Sonic Acts

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Sonic Acts Cutting-edge experiments in sound, moving image and contemporary theory. Amsterdam, Netherlands

15/10/2026

During a residency at Sonic Acts’ Spatial Sound Studio, composer and artist Clara de Asís developed the sound piece ‘Infinity This Time’, which was then presented at the ‘Listening Room’ – the 2026 Biennial sound exhibition.

Working with acoustic sound and analogue electronics, Clara de Asís explores resonance, tuning and the perception of sound. In ‘Infinity This Time’, a collection of bells forms the basis for the multichannel composition.

In the interview, De Asís reflects on the relationship between listening, time and space in her practice. Drawing on materials developed through performances and recordings of bells collected over years of touring, she explores how to translate precise sonic structures into a more ambiguous spatial experience.

→ Watch the full interview on Sonic Acts’ YouTube channel and read more on our website via the link in bio.

‘Infinity This Time’ was co-commissioned by Sonic Acts and Archipel Festival. This video is published by Paradiso and Sonic Acts as part of ‘New Perspectives for Action’, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the EU.

08/10/2026

Part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 video series, this interview with artist and researcher Sondi was recorded in March, when she presented her newly commissioned AV performance ‘Non-User Friendly’.

→ Watch the interview on the Sonic Acts YouTube channel and read more on our website. Link in bio.

Taking the form of a conversation between Sondi and a fictional AI companion, ‘Non-User Friendly’ explores the shifting boundaries between humans and machines, questioning the technologies that shape our lives and the systems that demand we prove our humanity.

Sondi’s practice examines how power and narrative operate within digital spaces, revealing how artificial systems can perpetuate racial capitalism, imperial power, and invisible labour. She recently won the Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prijs, a prestigious Dutch award recognising the relevance and artistic merit of her work.

‘Non-User Friendly’ (2026) was developed through SPRINGS, Sonic Acts’ platform supporting emerging makers in the Dutch art scene.

This video is realised as part of ‘New Perspectives for Action’, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union.

01/10/2026

Part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 video series, artist and cultural activist Yazan Khalili explores digital radio as a structure for cultural production, drawing on his role as co-founder of Palestine-based Radio Alhara. The lecture was presented at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam during the Biennial Symposium.

→ Watch the full talk on the Sonic Acts YouTube channel. LINK IN BIO.

In the talk, Khalili considers how cultural organisations are built, maintained and managed, and what radio can offer as an infrastructure for connectivity, solidarity and cultural exchange. He introduces the idea of ‘communal media’ through Radio Alhara’s networks of friendship, trust and shared labour, proposing a form of digital media rooted in collective presence rather than algorithmic and data-driven structures.

This video is part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 Symposium online lecture video series. It is realised as part of ‘New Perspectives for Action’, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the EU.

Video: Engage! TV
Intro sound: KMRU & Aho Ssan
Design: Knoth & Renner with Anja Kaiser

24/09/2026

Part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 series, 'Ex Aqua' is a poetic collaboration bringing together theorist and poet Ayesha Hameed and musician Aimée Theriot in a live exploration of listening, grief, memory, and loss. The piece premiered at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam during the Biennial Symposium.

→ Watch the full performance on the Sonic Acts YouTube channel, or listen to the podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. LINK IN BIO.

In their performance, Hameed and Theriot explore ‘exaqua’ – a term coined by poet M. NourbeSe Philip in 'Zong!' to describe a watery equivalent of exhumation, or the act of reclaiming from the earth. Inviting the audience into what Palestinian artist Bint Mbareh calls ‘aggressive listening’, they work with fragments of language and sound that surface, overlap, and dissolve. Through improvisation, this resonant performance creates a space where grief, memory, and loss can be approached through the unstable materiality of sound.

This video is part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 Symposium online lecture video series. It is realised as part of ‘New Perspectives for Action’, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the EU.

Video: Engage! TV
Design: Knoth & Renner with Anja Kaiser

18/09/2026

Part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 series, Steve Goodman’s lecture is now available to watch and listen back. Presented at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam during the Biennial Symposium, the talk revisits themes from his influential book ‘Sonic Warfare’ and asks what the politics of vibration might sound like today.

→ Watch the full lecture on the Sonic Acts YouTube channel, or listen to the podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. LINK IN BIO.

Drawing from his forthcoming book ‘Notes on the Third Ear’, Goodman, also known as Kode9, traces an evolving ‘sonic ecology of fear’ through sonic booms, drone warfare, acoustic detection, and machine listening. Moving between warfare, sound art, and technological listening, he considers how sound shapes bodies, environments, memory, and perception, and asks what it means to listen beyond conventional hearing.

This video is part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 Symposium online lecture video series. It is realised as part of ‘New Perspectives for Action’, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the EU.

Video: Engage! TV
Design: Knoth & Renner with Anja Kaiser

11/09/2026

Part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 series, this video and podcast revisits Margarida Mendes’ performative lecture presented at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam during the Biennial Symposium.

→ Watch the full video on the Sonic Acts YouTube channel, or listen to the podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. LINK IN BIO.

In her poetic reading, Mendes traces the changing ecology of Portugal’s Tagus River, where pollution, dams, and eucalyptus monocultures have transformed the river and its surrounding landscapes. Through field recordings, voice, and testimonies from river guardians, she explores ecological mourning and the ways environmental loss is registered in bodies, communities, and the landscape.
Moving between geological deep time and the rhythms of rivers, bodies, and other forms of life, Mendes asks how we record change, sense extinction, and listen for what is absent as well as what remains.

This video is part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 Symposium online lecture video series. It is realised as part of ‘New Perspectives for Action’, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the EU.

Video: Engage! TV
Design: Knoth & Renner with Anja Kaiser

09/09/2026

You might have noticed that we’ve been very active on Substack lately, and there’s a good reason for that. We have exciting news! 📚

If you’ve been searching for a sold-out Sonic Acts Press publication, you can now download it as a PDF, exclusively for paid subscribers. Ten publications are currently available, including 'The Geologic Imagination', a richly illustrated collection exploring the Anthropocene, and 'Ecoes 7', dedicated to listening and the unseen. We plan to add more, so keep an eye out for future releases! 👀

→ Become a subscriber on Substack and explore the recently added Sonic Acts publications. LINK IN BIO.

Sonic Acts Press’ publishing practice stretches back to 2001, bringing together artists, writers, theorists and researchers to explore some of the most urgent questions of our time. By making these texts available digitally, we hope to open up the archive and allow new readers to discover publications they may have missed the first time around.

→ If you prefer something you can hold in your hands, our webshop still has plenty to discover, from books and vinyl to CDs and merch.

Sonic Acts is supported by & .

01/09/2026

Part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 series, this video and podcast revisits Flavia Dzodan’s lecture presented at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam during the Biennial Symposium.

→ Watch the full video on the Sonic Acts YouTube channel, or listen to the podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. LINK IN BIO.

In her ongoing research project ‘Affective Logistics’, Flavia Dzodan examines how computational infrastructures precondition, capture, and route emotion as logistical matter. Tracing genealogies from military command systems to domestic technologies of optimisation, she reveals how contemporary architectures turn affect into data for circulation and control. Against the drive towards seamlessness, Dzodan turns to latency – delay, drift, deferred presence – as a way of making room for ambiguity. These interruptions connect the delayed signals to longing, mourning, and diasporic experience.

📅 On Saturday, 5 September at 18:00 .serriffe in Amsterdam, Dzodan presents her book ‘Latent Mournings’. The evening continues a conversation that began at the Biennial, where Dzodan shared a Q&A with Hugo Esquinca about what persists beneath the surface of computational systems.

This video is part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 Symposium online lecture video series. It is realised as part of ‘New Perspectives for Action’, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the EU.

Video: Engage! TV
Design: Knoth & Renner with Anja Kaiser

27/08/2026

Part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 series, this video and podcast revisits pantea’s lecture about 'Maram-Nameh', presented at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam during the Biennial Symposium.

→ Watch the full video on the Sonic Acts YouTube channel, or listen to the podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. LINK IN BIO.

In her talk, pantea (Pantea Armanfar) shared a process of developing Maram-Nameh – an evolving, multilingual guide and living archive that partially traces silences across histories and geographies, engaging suppressed languages and the fragile worlds they hold.

An inquiry into relation, care, and ethical attunement, 'Maram-Nameh' was partly developed in February 2026 during 'The Walls Have Ears', a sound studies writing residency organised by Sonic Acts and De Ateliers/Woonhuis in Amsterdam. The work is developed within Khamoosh – a collective archiving Iranian sonic heritage through everyday sounds.

This video is part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 Symposium online lecture video series. It is realised as part of ‘New Perspectives for Action’, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the EU.

Video: Engage! TV
Design: Knoth & Renner with Anja Kaiser

20/08/2026

Part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 series, this video and podcast revisits philosopher and writer Salomé Voegelin’s performance lecture Politics and Desire, Violence and a Governance of Love, presented at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam during the Biennial Symposium.

→ Watch the full video on the Sonic Acts YouTube channel, or listen to the podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. LINK IN BIO.

Taking contemporary authoritarianism and ‘strong leadership’ as a starting point, Voegelin considers why political desire so often takes the form of domination and control. Drawing on bell hooks, Hannah Arendt, David Graeber, and others, she considers desire as a flow between bodies and communities. Could a sonic sensibility – attentive, relational, and fluid – shift political desire towards forms of leadership grounded in reciprocity?

This video is part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 Symposium online lecture video series, which took place at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. It is realised as part of ‘New Perspectives for Action’, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the EU.

Video: Engage! TV
Design: Knoth & Renner with Anja Kaiser

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