Thomas Ankersmit & Bernd Schurer at Spektrum Berlin / Friday, 04.03.2016

A great friday night double bill at Spektrum to start the month of March with Thomas Ankersmit and Bernd Schurer both presenting some of their most recent works at Hyperlinear #1 – a new series curated by Benjamin Flesser and presented in collaboration with SPEKTRUM.

Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) are sounds given off by the inner ear when the cochlea is stimulated by a sound. When sound stimulates the cochlea, the outer hair cells vibrate. The vibration produces a nearly inaudible sound that echoes back into the middle ear. The sound can be measured with a small probe inserted into the ear canal. For the first part of Hyperlinear the artists Bernd Schurer and Thomas Ankersmit will perform two shows focusing on the phenomenon of otoacoustic emissions. The expertise and different aesthetic approaches of the artists will give a contrasting insight and experience of the topic.

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Thomas Ankersmit (1979, Leiden, Netherlands) is a sound and installation artist based in Berlin and Amsterdam. Acoustic phenomena such as sound reflections, infrasonic vibration, otoacoustic emissions, and highly directional projections of sound have been an important part of his work since the early 2000’s. His work is also characterized by a deliberate misuse of the equipment, using feedback and disruptions to the signal, and the extremes of frequency and dynamics, to create visceral but finely detailed swarms of sound. Since 2006 his main instrument, both live and in the studio, has been the Serge analogue modular synthesizer.

Bernd Schurer (*1970, Zürich, lives and works in Berlin) is a sound artist and composer. He studied Philosophy and Film Sciences (University of Zürich), Visual Art and Composition in Zürich and Lucerne . In his work he addresses aspects of psychological and aesthetic perception via audition through means of digital sound-synthesis, electro-acoustics and experimental conceptual processes. A central practice is the inclusion of psychoacoustic phenomena and spatial multichannel composition. The focus is exclusively on the sensation of hearing – these sound-pieces, albeit minimal in setup, are very physical and may be better experienced in a context that allows for a strong experiental concentration with an audience – thus installation work is often preferred over “music performance”. His work comprises installations, performances, curating and audio releases as well as numerous collaborations with artists in the fields of transdisciplinarity and film, most notably his longstanding collaboration with Swiss visual artist Yves Netzhammer.

vimeo.com/72483210

Hyperlinear investigates recent developments in electronically generated sound i.e. sonification, generative sound and improvised computer/synthesizer sound as well as their relations to psychoacoustic phenomena to contrast the wide range of techniques employed by sound artists and composers today. For each event two artists/groups are invited to perform recent works or present recent studies.