From 10 to 14 May, the Digital Care program will present  two artistic experiences and approaches to electronic innovation at TETEM: Moiré by Livinus van de Bundt and Jeep van de Bundt (1975) and Violin Power by Steina (1969 - 1978). These  media artists have invented alternate branches in the evolution of technology by making and using their own tools, exploring, imagining, and creating their artworks. 

On 12 May from 14.00 Sanneke Huisman will introduce Digital Care and media artist Joost Rekveld will give the lecture ‘Dialogue with the Tools’, where he presents the practice and process behind the works of Livinus and Steina, zooming in on the similarities between the two artists. Perhaps the most significant of these is what Steina referred to as a 'Dialogue with the Tools', an idea that connects to Joost's own research. In such a dialogue the 'tool' is not merely passive, but plays an active role as a partner in the development of new images and ideas. Joost will go into some of the history and the future of this idea: is such a dialogue specific to analogue video?

There will be a Q&A which invites the audience to join the conversation.

Moiré by Livinus van de Bundt and Jeep van de Bundt (1975)

Colorful, abstract video paintings by Livinus are accompanied by the electronic music of his son Jeep. The visuals and the music are based on the same rhythmic processes and express a shared identity. Waves of multiplying, transforming, and sliding visual elements act in synchronicity to a musical beat; they are causally bound. At an early stage of his career, Livinus built an image synthesizer and an image generator to achieve these effects, shapingLivinus van de Bundt (1909 - 1979) into a key figure in the history of media art in the Netherlands. His so-called ‘video peintures’ and ‘fotografiek’ are the first abstract images that were made by a Dutch artist using video technology. Moire was made in collaboration with his son Jeep van de Bundt (1951 - ) a professional musician and graphic artist, who studied at Royal Conservatory for Music. For René Coelho, founder/professor of the Media Art department at AKI Art Academy, Livinus' work was the direct motivation to start MonteVideo in 1978 in Amsterdam, which eventually turned into LI-MA ten years ago! 

Violin Power by Steina (1969–1978)

Steina’s Violin Power is, at its core, a study of the relationship between music and electronic image. During a performance of Violin Power, Steina’s violin becomes an image-generating tool, through which she can control image sequences. With experiments since 1969, the work has evolved and developed to new technology. Since 1992, the acoustic demonstrations of the work have been replaced with performances that used a 5-string ZETA violin with MIDI output. In 1997, when Steina was the artistic co-director of STEIM, she developed the Image/ine software, which allowed for real-time video manipulation during her Violin Power performances. Violin Power is one of many media artworks that are related to lifelong technical form experiments and have a performative character. It is an evolving work, with a series of experiments on live video editing using both analog and digital video tools and instruments. It has had a lot of influence on performance, real-time video manipulation, and computer/instrument interfaces. 

Joost Rekveld

Motivated and inspired by what humans can learn from machines and how art can intersect with science, Joost Rekveld has been making abstract films and light installations since 1991. To create these works he often searches for old and forgotten theories and histories of science and technology, creating his own mechanical and optical tools and software to experiment with these ideas. His films have been shown worldwide in a broad spectrum of festivals and venues for experimental film, animation, or other kinds of moving images.  Rekveld was the course director of the ArtScience Interfaculty of the Royal Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague from 2008 to 2014 and since 2017 he has been affiliated with the School of Arts University College Ghent (KASK) as an artistic researcher.    

Sanneke Huisman

Sanneke Huisman (1985) is trained as an art historian, and works as writer, critic and curator with a focus on media art. She is co-editor of A Critical History of Media Art in the Netherlands: Platforms, Policies, Technologies (2019). At LI-MA, she is active as a curator; recent projects include Cultural Matter (2017-2020), Digital Canon of the Netherlands (2017-2019) LIMA Online (2020-2021) and Mediakunst op Wikipedia (2021-2023). Together with Klaas Kuitenbrouwer (Nieuwe Instituut) she is currently co-curator of REBOOT. Pioneering digital art. Furthermore, she writes about contemporary art for magazines and exhibition catalogs, including Metropolis M and Centraal Museum Utrecht, is a guest lecturer and works as an advisor at Creative Industries Fund NL and Cultuurloket DigitALL.

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.  

Event details

Exhibition: Moiré by Livinus & Jeep van de Bundt & Violin Power by Steina
Date: 10-14th May, 2023
Opening times: 12.00-17.00
Entry: Free admission

Lecture Programme: Dialogue with the tool by Joost Rekveld (Media Artist) with an introduction by Sanneke Huisman (Curator, LI-MA)
Reservation: Secure your spot by sending a mail to Esther Verra by clicking here by Wednesday, 10 May.
Doors open: 13.30 
Start program: 14.00

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.

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