Mischa Daams

For the Unshaping exhibition, Daams has developed a new work in the Origin Series named Haywire. This expedition is loosely inspired by the former hive-mind of the Pieter Baan centrum; a mental short-circuit safari.

For the Unshaping exhibition, Daams has developed a new work in the Origin Series named Haywire. This expedition is loosely inspired by the former hive-mind of the Pieter Baan centrum; a mental short-circuit safari.

“I am currently working on something that started very simple. I was queuing for the cash desk in the supermarket and there was an olive oil bottle on the conveyor belt. The belt started to move and when the belt stopped, the bottle started to rock back and forth. A random customer next in line and I were captivated by this -seemingly timeless- moment. This moment of tension, the rocking of the bottle and whether it falls or not, that is something that fascinates me quite a lot.”

“I am currently working on something that started very simple. I was queuing for the cash desk in the supermarket and there was an olive oil bottle on the conveyor belt. The belt started to move and when the belt stopped, the bottle started to rock back and forth. A random customer next in line and I were captivated by this -seemingly timeless- moment. This moment of tension, the rocking of the bottle and whether it falls or not, that is something that fascinates me quite a lot.”

Slue is a collaboration between Mischa Daams and Philip Vermeulen and is a spatial audiovisual composition and live performance. Four high powered strings come to life and create abstract organic 'whooshing' rotations that create overwhelming patterns of interfering sound and light in motion. In the work, Vermeulen and Daams study chaotic patterns that arise in the interaction between a 'whooshing' elastic, frequencies of light and its effect on the perception of the viewer in combination to the architectural / landscape surroundings. Doing so, visitors experience a place where tension, excitement and danger are mixed, and pushes the visitors' perception towards altered, hallucinatory states.

Slue is a collaboration between Mischa Daams and Philip Vermeulen and is a spatial audiovisual composition and live performance. Four high powered strings come to life and create abstract organic 'whooshing' rotations that create overwhelming patterns of interfering sound and light in motion. In the work, Vermeulen and Daams study chaotic patterns that arise in the interaction between a 'whooshing' elastic, frequencies of light and its effect on the perception of the viewer in combination to the architectural / landscape surroundings. Doing so, visitors experience a place where tension, excitement and danger are mixed, and pushes the visitors' perception towards altered, hallucinatory states.

With his project 'Origin', Daams sets out audiovisual expeditions into the abstract, organic universe that results from a feedback loop between an lcd screen and a video camera. In this continuous process of copying and ‘translating’ some of the information is lost; this results in the mutation and transformation of the image. In real time a visual environment of abstract patterns unfolds before the eyes of the beholder, taking the viewer on a hypnotizing voyage through the invisible architecture of the devices themselves. The patterns resemble the shapes and behaviours from a world one does not immediately associate with computer chips: biological life. Daams has come to regard this mathematical process as a living stream giving rise to an organic universe. To explore this virtual space, he designs technical tools in order to set out expeditions. Daams makes use of cybernetic methods to plan, control, and respond to the unpredictable outcomes of the growth process. In this new work Origin: Sustained (2017), Daams applies algorithmic perception as a means to give agency to the machine. The machine as steersman becomes responsible for the unfolding and survival of the life cycle, and thereby attempting an endless film. Origin: Sustained is commissioned by FIBER with the support of the Mondriaan Fund NL and Stroom Den Haag. The first part of the Origin project ‘Origin:Cycle #1’ was realized as part of the Summer Sessions network in a co-production of Art Center Nabi and V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, with support of the Creative Industries Fund NL.

With his project 'Origin', Daams sets out audiovisual expeditions into the abstract, organic universe that results from a feedback loop between an lcd screen and a video camera. In this continuous process of copying and ‘translating’ some of the information is lost; this results in the mutation and transformation of the image. In real time a visual environment of abstract patterns unfolds before the eyes of the beholder, taking the viewer on a hypnotizing voyage through the invisible architecture of the devices themselves. The patterns resemble the shapes and behaviours from a world one does not immediately associate with computer chips: biological life. Daams has come to regard this mathematical process as a living stream giving rise to an organic universe. To explore this virtual space, he designs technical tools in order to set out expeditions. Daams makes use of cybernetic methods to plan, control, and respond to the unpredictable outcomes of the growth process. In this new work Origin: Sustained (2017), Daams applies algorithmic perception as a means to give agency to the machine. The machine as steersman becomes responsible for the unfolding and survival of the life cycle, and thereby attempting an endless film. Origin: Sustained is commissioned by FIBER with the support of the Mondriaan Fund NL and Stroom Den Haag. The first part of the Origin project ‘Origin:Cycle #1’ was realized as part of the Summer Sessions network in a co-production of Art Center Nabi and V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, with support of the Creative Industries Fund NL.

With his project 'Origin', Daams sets out audiovisual expeditions into the abstract, organic universe that results from a simple feedback loop between an lcd screen and a video camera. These expeditions exploit imperfections in communication between display technologies and demand a cybernetic dialog with this astonishing emergent realm. They are experienced as black and white films that immerse the viewer in a sensory trip of hypnotic growth patterns. Daams is currently building kinetic machines to perform these mathematical expeditions, striving to bring obscure phenomena to light that are more organic than geometric. His future plans with this project is to investigating the potential of algorithmic perception (computer vision) in order to conceive an automated expedition that is self-conscious, self-steering and therefore forever self-unfolding.

With his project 'Origin', Daams sets out audiovisual expeditions into the abstract, organic universe that results from a simple feedback loop between an lcd screen and a video camera. These expeditions exploit imperfections in communication between display technologies and demand a cybernetic dialog with this astonishing emergent realm. They are experienced as black and white films that immerse the viewer in a sensory trip of hypnotic growth patterns. Daams is currently building kinetic machines to perform these mathematical expeditions, striving to bring obscure phenomena to light that are more organic than geometric. His future plans with this project is to investigating the potential of algorithmic perception (computer vision) in order to conceive an automated expedition that is self-conscious, self-steering and therefore forever self-unfolding.

With his project 'Origin', Daams sets out audiovisual expeditions into the abstract, organic universe that results from a simple feedback loop between an lcd screen and a video camera. These expeditions exploit imperfections in communication between display technologies and demand a cybernetic dialog with this astonishing emergent realm. They are experienced as black and white films that immerse the viewer in a sensory trip of hypnotic growth patterns. Daams is currently building kinetic machines to perform these mathematical expeditions, striving to bring obscure phenomena to light that are more organic than geometric. His future plans with this project is to investigating the potential of algorithmic perception (computer vision) in order to conceive an automated expedition that is self-conscious, self-steering and therefore forever self-unfolding.

Auto Observatory [2015] explores the complex and often invisible systems that constitute both our physical and virtual habitats. An algorithmic choreography of in- and decreasing airflows conveys complex patterns that are captured and represented by a phenomenological cinema screen, serving as a sensor for the surrounding space. The images that emerge resemble cloud patterns and wind maps observed from the sky, examples of ubiquitous complex feedback systems like the weather system. Both are in essence chaotic, so small changes to one part of the system can grow to have large effects on the system as a whole. The feedback loop thus serves both as a direct means and reference for this work.

Respire is a process based experiential art installation on the border of space, sculpture and cinema. It embodies a transforming architectural space as a breathing entity: transient as fluid it evolves from one state to the next.

Respire is a process based experiential art installation on the border of space, sculpture and cinema. It embodies a transforming architectural space as a breathing entity: transient as fluid it evolves from one state to the next.

Visitors enter a darkened space with little illumination coming from a small highlighted photograph of a leaf on a dark background. As their eyes adjust to the darkness, they take little steps into the space following the wall as their guide. Scarce and at random, bright flashes from different corners of the space disturb the darkness. Depending on your position in the space and the right timing, you can briefly see an image – the black contours of someone wearing a ski mask or an axe used to cut telephone wires - being lit up for an instant. But considering the flash of light is so short, bright and blinding, you do not actually see the real image. What you see is the remaining afterimage of what was there, slowly morphing into decay on your own retinae. Jan Rosseel's work Belgian Autumn is a visual investigation into the violent and ambiguous robberies and killings by the gang of Nivelles in 1980’s Belgium. Rosseel -who’s father was one of the lethal victims- started his own investigation: Based on police files and reports, witness accounts and newspaper clippings, Rosseel reconstructed the events from the past, something he calls a confabulated history. Read more

Klanksporen (sound trails) explores the acoustics of resonating objects and spaces through site-specific performances. Instrument Using self-made instrumentation Mischa Daams performs sonic landscapes by making various materials -like wooden plates and steel boxes- vibrate. Drawing gestural paths over its physical surfaces, specific acoustic characteristics are highlighted. Because two oscillators are used rich and rhythmic patterns emerge. Spaces Spatial characteristics are emphasized according to their reverberant acoustics. Specific architectural spaces are selected for their sound quality, as they become a carrier for sound. The way in which the acoustics of a space amplifies, morphs and sustains the source sound plays an important role in the performance. Ultimately the taken trajectories leave trails, both physically on the surface as spatially in terms of its sonic tail in the form of an echo. The interferences and patterns between all resonating matter becomes equally important. Additionally, Mischa Daams performs Klanksporen alongside multi-instrumentalist Martijn Barendregt who plays Didgeridoo.