This event is free and open to the public.

Abstract

What happens when sound starts to move? In this lecture, Stijn Dickel (artistic director of aifoon) shares the history of aifoon and the story behind The Swarm. Born from a desire to displace sound and interrupt habitual listening, The Swarm explores what it means to carry sound and how this transforms listening into a spatial, embodied and collective experience. The lecture offers insight into the artistic origins, technical development and compositional possibilities of this mobile sound instrument.

Biography

Stijn Dickel, Artistic Director of aifoon

aifoon is an arts organisation based in Ghent (Belgium). For over twenty years, aifoon has been developing artistic and participatory practices centred on listening. Through workshops, immersive installations, and performances the organisation challenges everyday listening habits and explores listening as a creative, social and critical act. Its work pays particular attention to urban contexts and auditory coexistence. From this research, they developed The Swarm: a unique mobile sound system consisting of twenty portable, wireless loudspeakers designed to create sound in motion.

Photo credit: Tom Cornille (copyright)

This work is supported by the Flemish Government