When I began experiencing tinnitus, the very notion of silence was fundamentally altered. Silence became occupied by faint—and at times piercing—clusters of persistent ringing. Unlike a device, this auditory condition cannot be switched off or paused; it is continuous and involuntary. While the eyes can close, taking a break from visual stimuli, the ears remain perpetually open—always sensing, always hearing. This condition has informed my engagement with sound as both a physical and pathological phenomenon, shaping my work’s investigation of perception, agency, and the inescapable presence of auditory experience.
Niet Stil is a meditation on the impossibility of stillness using mechanized noise-producing heirlooms procured from images of abundance and death. I constructed components around the forms of found materials, selecting objects portrayed in protocapitalist Dutch still-life paintings. The sculptures function as autonomous musical instruments, blending visual and sonic elements derived from home decor, fake food displays, and vintage analog electronics.
The installation operates as a mechanical synthesizer, comprising an interconnected system where all components function interdependently within a self-contained framework, driven by mechanical inputs and outputs. Proximity sensors, positioned near slowly rotating, irregular, handmade forms, scan their surfaces like a CD player’s laser head. These surfaces vary between smooth, visually guided patterns and textured irregularities. The sensors capture and transmit dynamic data, modulating synthesizers and triggering electromechanical speaker valves, gongs, bells, and tines. By merging electronic randomness with mechanical imperfection, the system generates continuously evolving sounds and movements that shift in response to the spectator’s presence within its range.
Niet Stil, contains acoustic, spatial, immersive, and improvisational elements that all happen at once and in different places throughout. It can not be completely captured in a video or audio format. It must be experienced in person.
