JANUARY 1999

MULTIMEDIA

Rahma Khazam goes DEAF in Rotterdam

... Cross-fertilisation has always been V2's main concern, ever since it was founded in 1981 by a group of multimedia artists.'Today you have people specialising in sound, visuals, software, or interfaces, and they are all looking for each other,' says V2 member Alex Adriaansens. They can't manage any more by themselves. The organisation has collaborated extensively with such crossover musicians and performers as Sensorband, Stelarc and Granular Synthesis, all of whom have returned the favour with performances at
previous DEAFs. One such collaboration produced one of this year's highlights. Based on 40s and 50s technology, Gebhard Sengmuller's Vinyl Video installation used a standard turntable equipped with an ordinary diamond stylus to play back video signals stored on conventional vinyl LPs. The shadowy, blurred images produced by these signals were broadcast on a black and white TV set, while headphones let you hear the strangely evocative acoustic signals coming
off the constanly changing visual content of Sengmuller's 'video discs'.
But V2's fascination with sound extends beyond such one-offs. People are very
Aware of images, but we also want to make them aware of the possibilities of sound in different environments, explains Adriaansens...