and founder of the Digital Art Museum; Erik van Blokland (NL), designer and co-founder of Letterror.
The festival will start with performances by Granular Synthesis (AT) and Curtis Roads & Brian O'Reilly (US). Granular Synthesis, renowned for its monumental and impressive audio-visual performances and installations, will perform Areal. Curtis Roads & Brian O'Reilly will perform their international acclaimed octaphonic audiovisual piece Point Line Cloud.
The Friday programme is being compiled in collaboration with Jace Clayton (a.k.a. DJ/rupture), founder of Negrophonic and Soot Records, and will include: The Bug feat. Ras B (Rephlex, UK), Beans (Warp, US), Ghislain Poirier (Chocolate Industries, CA), Vex'd (Rephlex, UK) , DJ /rupture & No Lay & G-Kid (Unorthodox, UK), Team Shadetek presents: Heavy Meckle feat. Matt Shadetek, Sheen, Jammer & Skepta (Warp / Jah Mek the the World, UK/US), Hrvatski (Planet Mu, US), Aaron Spectre (Death$ucker, US), Ove-Naxx (Adaadat, JP), Scotch Egg (Wrong Music, JP), Doddodo (Adaadat, JP), Drop the Lime (Tigerbeat6, US), Filastine (Soot, US), Nettle (theAgriculture, ES), 2/5 BZ (Gözel, TU), Gustav (Mosz, AT), Planning to Rock (Twisted Nerve, DE), Toktek & MNK (NL).
On Saturday Performances by:
Matthew Dear (Spectral Sound, US),
Reinhard Voigt (Kompakt, DE),
Ada (Areal records, DE), TBA (Max Ernst, DE), AGF & SUE.C (Orthlorng Musork, DE/US), Portable (Scape, ZA), NotTheSameColor (AT), Akuvido (UA), SKIF & Bas van Koolwijk (US/NL), Moha! (NO), OfficeR(6) (NL/US/NO), Jason Forrest (Cock Rock Disco, US), TinyLittleElements (AT/DE), Anne Laplatine (FR), Boris & Brecht Debackere (BE), Erich Berger (AT), Nancy Fortune (Parallax, FR).
The film programme will look at purely digital film art with a number of historical overviews, documentaries and contemporary computer films. Work will also be shown from the archive of the Institut National Audiovisuel, Groupe de Recherches des Images. In two programme series work will be shown from filmmakers such as: Raymond Hains, Jacques Brissot, Nicolas Schöffer, Caroline Laure, Marie Claire Petris, Peter Foldes, Robert Lapoujade and Piotr Kamler. Much of this material has never been seen before in the Netherlands: it offers a wealth of historical material related to abstract film and musique concrête.
There are two filmmaker in focus programmes: Lillian Schwartz and John Whitney; there is one programme with very early computer films by filmmakers like Chuck Csuri and Stan Vanderbeek; there is a programme with early ‘computer aided design’ works and there is a programme with works from SIGGRAPH.
The exhibition will include a number of key-works from the pioneers of computer-art, including works by Ben Laposky, Manfred Mohr, Edward Zajec, Frieder Nake and Tony Longson. Also works will be shown from the Sonic Acts 2006 DVD, by artists such as: Bart Vegter, Semiconductor, Effekt, Telcosystems & Jason Haas, Martijn van Boven, C.E.B. Reas, Meta, Driessens & Verstappen, Karl Kliem, Chris Musgrave, Peter Luining, reMI, Scott Pagano & Keepadding, Kurt Ralske, George Issakidis and Daniel Perlin & Dj /rupture.
More info:
www.sonicacts.com (source: Press release) 
