Possessed by Microbes at Weld, November 30

Between 2018-2022 a group of artists and researchers from many European countries met, discussed, cooked, ate and made interdisciplinary art events about the microbes that humans live in symbiosis with. The members of the group share a deep interest in how humankind’s growing understanding about the microbes in the human body influence humankind’s understanding of itself and our place in the world. Their collective experiences form the basis for a publication that shed light on how microbes influence our health and our personality.

With the starting point in the book some of the contributors to the book will talk, together with the audience, how microbes influence our personality and behaviour. Maybe microbes can (partly) explain what possession and loss of self means?

Please join us for an informal talk Sunday November 30, 17.00 at Weld in Central Stockholm. Everyone is welcome, entrance is free and no booking required. Weld, Norrtullsgatan 7 (t-bana Odenplan)

113 29 Stockholm

The book is edited by Freddie Ross in 2022. It was designed by Erik Månsson. The publication is supported by Längmanska kulturfonden

Tomas Nordmark and Per Hüttner Release Events and Concerts in Sweden

Tomas Nordmark and Per Hüttner announces vinyl release of their performance in Tokyo. The 40 minutes long performance recorded live at Permian in Tokyo will be released on vinyl and on streaming platforms fall/winter 2025. To celebrate the release the duo will announce new performances of the piece ‘One Step Closer to the Abyss’, previously performed in Tokyo, Fukuoka, Beijing, Paris and Sousse.

The performances will take place at 19.00, November 28 at Evigheten, Vulkangatan 3 in Norrköping and at 19.30, November 29 at P26 at Pipersgatan 26 in Stockholm
London based composer and musician Tomas Nordmark and Paris based musician and visual artist Per Hüttner have been working together since 2021. Together they develop creative and visionary performances using the technology platform the EEGsynth. The EEGsynth is a hard- and software platform that allows performers to create sounds and images using neural signals from the human nerves and brain. The technology is unique because it has been has been developed by European artists, musicians in close collaboration with neuroscientists since 2014. In the performances the artists use measurements of a performer’s brain signal on his/her head using an electro encephalogram (EEG) in real time.

You are welcome to join Nordmark and Hüttner for a performance using the EEGsynth technology. In the performance entitled “One Step Closer to the Abyss” they present music and images that are generated and modulated by a performers brain activity in real time. They work with sounds from a traditional electric guitar which has been modulated by the brain multiple times to create aesthetically interesting sounds. They also have dynamic visuals that are influenced in real time by the brain. The performance takes its inspiration from Mark Fisher’s writings and his reflections on the weird and the eerie: how humans and art deal with the unknown in their everyday and in artistic creation.

The EEGsynth platform is used by artists and researchers in Sweden, France, Norway, the Netherlands and in the UK. They use signals from the human brain, but also from trees, fish and microbes to create performances. The team has made over 80 performances and workshops in a number of European countries, Mexico, Egypt, Brazil and the US. There has been a lot of interest both in the performances and in the technology. For instance French film maker Fabien Guillermont has made a full length documentary on the project.

Per Hüttner is a Swedish visual artist who lives and works in Paris, France and in Stockholm, Sweden. He graduated from Konsthögskolan in Stockholm 1993. He also studied at Hochschule der Künste in Berlin 1991-1992. He is mostly known for his photographic work and for his interactive, changing and travelling exhibition projects. A number of monographs about his practice has been published including Per Hüttner, 2003; I am a Curator, 2004; Repetitive Time 2006, Xiao Yao You 2006 and Democracy and Desire 2007

Tomas Nordmark is a Swedish-born artist, composer and producer living and working in London, United Kingdom. He was educated at the Department of Culture and Society at the University of Linköping in Sweden where he studied Audio Culture and Contemporary Art. His compositions and works have been featured in opera, public installations, film, theatre plays and in exhibitions. Since 2019 he has released music on the Brooklyn-based label Valley of Search with live performances in London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Helsinki, Ljubljana, Tokyo and more.

Composed and performed live by Per Hüttner and Tomas Nordmark at Permian | Tokyo, May 31, 2024

Alpha Xiao releases new album

Alpha Xiao is a brainwave, flute, synth music community. They use portable electro encephalagraph modulating audio samples (Per Huttner) combined with a Xiao flute (Andra Kalle) using the EEGsynth. They focus on connectivity through rough sketched compositions, as brain waves control dynamics of the sound, and vice versa, a feedback loop is generated with reciprocal influences and responses. Their music is an exploration of mental and musical and which they have been engaged in space since 2020. 

Their new album “La Generale” is out on Bandcamp now. Buy or listen here. You can also check out a video of two songs from a live gig in Helsinki from April 2025 here.

The Liminal participates in Eftercenter

“Eftercenter” is a platform initiated by choreographers Sebastian Lingserius and Nefeli Oikonomou. It explores alternative after-processes in dance, in other words, strategies to evaluate choreographic process. During the Loveboost-festival at Weld in Stockholm, the artists’ “after documents” will be exhibited. These are visual, textual and performative traces that have emerged from the evaluation of choreographic projects. The work includes reflection, public discussions and post-documentation. Vision Forum is present with the project The Liminal.

Opening September 23 at 7:00 PM
The exhibition is open throughout the festival (23-28 September).
Norrtullsgatan 7
113 29 Stockholm

info[at]weld.se

Friends and Strangers is out

 

Friends and Strangers  is out. Friends and Strangers is a game that has been developed by åbäke and Per Hüttner to inspire new conversations. It includes 54 cards and 108 questions or tasks to be carried out by strangers to become friends and by friends to go deeper into friendship. Use it to turn a stranger into a friend (by getting to know them) or turn a friend into a stranger (by revealing unknown aspects of their inner worlds.) In order to make the most of the experience, we invite you to try to surprise yourself and thereby surprising others.

How it works:

There are no correct answers in this game, just an infinite number of reflections to share. Strangers and Friends has no losers, only players. Each card you draw has a question that

you discuss with the other players for as long as you like. Or it has a task that you carry out if you so wish. It is designed to be used in any situation: with your sister, at a family gathering or holiday, on a date or on a train. When you play Strangers and Friends you are NOT your values. You can test your own priorities. Why not try a stance that normally isn’t your own? Opposing positions should be fun. Make it your utmost priority to listen to the other person’s views. Agreeing is by no means a prerequisite. Rhetoric is welcomed, but synthesis of different opinions is not necessary. The mantra is “thesis, antithesis and prosthesis” rather than “thesis, antithesis and synthesis.” Avoid politics, social media and by all means polarisation between points of view. Prioritise curiosity, discovery and sharing rather than criticality. The goal is to have fun together, rather than striving to appear brilliant in front of others. Listening is more important than speaking (especially on a date!) and exchange more important than each person’s values and opinions. If you feel that you are being attacked, voice it. It does not mean that the other person is attacking you, it is time to move on to the next question. You can skip any question or activity that is not to your liking or that the circumstances make hard to carry out.

The publication has been supported by Längmanska kulturfonden and was published for Curatorial Mutiny’s 20th anniversary. Order your copy (12 euros + P&P) by dropping us a line on info [at] visionforum.eu.

IKFKOS in the Heart of Sami Country

Our sister organisation IKFKOS will carry out a workshop on a burial mound outside Krokvik, close to Kiruna in northern Sweden August 13-18, 2025. The work will focus on examining mankind’s connection to nature: to nature that is pulsating inside us and to nature which is sprawling and sprouting around us. Special attention will be paid to reflections about how contemporary Western civilisation breeds insensitivity to the natural vibrations within us and around us. We will reflect on how we, through rationality, have lost the connection to the outside world which is instead shaped by ideas and ideologies. This world view makes us focus on regrets about the past and the future and takes focus from life here and now. In the workshop we will investigate how, through traditional Sami and Kven knowledge and the arts, can reconnect to life in new and inspiring ways.

The group is made up of representatives from traditional Sami and Kven communities as well as practitioners in theatre, dance, music and visual art. The group will also be joined by an experienced medium. They will organise a public event at 15.00 on August 16. Please drop a line to info [at] visionforum.eu if you want to join the group.

xLEPH in Residency in Paris

The Franco-Swedish music collective xLEPH returns to La Generale in Paris for their second residency, June 2-9, 2025.

The collective has worked extensively with hypnosis and hypnotherapy in their performances and musical compositions in the last few years. For instance, in their performance at La Generale in 2023, both the audience and performers were under different levels of hypnotically induced trance.

During the residency they will synthesise and develop their work with hypnosis further. The residency will culminate in a radio-show for P-node, 8-9pm on June 9, 2025, entitled Hypno-collage. The radio show is a collective hypnotic journey. It brings together memories and traces of various artistic investigations where hypnosis has been used as well as snippets from preparatory hypnosic session. These are coupled with new music, new interviews along with real-time dialogues in the studio.

The hypnotic radio journey, is an artistic collage for anyone who is interested in music, art or the boundaries of the human mind and its perception of the world. The conversations will mostly be in French interspersed with shorter interludes in English. You can listen to it here. (https://p-node.org/residencies/xleph)

The residency is co-organised together with the EEGsynth association in Paris.