User:Niek Hilkmann
Some descriptions
Resurrection of the genius was an installation-piece consisting of a variety of audio-visual equipment connected through different pieces of audio- and video wire. A composition of around eight minutes was manipulated and distorted through the equipment and its features. The audio-piece itself consisted of three parts: industrial field-recordings touched game music and the digital simulation of a heartbeat. Different carriers, such as DAT, VHS, MP3 and CD, were used for each part and got combined with differently tuned speakers, for instance a built-in one for a TV-set, stable monitors and computer speakers. The TV-set also visualized it’s audio-input through the digital intervention of a external audio-driver, responding with visual white noise to the electrical current of the heartbeat. The setup was created three times, incorporating audio-equipment available in the room. In each case the space was darkened with only the television screen delivering a beam of light each time the heartbeat sounded.
Sowieso is the second album I recorded under the alias Yoshimi! and was released in februari of 2012. It consists of 11 songs about conceptual disorder and existential crisis and is sung in Dutch. Practically each instrument that occurs during the album’s 38 minutes duration is played by me. There are few electronic sounds to be heard, but the arrangements include twelve string guitar, piano, ukulele, bass, mandolin, conga, drums, harmonium, rababa, qua zeng qin, bongo, dizi, accodeon, trumpet, darbuka, cello, euphonium and violin. The recording, mixing and production of the music was also done by me in a non-studio environment. Last but not least I produced the artwork and released the record through my own music platform KIKVORS which handled promotion and distribution.
http://www.designhistory.nl/2011/het-begrip-kitsch-in-goed-wonen/
Prototying talk
Past experiences
Most of my ‘experience’ in regard to networks and lenses is based on my interest in audio. Besides being acquainted with regular audio production- and manipulation tools, both digital and analogue, I have some skills in circuit bending and building minor circuit boards. Disassembling machinery and putting parts to new uses is something I quite like to do and would like to continue doing. My experience with coded interfaces goes as far as HTML, but I am familiar with most analogue and digital tools used for video production.
Things they'd like to learn
I would like to reflect on the construction and presentation of audio- and video installations. Furthermore, I want to focus my study on the connectivity and remediation of information through different carriers. This means that I would like to look at ways in which transportation of digital information is possible, but also on ways by which analogue data can be digitalized. This in turn requires more understanding in signal-systems, coding, electrical currents and the construction of machinery.
Examples of work they find interesting
The first thing that comes to mind is the work of James Kirby. A good example is his previous (almost popular) recording project under the ‘Caretaker’ moniker: ‘An Empty Bliss From Beyond This World’. Another thing that springs to mind is the ‘Ballads’ construction by Sarkis that is still ongoing in Boijmans’ Onderzeebootloods. When we go a little bit further back it might be nice to point out I love the Philips Pavillion at the World Fair of 1958 in Brussels and the modernist elite writing found in Dutch Design Magazine ‘Goed Wonen’ from the 1950s.