VILT

As a maker of sound objects, Wannes Deneer wants to take time at Q-O2 to investigate sound muffling.

Felt is used in musical instruments and loudspeakers to control unwanted noise. It is a versatile natural material that can result in many forms and degrees of hardness. The purpose of muffling is to remove certain frequencies so that others become more audible. Muffling is complementary to amplification.

His interest in felt emerged from combining technology with craft. How can he revalue felt in a contemporary, technological context? Through prototypes, he explores the possibilities of felt. He will test these prototypes in a live setup. Using field recordings, synthetic sounds, and microphones, he searches for his own sound transformations. The specific sound of each sound object determines its character; form and sound together make up a unified whole.

Wannes Deneer (1977) is a sound artist and scenographer. Working in Antwerp, Belgium. His work is on the edge of performance, visual arts and sound art. He creates objects that combine kinetics and sound. He tries to materialize or visualize sound.

A recurrent theme in his work is the simultaneous use of new and old techniques, supported by found objects. All these different objects and techniques work together to create new sound assemblages or sound collages. Every object is deployed in a characteristic way, adding soundquality to the assemblage. By showing which object or technique generates what effect, the assemblages evoke wonder and curiosity. By using found objects that are all to quickly discarded and replaced by new ones, Wannes’ work shows how our world awash with an abundance of stuff, could be transformed into something else. It creates an image of how all these new and old things which surround us can work together to create new imaginations.

He is co-founder of Tuning People (2005-2022). He founded Matter of Sound in 2023. He has created set and sound designs for many theater companies since 2005. He worked at de Filmfabriek, Het Toneelhuis, fABULEUS, Villanella, detheatermaker, Desingel, hetpaleis, KAAP, … and worked together with many artists, including Ugo Dehaes, Yinka Kuitenbrouwer, Jochem Baelus, …