Goodmesh

09/12/2024

First Prize Winner Goodmesh Concours 2024: FEVER+Jerry Salas

Agus Fulka is an Argentinian/Spanish guitarist and composer, currently studying jazz guitar at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. In 2024, he founded a new band, FEVER, where he explores the intersection of professional improvisers and electronic music. Agus Fulka intended FEVER as a space in which to explore current social, technological, and cultural dynamics through music.

In collaboration with visual artist Jerry Salas, FEVER explores the cutting edge of AI-driven interactivity, using artificial intelligence to synchronize lighting and visuals in real time. AI-powered tools adjust lights, projections, and effects based on narrative prompts, creating an adaptive environment that evolves with the performance. This system uses machine learning to map the prompts onto an aesthetic framework, ensuring that every visual and lighting shift aligns with the emotional flow of the musical narrative.

In this raw and mystical performance acoustic instruments and electronics meet the visual experience in a ritualistic suite inspired by Argentinian and Spanish folklore, as well as jazz music and techno. This collaboration brings forth a reflective multimedia experience, where the audience is invited to reflect on its natural self and artificial self.

09/12/2024

09/12/2024

The Audience Prize voted on during the evening, went to Wisse Scheele and Apollon Kalemenios for Echoes of a Lost Bird. This deeply moving piece blended music, dance, and visuals to explore themes of loss and memory.

Wisse Scheele, a dancer and a visual artist from the Netherlands currently working with the Slovak National Ballet, and Apollon Kalamenios, a pianist and composer from Cyprus studying at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, formed their artistic partnership in Amsterdam, in 2021, while being housemates. Since then, they share a valuable friendship which fuels their shared passion for creative expression across diverse mediums, specializing in blending traditional art forms with digital innovation.
Echoes of a Lost Bird centers on exploring the dualities of real and artificial, nature and technology, by telling the story of the extinct Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird through a blend of music, visuals, and dance. This project addresses the environmental crisis and the disconnection from nature, embodying the bird’s lost mating call and symbolizing the urgency of preservation.
The composer chose a unique instrument to represent the bird’s soul and essence - a chladni plate. The moving sand on its surface resonates with the dancers’ movements and enhances the symbolic connection between the sound and nature, the same way dance and visuals are intertwined. Echoes of a Lost Bird implements AI as a response from another mystical source, offering a duet between real and imagined, while representing technology as both a tool for preservation and a mirror of loss.

09/12/2024

Second Prize Winner: Julia Sanjurjo & Agustín Issidoro - /search?q=love
Julia Sanjurjo is an Argentinian singer, composer, and arranger. She graduated in Composition from the National University of Arts in Argentina and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Composition/Arrangement at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, while also performing in the IRCAM Cursus in Paris.
Agustín Issidoro, a fellow Argentinian composer, is currently a Master’s student in Multimedia Composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg and, like Julia, is enrolled in IRCAM’s Cursus de Composition.
Their shared journey at IRCAM and mutual interest in multimedia and contemporary music come together in the performance /search?q=love. In this performance the audience follows a story of heartbreak and disillusionment as Julia discovers that her online love interest is, in fact, a chatbot designed to seduce and deceive.
In search?q=love, AI plays a multifaceted role, shaping both the content and form of the performance. Through AI-generated text, music, and visuals—including haikus, sonnets, and digital avatars—the piece critically examines how algorithms shape human emotions and perceptions in a world increasingly mediated by intelligent machines.

09/12/2024

Finalists of Goodmesh Conciurs 2024: Mariana Preda - Music Meditation
Mariana Preda is a Romanian panflutist whose music spans from the folk traditions of her homeland to contemporary compositions created specifically for her. She holds a Master’s in Classical and Contemporary Music from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, has released four albums with MAP Milan and Donemus Publishing, and actively performs in diverse ensembles across classical, contemporary, and folk genres, continually expanding the expressive possibilities of her instrument.

In Music Meditation, Mariana Preda brings together the panflute—one of the world’s oldest instruments, often confined to its native folk context—and AI, one of the newest advancements in music technology. By combining these two seemingly disparate elements, she creates a powerful bridge between ancient traditions and modern innovation, expanding the panflute’s expressive possibilities in ways rarely explored before. This performance invites the audience into a tranquil, meditative space, where the fusion of human and machine creativity creates a deeply reflective experience.
Music Meditation is co-composed in the truest sense, with Mariana’s improvisations blending with Romanian folk music and being accompanied by AI-generated layers, conjoining the creativity of the individual, machine, and collective.

09/12/2024

Finalist of Goodmesh Concours 2024 - Sara Brink-Nielsen Trio & Gus Wolf Wickerhoff - Beyond Perspective.

Sara Brink-Nielsen, a versatile harpist with a classical music degree from ArtEZ Zwolle and current studies in jazz harp at HKU Utrecht, joins forces with Dutch filmmaker and visual artist Gus Wolf Wickerhoff, whose work focuses on bridging the gap between marginalized communities and mainstream society. Together with jazz musicians Bram van de Glind on flügelhorn and Damian de Muijnck on drums they present a unique visual concert - Beyond Perspective.
This performance explores the influence of technology on human connection, addressing an urgent societal issue—polarization, especially as shaped by technology and social media.
Through an improvised interaction between the musicians and visuals, Beyond Perspective mirrors the complex relationship with technology and algorithmic tools: elements designed to foster connection, yet which can also evolve independently, shaping human responses and interactions.
The performance investigates this duality by emphasizing an improvisational response to AI-generated imagery. Beyond Perspective seeks to reveal both the divisions and beauty technology can create. By navigating the tensions between control and unpredictability, the artists invite the audience to experience this journey towards a new, shared vision of unity.

18/11/2024

ARTificial Finale is Around the Corner!

In just 7 days, on November 25th, join us at Het Concertgebouw for an unforgettable evening. The finale will feature the five extraordinary performer groups—selected from talented candidates worldwide—presenting their visionary works live.

Read more...

ARTificial Finale is Around the Corner!

01/07/2024

It's here! Goodmesh Concours 2024 is out.
Celebrating our 5th anniversary with the most exciting topic yet: ARTificial.
Calling all daring ts to apply by September 15th and embrace or challenge AI in their work.

One thing is for sure: is here to stay and artists are at the forefront of shaping our understanding and addressing the complexities of its application.

Biggest, best prizes yet: Het Concertgebouw debut, Microsoft and FrieslandCampina Special Prizes, BBC and Vanderholst Arts Management international press exposure, professional video and photoshoot as well as cash prizes over 10K!

Share with your friends and don't miss out on this exciting opportunity.

more info: www.goodmesh.nl

01/05/2024

The new Goodmesh Concours is live and applications are open! Celebrating our 5th anniversary with the most exciting topic yet: ARTificial!

Get creative, collaborate with different artists and apply by September 15th. Like last year, you get a chance to perform at Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam and win prizes worth over 25.000€!

This is an opportunity you don't want to miss! Check it out at www.goodmesh.nl 🪸

30/11/2023

Jury Member Anna Sitnikova, Founding director of exposed ‘THE TEST FLIGHT’ to the visitors of the concert.
On Feb 19, 2022, the Moon Gallery Foundation launched the world’s first off-planet
gallery aboard a NG-17 rocket with a Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply mission to the International Space Station.
The test mission of 64 artefacts was housed inside a Nanoracks Nanobox, together with a camera aimed at the gallery for targeted material observations in microgravity. After spending
11 months aboard the station, the Gallery returned to Earth on the 11th of January 2023.

Artworks: 64
Days in space: 327

29/11/2023

The winners of Goodmesh Concours 2023, chosen by an esteemed jury and the audience, captivated everyone with their innovative and creative interpretations, weaving together music and other art forms to interpret the enigmatic theme of the Full Moon.

1st Prize
Smackgirls - Saxophone and Dance
In their compelling performance, Smackgirls, comprising Lisa Schreiber and Kanoko Takeuchi, explored the cyclical nature of the moon, embracing vulnerability and transformation. Their synergy on and off stage created a powerful connection that resonated with the audience.
Jury: “Simple yet strong presentation with palpable energetic connection between both players. Fascinating narrative with sufficient contrasts, resulting in a convincin