Regine installation, sound

Staalplaat Soundsystem and the book that’s also a paper turntable and a music instrument

A quick post to let you know about the really REALLY nice book i received the other day. I can’t stop playing with it. The publication celebrates Staalplaat Soundsystem‘s brilliant work.

3yo955543913_c06f682c4a_z.jpgYokomono. Photo Staalplaat

0a1nantescb8d5f33_b.jpg0a1nannnntesa098_b.jpgSale Away, Nantes, 2014. Photo Staalplaat

0a8yokomo2bd40de_b.jpgYokomono White at _V2. Photo Staalplaat

0composeda686361_b.jpgComposed Nature, Neerpelt. Photo Staalplaat

You probably know them already. Geert-Jan Hobijn started Staalplaat as a record label in the 1980s. He then expanded his label with a radio programme, a record shop, a magazine and, around the year 2000, he founded Staalplaat Soundsystem, the artistic branch of Staalplaat. I’ve always been a big fan of their noise-making machines and performances that use all kinds of toys, tools, natural or urban settings and electronic junk. Think car horn concert, compositions for vacuum cleaners or washing machines, machines for the ‘spirit of dead computers‘, toy cars driving over vinyl grooves, etc.

The book/turntable/music gadget was published after Hobijn won the Witteveen+Bos Art+Technology Award which goes every year to a visual artist whose work unites the disciplines of art and technology in an exceptional manner and for whom engineering is far more than a means to an end.

0i0iboek1.jpg0pilesboek-2.jpgPhoto Staalplaat

In typical Staalplaat fashion, the publication only serves as a pretext for letting people have fun with sound. It comes with a nifty paper turntable, a music instrument you activate by plugging in a small battery and i even got a pencil to play with the turntable. There’s also a book, by the way.

0a1stallKIDc8c_b.jpgStaalplaat Soundsytem, Om, 2014. Photo Staalplaat Soundsystem

0s1settingupc487c_b.jpgStaalplaat Soundsytem, Om, 2014. Photo Staalplaat Soundsystem

Geert-Jan Hobijn, Composed Nature, part of the exhibition Om, 2014. Video Witteveen+Bos

Zephyrus Composed Nature, part of the exhibition Om, Deventer, 2014

The publication and the Art+Technology Award were accompanied by an exhibition featuring an indoor version of Staalplaat’s Composed Nature inside the Bergkerk Church as part of the exhibition ‘Om’.

Seventy trees were placed in the centre of the church. Visitors of the show could dial a phone number and select one of three compositions. Vintage kitchen mixers attached to the tree trunks were then activated and made the tree rustle according to the chosen composition.

You can order a copy either at Staalplaat or at Metamkine.

Photo on the homepage: AV festival.