Last Saturday the 14th of November Nou&Herkauw did a new experimental performance at the NFF party. The party was the first collaboration with the NFF and the
Popfabryk, a new production house for innovative, popculture related projects. For some time already we had the idea to extend the N&H performance with musicians. The NFF was the perfect occasion to experiment with this idea. The starting point of the project was Sound=Vision. Musicians, a singer, designers and media artist collaborating in a live improvisation to visualize sound.
To visualize sound we experimented with several techniques. One of them was inspired by Cymatics. With Cymatics you are able to visualize frequencies of sound trough the use of matter. For example, liquids, dust, sand and even cornstarch. We got inspired by this after seeing some video's on the net. One of them a rare, strange, and epic movie by
Hans Jenny. More video's:
TEDTalks and a DIY video on
Make. To use the frequencies of the music performance we used a collection of speakers which were connected to the output of the audio mixer. We prepared all kinds of liquids, tiny pieces of colored paper, beans and much more.
Always an important part of an Nou&Herkauw performance is the participation of the audience. One of the most popular components of a N&H set-up is the stop-motion animation table. People can join and start animating.
The interactive and collaborative process is maybe more important than the final result. N&H is a project which emphasizes the process and the creative energy of the collective. We started our N&H experiments four years ago in reaction to the VJ performances we did under our 'Snow' name. These performances were less interactive, more straight forward performing with some vj-software and a DJ, and with a lot of visual preparation in advance. Nevertheless also very enjoyable.
Dennis van Tilburg, a fliendly musician/sound designer with whom we work intensively, build a set up with Ableton, al lot of small instruments, and synthesizers. In collaboration with Laurens Vermeulen at the stage piano with lots of effects, Adriaan Groffen at the drum, and singer Merel van Dijk, they created a music and sound composition based on improvisation, sampling and looping. It was great!
Also a group of students of the Academy of Popculture did a great job producing and experimenting during the whole project.
All together 13 N&H'ers were jamming their pants off!
