Sonic Acts – Travelling Time :: February 23-26, 2012 :: Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Travelling Time is the fourteenth edition of Sonic Acts, and its theme is the human experience of time. Time dictates our schedule; time gives us structure. We think of ourselves as living in the present, with the past behind us, moving towards the future. But in fact, there is nothing so complex and ambiguous as time: the arrival the early twentieth century of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics has tampered with our straightforward concept of time. The ongoing development and application of technology is challenging, changing and destabilising our sense of time. Communication networks function at light speed and processes are handled in real time by computers operating without human intervention. These technological advances have produced a gap between ‘machine time’ and ‘human time’.

Art, film and music all have the ability to make abstract concepts of time tangible and comprehensible; they can all manipulate time. In art, a relationship between time and movement creates a sense of space and can identify differences and correspondences between machine time and lived time. In Travelling Time, montage, rhythm and composition in sound and image will intensify the experience of time. Travelling Time is also about the need to act quickly in improvised music; the inevitable slowness of programming or constructing an artwork; time travels and art as a vehicle for imaginary journeys; and art as an artefact from bygone times. Sonic Acts XIV Travelling Time is a quest for space, detail and meaning in time.

Sonic Acts XIV is a four-day festival of performances, lectures, exhibitions, presentations, and film screenings. It will also present a lavishly illustrated publication with essays and interviews.