STAALPLAAT SOUNDSYSTEM  ORGANISATION OF SOUND

Within the current mood of worshipping the latest technology in media art, Staalplaat Soundsystem provides a breath of fresh air, reminding us of the 100-year tradition of noise-making machines, in which “mad” inventors and various kinds of artists operating in the margins of the art world meet.
All these installations were made with the same low tech working philosophy, making an installation look so simple that you think” I can do that.The works by Staalplaat Soundsystem are usually brilliant in their simplicity, the first impression leaving no room for technological mystification. (Anton Nikkilä / Avanto festival Helsinki)

Since its inception in 2000, Staalplaat Soundsystem has started creating a multitude of Machine Installations using all manner of consumer electronics,that  include Sweet Sissy and the Ballroom Hiss starring 12 floor polishers, and Avantilator  a composition for one hundred electric office fans.
At the heart of this work was a low-tech philosophy, to make installations appear simple, revealing rather than concealing how they are made. The next step was Floating Islands, a large sound/light installation in public space created for the opening of the Royal Netherlands Embassy 2004 in Berlin. Here we create a floating orchestra composed of fifty vacuum cleaners, plastic bottles and lights. The interactive element of our work is another developing theme. In the installation Sale Away made for the EMAF we explored the influence of the public on our work; by simply using their mobile phones people were able to play a complex mechanical orchestra.

However now our main focus is Architectone, create sound art in public space and use public space as an musical instrument. The first “Architone” in Kiel we created unique instrument/machines to produce physically powerful sound waves such that the entire building became acoustically resonant, tangible, and alive. For the Tuned City Festival in Berlin we applied this idea to a public park under the name of COMPOSEDCITY, a co-production of Lola landscape architects and Staalplaat soundsystem. Bringing the two disciplines of landscape architecture and sound art together, resulting in the new  installation Composed Nature, developed for the Centrum voor Beeldende Kunst Dordrecht, it consists of a matrix of 64 trees. Controllable, mechanical vibrators are mounted on each individual tree and are operated by custom made software. The sound of each tree can vary from a barely audible noise to a heavy “Green noise”, thereby offering different sound textures to be played. It enables visitors to activate patterns via their mobile phones interactively. What is left unspoken is who is in control: nature, mankind or technology.
Worth mentioning is Station to Station for the Today’s Art festival in Den Haag, in collaboration with Mike Reinirse, Erik Hobijn and Mark Bain, in the Den Haag Central train-station. We explored the train station sound and transformed it into an new instrument, using the train movement as faders for the mixing of 10 train horns and station sounds.
Yokomono-Pro, originally developed for the Indian Khoj – International Artists Association in New Delhi, questions horn noise as a social sound and communication. The incredible volume and size of Indian traffic is our inspiration for this project.  We hired 30 auto rickshaws, called tuck-tucks. Then prepared them technically in order to remotely take over control of their horns. This enables us to synchronously play rhythmic patterns
as they drive along a pre-determined route, create an undetermined sound choreography. This car horn experiment hopes to engage on a large scale with the relationship between discrete signals among generalised noise in public space.

Perhaps the most intimate confrontation between the public and our work is Sonic Therapy, to create sound art with our body, the most private space of all,  in 2004 first presented in Ljubljana, Slovenia at the Kapelica Gallery in the form of an installation that gives visitors the chance to experience a unique, personal sensory experience. The installation mimics a clinical environment. Therapies range from relaxing and energising to slightly disturbing.  We were constandly working on new Sonic therapy ideas and talking to artists to develop it further. This work not only allows us to work on a very individual level with the public but also offers the possibility to collaborate with other sound artists.

Yokomono is the Staalplaat Mono Erosive Surround Sound Installation.
The present setup consists of 10 vinyl killers, each customised with its own fm transmitter. The sound will come through a set of radios that receives the signal transmitted by the vinyl killers. You might think Yokomono is just a DJ set with 10 turntables, and in a way that is correct but in many more ways Yokomono is completely different. This project exists as performance and as installation version.

Last but not least we have a series of (kids) workshops & Lectures.
In the kids workshops staalplaat soundsystem show participating kids that fancy japanese devices or expensive instruments are not needed to make great music.
Instead they will demonstrate that  combined with a little bit of research and some playful modification all you really need can easily be found in everyones kitchen or cellar.
At the core of the workshop is the idea of avoiding the “copy” or “rebuild” of that which already exists.
Instead embarking with the children on a “research & development quest” for new sound sources and noise-making devices; quite similar to our regular working methods: play experiment, test, trial and error.

Detailed information you can find in the menue under PROJECTS>>>>

The initiator of Staalplaat Soundsystem is soundartist Geert-Jan Hobijn, graphic designer and founder of  Staalplaat . Other members are: Carlo Crovato is working as an artist and under the pseudonym plastic-electrics , Jens Alexander Ewald software developer and research associate at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel and Carsten Stabenow, the founder of the festival garage , curator of media- and sound art festivals, .

Staalplaat Soundsystem has been showing works at several international festivals, museums, galeries and events like Avanto (Helsinki), Sonar (Barcelona), 798 South Gate space (Beijing), DEAF (Rotterdam),   Transmediale (Berlin), DOM (Moscow), Ars Electronica (Linz), Todaysart (Den Haag), MOCA Taipei, Museeum Weserburg (Bremen), Townhouse Gallery (Cairo), Steirischer Herbst ( Graz), ZKM (Karlsruhe), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Khoj International Artists (New Dehli)   Auditorium (Rome), and LACE (Los Angeles )
LACE.

For our video’s on youtube klick Here ! ,  for our photo’s on flicker klick Here!, for our music on MySpace klick Here!