Piep Beestjes 2022
Sound Object, painted paravent,
8 channel sound is emitted through bone conducting exciters built within the wooden structure.
My brother’s drawings of birds, thunderclouds and pieces of pie were my starting point for this work. While working with the drawings and re-drawing them did I realize how often the subjects were in a state of making sound. Or, evoked memories of auditory expressions of seeing a particular bird or jellyfish. I admired my brother's drawings and paintings, often repetitive in subject and stripped free of distraction. It was a way to communicate out of necessity, the best way for his autistic mind to express and give sensations a place.
This room divider sets a limit, it creates a division; a physical one. Like our body and mind, it has its limits. The realm of sensations seems tied to these limits of having a body, of having a mind. Still, sharing sensations through expression is wonderful, it ties us together in a space - without physical limits - but with a universal sense of being alive. The room divider likewise suggests a space and passage to this realm.
Video Essay: Someday you will forget yourself , 4k video, 17’ 2024,
Steven Jouwersma attempts to transcend barriers that exist amidst neurologically divergent perceptions of being in the world. The practice of ‘forgetting yourself’ is conceived as an experience in the physical world made possible through a simultaneous meditation on perception itself. It presents the relations within diverse concepts and experiences ranging from Zen Buddhism to activities performed by his mother. Adjacent to this, Steven has researched the concept of snoezelen rooms. The verb “snoezelen” is a combination of the Dutch verbs “snuffelen” (to seek and explore) and “doezelen” (to relax). Snoezel spaces are specifically designed for this practice and are found in care institutions and schools for neurodiverse people. These ideas combined form the potentials for exploration into a flexible relation between the self and reality.
Pieter who is in the video, explains snoezelen,
he has a long career in healthcare and has made a frisian snoezel program.
installation view, Kunsthuis SYB : Je vergeet jezelf nog een keer / Someday you will forget yourself, 4k video, electronics, lamps, vibrating bench. 2024
Installation view : Someday you will forget yourself
The video playback is done with a Raspberry Pi that loops the video and simultaneously controls lights and sound based on the timecode of the video.
The lights switch between a normal cosy mode (as the photo above) and during key moments switches to a more “snoezel”mode that is more dim and colorful. The bench is fitted with blue PVC material that is also seen in the video and is a standard material found in snoezel spaces. The bench vibrates low sound frequencies on a few key moments when a deep sound is part of the video.
The aim with this installation setup is to shift the viewers perception from the frame of the screen to the frame of the whole space and the viewers body within it.
Human beings, animals, vegetables & cosmic dust.
We all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible piper 2022
A sound installation that consists of 7 sound objects placed inside the exhibition space.
7 audio tracks, 7 objects: foam, stone, wood, electronics, pvc fabric.
When the objects are touched, the sound can be felt through resonating vibrations. Visitors can pick up and rearrange the placement of the objects within the space. Objects were made during a 6 week residency at Kunsthuis Syb and was part of the end presentation titled: "someday you will forget yourself"
The sound of the documentation video clip is unedited.
For Recent Projects.
Go the home page: Stevenjouwersma.com
Thank you!