Dewi de Vree

The site-specific radio-ballet is based on transformative antennas which are a reinterpretation of the historical female clothing element the ‘Crinoline’, a hooped cage initially worn under petticoats, which now functions as a physical extension of the performer’s bodies and technological expansion of the human senses – shifting symbols of restriction into emancipatory tools of liberation. The rotating spheres receive site-specific electromagnetic waves which are processed as raw sound material into a musical composition. The signals are dependent on the position of the performers relating to the space and each other.

Collaboration with Margriet Kicks-Ass

‘Re: set’ is an artistic research project focussing on sound in relation to atmospheric phenomena by Donia Jourabchi (BE) and Dewi de Vree (NL). ‘Reset’ stands for ‘adjust’, ‘starting anew’, ‘restoring to zero’. In the context of this project it stands for the reduction of stimuli from the senses. ‘Resetting the senses’, which is conducive to meditative state and lets us become aware of the slightest details and changes of the sensory input we receive from the environment. This ‘nothingness’ is the starting point from which we let this project emerge. Re:Set started at Platform Residency in Vaasa, Finland Nov 2017 / Feb 2018.

Maria de’ Medici and Maria Stuart is a Post-Elizabethanian electromagnetic tragedy, based on the royal Medici-collar or the Stuart-collar, a historic clothing element which functions as an audible lace – an antenna which picks up radio waves site-specifically and makes them audible through electronic sounds. The synergetic object of de- and re-territorialization functions as the instrument of global regency of the electromagnetic spectrum. The performance will each time result in a different sonic event and composition, determined by the signals that are present on the specific location and modulated by the movements of the wearer relative to the space, and each other. It´s name refers to the economic and aesthetic concurrence and the confessional conflicts of late 16th regimes in Europe. These issues have found their manifestation as a ‘war of the golden lace’, carried out by two of the most influential political figures of european monarchy. Maria de’ Medici and Maria Stuart might have never met in time and space physically, their commonalities remain as the utmost political power and failure, flight to exile and denationalization and death in poverty. The Medici/Stuart-collars, rising above the wearer´s head as a physical extension, a symbol of prosperity, are merely functional steel antenna constructions, which marks the turn towards an aesthetics of transparency, emphasizing the aesthetic value of ostensibly functional apparatus. Audible gates to the invisible phenomena of the momentary situation are being opened up, immersing the audience not only into a broad incalculable sound spectrum but also a holistic and irreproducible synesthetic experience.

The 4 hours long site-specific sound performance of Magnetoceptia in Jerusalem has been presented at ‘Echoes Festival’ on August 31 2017 in the Valley of the Cross, as part of מקודשת Mekudeshet مقدسة. It has been developed in collaboration with the Tzofim scout movement, which maintains its headquarters in the Valley of the Cross. On top of a wooden radio tower that has been constructed by the scouts, signals of the international shortwave band have been captured by the receiver, wearing a self-built antenna construction that has functioned as a physical extension towards the sky. Flag semaphore has served as optical commands for the scouts to distribute the received signals all over the valley and pervade the whole area with global hidden signals. Within a self-invented symbolic framework, the scouts actions and rituals will be alienated and merged into a new vocabulary which consists of a repartoir of gestures, favouring the distribution of those hidden signals and unheard voices. A composition has been developed, that combines these movements into a choreographed performance. Throughout this durational nighttime event the antenna´s reach has been increased by the scouts wire construction, through which the range of reception has gradually undergone an audible change.

Magnetoceptia’s latest performance ‘Tip the Scales in a Gambler’s Favor’ has been presented on the 23rd July 2017 in Hal25 Alkmaar, The Netherlands. The performance has been developed within the context of Creatorium Residency, with the support of Hal25 and BMEIA Den Haag. This time a platform is created on which the Cheese carriers´guild – ‘Kaasdragers’ of Alkmaar – meet the local radio sending-amateurs. The most simple and versatile methods of telecommunication – semaphore signs and morse code – will serve as optical and audible commands for the Cheese carriers´guild, shaping the composition of the performance. Through the ceaseless clink of their wooden shoes, Dewi de Vree & Patrizia Ruthensteiner alias VICTOR & ROMEO, will transmit codes, evoking a cascade of translations to chase around the cheese carriers. By stepping out of accord, eventually a new language will be created, one that is based on a more physical vocabulary, as a result from walking off the path of the NATO phonetic alphabet. The material and immaterial, the local and the worldwide, the received and the self-generated sounds presented during the performance, will be sent out by the Grand Master of Shortwave controlling an antenna receiving station, to be eventually picked up in distant spheres by a potential observer of the earthly activities. In the lodge of Magnetoceptia’s guild, each member has their own call sign and colour-code to mark their respective roles, placing them in the hierarchy of the performance. White is the colour of the carriers´guild and the mason’s apron (schort), whose enlarged pattern will serve as the stage, a chalk-drawn playground. The choreography of the piece will be determined by the rules of a self-invented game, by which chains of commands, translations and cascades of re-contextualized actions are evoked. Enclosed male circles will now be stimulated to a dialogue, controlled and directed by VICTOR & ROMEO. Stereotypes will be stretched out and compressed again, sonified and transmitted to another star.

‘Admiraal van Delfshaven the 1st’ is a wearable Antenna receiver which picks up different invisible phenomena from its surroundings and makes them audible through electronic sound. The shipmast-inspired construction is entirely built from materials found in Rotterdam Harbour. The un-/foldable wooden beams serve as platforms for a selection of receivers which have different configurations to convert electromagnetic fields and wind energy into sound. The picked up signals vary in the range of maritime and aviation communication frequency bands as well as urban- and naturally generated signals of the environment. The signals of the specific location, modulated by the wearer through operating different mechanisms of the costume, each time result in a unique composition. ‘Admiraal van Delfshaven the 1st’ is part of the series of pieces developed in The Netherlands.

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