On 15 and 16 December 2022 sound artist Paul Devens, Bureau Europa, the Jan van Eyck Academy and Conservatorium Maastricht organise the two-day, free-to-attend symposium The Derailment of the Usual. We explore the ways architecture, sound, and technology influence our perception and experience, as well as politicise society.

In Maastricht, sound artist Paul Devens, with his installation Folly / The Derailment of the Usual (2021), has created a sonic reenactment of what an inhabitant of the infamous Cité Ouvrière might have heard during his stay in this now demolished residential barracks. The building no longer exists, but its sound can be recreated using a method called acoustic archaeology, which seeks to explore and make audible the invisible dimensions of architecture.

Sound art
The symposium of the same name addresses sound art as an artistic medium, the infrastructure that makes it possible and contextualises the whole thing, as well as what historical roots underlie it. Sound art, embedded in its social context, does not exist without considering space and architecture, just as the exchange between sound and architecture does not exist without power, discipline and politics.

These theses will be analysed and made public by a host of (inter)national speakers from sound art, architecture and related disciplines. The debate will cluster around the question of how established values can be criticised, how its context changes when this happens, and how ultimately the values themselves change. Over the course of two days, it will also explore how architecture can condition and condition artistic (sound) art practice, how this operates in the momentum of societal transformations and how this field is agitated by sound.

With renowned speakers and performers
This two-day, free-to-attend symposium will take place at the Jan van Eyck Academy on 15 and 16 December 2022 and is a collaboration between Paul Devens, Bureau Europa, Jan van Eyck Academy and Conservatorium Maastricht.

Renowned speakers such as Raviv Ganchrow, Linnea Semmerling, Peter Kiefer, Caroline Claus, Niamh McDonnell, Jacob Kirkegaard and Luca Soudant will be present. Besides the speakers, there will also be performances by Jacob Kirkegaard and Kacper Ziemianin and the results of a collaboration between the Fine Arts Department of the Maastricht Institute of Arts and Maastricht Conservatory of Music will be presented.

The publication The Derailment of the Usual, with essays by the speakers at the symposium, will also be presented. The Derailment of the Usual is a project by Paul Devens and co-curated by Eline Kersten. With the closing performance by Glice and several students of Conservatorium Maastricht and a commentary by curator Remco Beckers at Bureau Europa, the exhibition Frozen Music will be officially opened.

Programme 15 December
11.30 h. – Welcome and introduction Paul Devens, Eline Kersten and Remco Beckers
12.30 h. – Lunch (please register)
13.30 h. – Niamh McDonnell
14.30 h. – Jacob Kirkegaard
15.30 h. – Coffee break
16.10 h. – Linnea Semmerling
17.30 h. – Performance Kacper Ziemianin

Programme 16 December
11.30 h. – Caroline Claus
12.30 h. – Lunch (please register)
13.30 h. – Raviv Ganchrow
14.30 h. – Luca Soudant
15.30 h. – Coffee break
16.00 h. – Peter Kiefer
17.00 h. – Together towards Bureau Europa
17.45 h. – Official opening exhibitions ‘Frozen Music’ alderman Frans Bastiaens, Floor van Spaendonck and Remco Beckers
18.30 h. – Performance Kailinn Nijenhuis, Jien Chir Yap
18.45 h. – Performance Biën Kamphuis, Nader Adabnejad
19.00 h. – Performance Glice

https://www.bureau-europa.nl/en/symposium-the-derailment-of-the-usual/