Glitch Painters: feedbacksociety with BrKpCm

"I always have the idea that feedbacksociety, in whichever constellation doesn't really matter, but it will be there until one of us is dead," affirms Renzo van Steenbergen. Feedbacksociety is a long-standing collaborative project started back in the early 2000s amidst Den Haag’s noise scene. Over two decades since their initial meeting through the Academy of Arts in The Hague, the duo has continued to explore the boundaries of sound—or noise—image, and performance art, evolving their practice with the changing landscape of technology and artistic expression.

Both Arno Scheper and Renzo van Steenbergen work at the intersection of sound and image. “I do a lot of projects with live cinema, for instance, while I like to explore ways of making accessible art,” states Arno. Renzo, who is currently based in Tallinn, Estonia, finds himself mostly working in the realms of theater and installation art. Besides his work with Arno under the name of feedbacksociety, he will be presenting ‘Portaal’ in collaboration with Kristjan Pütsep, a cinematic, artificial, and expansive piece involving machines and immersive visuals.

Arno Scheper and Renzo van Steenbergen first crossed paths in 2001 when Renzo came to study in The Hague. “Arno was a year ahead of me in what was then called Sound and Image, now known as ArtScience,” Renzo recalls. “We started working together, creating experimental works that typically involved audio and visual elements. Sometimes, these experiments evolved into installations or audiovisual performances. We’ve been fortunate to keep the spirit of feedbacksociety alive.”

Feedbacksociety, initiated by Arno in 2001 as a group exhibition in The Hague, aimed to combine intensity, spatiality, and musicality through live sound performance. The event took place at 1646, now an experimental gallery space, where they introduced harsh noise into a visceral and immersive experience. “For me, intensity and physicality were crucial aspects of feedbacksociety,” Arno explains. “It reflected how we felt at the moment, blending noise, image, and crossovers in unique and often raw ways.”

Renzo, who initially attended this event as a visitor, soon became a core member of the collective. “The noise scene in The Hague was vibrant and growing at that time. After that first evening, Arno invited me to join feedbacksociety, and from then on, we’ve been working together under this name.”

“BrKpCm, which stands for Boor Kop Cam (Drill Cam), was something I invented in the early 2000s,” says Arno. “It’s essentially a camera attached to a drilling machine, rotating rapidly. Initially, it was a response to the limitations of early digital technology, and now we’re updating it with modern techniques.”

“Back in the day, we used a small camera with a transmitter to send wireless video at low resolution. Now, we’re challenging ourselves to bring it up to HD values, integrating new technical mechanisms and digital processing. We’re using Python and MIDI to extract information from the image and translate it into sound, merging analog and digital methods,” elaborates Renzo further. BrKpCm has evolved significantly from its original form, especially concerning the image resolution, blending the old with the new.

feedbacksociety performing at Klankvorm presents Quadra, V2_ Rotterdam 2019

Despite these advancements, the essence of BrKpCm remains the same—a unique fusion of sound and image, created through unconventional methods. “It’s still very much about exploring what’s possible with the media we have,” says Arno. “And in this performance, video is just as much a sound instrument as anything else.”

While feedbacksociety’s work is not explicitly interactive, each performance is influenced by the space and the soundsystem being used. “At Conflux Festival, we’ll be working with quadraphonic sound, which adds another layer of complexity and excitement to the performance.”

“But there’s no fixed timeline or script,” Arno explains. “It’s more like free jazz between the two of us, responding to the space and the moment.”

feedbacksociety installation during Klankvorm presents Lightforms, Plein 1940 Rotterdam 2020

As Arno Scheper and Renzo van Steenbergen prepare for their upcoming performance of BrKpCm, one thing is certain: “feedbacksociety has always been about this mix of different techniques and noise, much like our friendship and collaboration—always a little different but fundamentally the same. Our performances have become more polished over time, yet we still retain the raw energy that defined our early work,” concludes Renzo.

The live performance of BrKpCm will happen on Friday, 20st September, 21:15h at Brutus.

For more information about feedbacksociety, check their website.

Programme 2024

Alberta Balsam
Line-AV 2.0 performance at Plein 1940
Alberta Balsam
Composition for Line-AV 2.0 at Katoenhuis
Bogna Konior
at Arminius
C. Lavender
at WORM
Casimir Geelhoed & Anni Nöps
Line-AV 2.0 performance at Plein 1940
Cecile van Bruggen (moderator)
at Arminius
DJ Shahmaran
at Perron
Edwin van der Heide
LSP at Brutus
Eric Parren (moderator)
at Arminius
feedbacksociety
BrKpCm at Brutus
Fronte Vacuo
MμRMUR: The Deer at Brutus
Fronte Vacuo
MμRMUR: The Deer at Katoenhuis
Heleen Blanken & Aho Ssan
at Brutus
Heleen Blanken (artist talk)
at Arminius
Jeroen Alexander Meijer
The Pendulum Always Swings Back to Stillness at Katoenhuis
Klara Ravat & Saåad
A-Hora at Katoenhuis
Lavender Suarez (artist talk)
at Arminius
Legowelt
at Perron
Macular
Line-AV 2.0 at Katoenhuis
Marco Broeders & Julian Edwardes
The Open Loop at WORM
Mariska de Groot & Dieter Vandoren
LFS2 at Katoenhuis
Mint Park
Composition for Line-AV 2.0 at Katoenhuis
Nicky Assmann & Joris Strijbos
Parallel Strata at Katoenhuis
Nkisi
at Perron
NVST
at Perron
Peter van der Putten & Maarten Lamers, supported by Daniel Simu
at Arminius
Renzo van Steenbergen & Kristjan Pütsep
Portaal at Katoenhuis
Resina
at Brutus
Roly Porter
at Brutus
Sabrina Ratté
Floralia (adapted version for SVNSCRNS) at Katoenhuis
Sara Persico
at Brutus
Talismann
at Perron
Thomas Moynihan
at Arminius
Zalán Szakács & Teresa Winter
Lichtspiel: Ars Anaclastica at Plein 1940
Zalán Szakács (artist talk)
at Arminius
Zohar & Jeisson Drenth
Hybrid AV performance at Brutus

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