Sonic Acts XII - the Cinematic Experience is a festival/conference, taking place in Amsterdam from 21-24 of february 2008. Besides a conference, screenings, performances and an exhibition they’ll have a publication which has an interview with me in it!
“Long before celluloid was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century, other media were used to create cinematic experiences: magic lanterns, colour organs, zoëtropes, phenakistoscopes and many other, often optical machines. But even after the introduction of celluloid and the rise of cinema as a spatial concept, there were many attempts to redefine the concept of cinema. This was driven by avant-garde filmmakers during the interbellum, such as Walter Ruttmann and Oskar Fischinger; Jordan Belson and Henry Jacobs in the 50s with their Vortex concerts and Le Corbusier’s Philips Pavilion at the World Expo in 1958 by Xenakis and Varèse; and in the 60s by experiments such as computer and film pioneer Stan Vanderbeek’s Movie Drome project. In the 80s and 90s an increasing number of artists, filmmakers, musicians and composers created all kinds of immersive environments in which they experimented with new forms of cinema.
The programme will focus on the rich history of the cinematic experience. Both the conference and festival contemplate and shed light on how the future of cinema has been perceived throughout history and why a lot of the ideas and attempts of the avant-garde never succeeded or survived. There will be opportunities for speculation on how film would have developed without cinema and answers will be sought both in artistic practice and from scientific perspectives.
Sonic Acts XII will also look into the future of the cinematic experience. Will celluloid be at the forefront of the cinema of the future? Will cinema free itself from the representational narrative? And what will be the role of phenomena such as sensory overload in future cinema?”