Ideophone I is part of Raaijmakers’ monumental sound-installation-triptych called Three Ideophones. In anticipation of the upcoming REBOOT exhibition, Ideophone I is currently undergoing conservation research and treatment that focuses mainly on solving unwanted self-destructive properties of the work. During one of the aforementioned technical research processes, one of the hidden clues released by the work surprisingly confirmed a presumed connection with Raaijmakers composition series ‘5 canons’ which is largely based on Raaijmakers concept of ‘the double pulse’. Under certain circumstances, one of the current research-prototypes actually behaves similar to Raaijmakers customised tape recorder that he used in the sixties to experiment with double pulses as a basis for his Canon compositions. The double-pulse will therefore serve as a leitmotif in the lecture & miniconcert … with 8 different double-pulses as prime characters.

Bram Vreven will give a talk which guides us through the current reconstruction research on Ideophone I. As an artist Vreven focuses on sound art, kinetic art and photography. His installations contrast acoustic and electronic sounds in a refined way. Silent movement has become one of Vreven's leitmotivs. He also regularly advises artists and institutions on (re-)producing diverse media-artworks. Since 2011 he has gradually been getting involved in the quest of how to preserve Raaijmakers Three Ideophones suitable for long term presentation. 

Johan Van Kreij will introduce the principles behind the Canons, a series of five compositions by Dick Raaijmakers that reflect on the use of electronic means in music composition,  and will demonstrate the artistic relevance of these works of almost sixty years ago. The artistic output of van Kreij connects in various ways to specific elements that created the Canons. His research not only retraced the steps that Raaijmakers had taken in his attempt to formalise a method for electronic composition, it also led to the reconstruction of the work that had produced Canon-1. van Krij will perform a piece in the mini-concert on Robert Pravda’s Rotating Audio Device. See below for more information. 

Robert Pravda will perform a mini concert on his Performative installation Rotating Audio Device (R.A.D). R.A.D. is an attempt to approach sound spatialisation with one monophonic sound source  where the loudspeaker is treated rather as an instrument than as a static sound projection source. He is a member of the teaching team for the ArtScience department of the Royal Academy for Fine Arts Music and Dance in the Hague. And an active member of Tilt. The purpose of this platform has been to inspire and support artistic practice and thinking that transcends traditional boundaries associated with specific disciplines. 

Ideophone I by Dick Raaijmakers

In the early seventies, Dick Raaijmakers created the iconic sound-installation-triptych called Three Ideophones, on which he wrote the following:

"The Most obvious and natural method by which to provoke a loudspeaker is a direct confrontation between the loudspeaker and itself. The loudspeaker should not take leave of its senses, it should be surrounded by them. For once the gaping loudspeaker should turn inwards and listen to itself: in short, the loudspeaker should be made to hear the sound of its own, loud voice. The Loud Speaker should be turned into a Soft Hearer, Hearer and Speaker should be joined together and, for the first time in the history of acoustic communication, the loudspeaker has found itself: it is not authoritarian, not illusionistic, not instrumental, not a conveyer, none of these things – the loudspeaker is engrossed in its own being, and hence lost to us in every function (except as a Work of Art)."

In the decades following their construction both Ideophone 1 and 2 partially got lost. In 2011, Ideophone I was reconstructed on the occasion of the Witteveen+Bos Art+Technology Award that was granted to Dick Raaijmakers that same year. The reconstruction was co-commissioned by the Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk).  In order to guarantee the successful operation of the work (for REBOOT and later presentations), Bram Vreven will sustain the alignment of the working parts and their operation to minimise  damage to the glass tubes and loudspeakers.

Digital Care

Digital Care presents collaborative care for digital artworks through an open process. From March until October 2023, iconic works, including the_living, 1997-1998, by Debra Solomon, Ideofoon I, 1970-2013, by Dick Raaijmakers and Institute of Artificial Art Amsterdam, 1990-present, by Remko Scha, have been researched and shown in public programmes across the country. Talks with artists, scholars, producers, technicians and the public have explored what it means to present these works today – and preserve them for a future generation.

Nieuwe Instituut and LI-MA present the exhibition REBOOT: Pioneering Digital Art. Featuring key works from the Netherlands from 1960 to 2000, plus new work by contemporary makers, REBOOT reveals the influence of digital technology on art and society. The Digital Care trajectory functions as a strong basis for the run-up of this public exhibition which runs from 7 October 2023 to 1 April 2024 at Nieuwe Instituut.

REBOOT

REBOOT. Pioneering Digital Art opened at Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam on 7 October 2023 until 12 May 2024. The exhibition, an initiative of LI-MA and Nieuwe Instituut, celebrates the pioneering history of digital art and culture in the Netherlands. Curators Sanneke Huisman (LI-MA) and Klaas Kuitenbrouwer (Nieuwe Instituut) created the exhibition based around twenty ground-breaking digital artworks from the Netherlands from the period 1960-2000. The works were taken from the Digital Canon (1960-2000), a non-exhaustive, unfixed overview of influential digital art, which was compiled by experts in 2017–2019 and commissioned by LI-MA. In addition, they commissioned nine new works from ten contemporary makers, who took inspiration from these classics to explore how the debates they prompted remain relevant today.

The Digital Care programme centred on (the care for) several of these canonical works, in the lead up to and during REBOOT.

Event details

Digital Care: Dick Raaijmakers. A collaboration between LI-MA x Royal Conservatory x DCR
Ideophones and Raaijmakers concept of the double-pulse
Thursday, 1 June, 2023
DCR Workshop, Kleine Veenkade 60, 2518PK The Hague
Doors open: 19:30
Programme starts: 20.00
Entrance: Free, RSVP by clicking HERE by 29 May to secure your spot
Lecture Programme: Bram Vreven (Artist) and Johan van Kreij (Sonologist) with a mini concert by Robert Pravda (Sonic Artists/Performer) and Johan van Kreij.

Digital Care and REBOOT are supported by Creative Industries Fund NL, Mondriaan Fund, and Network Archives Design and Digital Culture.

Images of Ideophone by Bram Vreven; stills from recording by Davide Ghelli Santuliana and final image by Sonia Milewska.