Camus said: ‘the Absurd was born from the confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the universe’. But is our universe really quiet, devoid of inherent meaning? The Sisyphean Field Recorder tries to find meaning by listening very carefully, turning his ear to the Things in this world. His attempts to defy Camus' premise are endless on itself, giving meaning nevertheless.
In this RietveldTV episode we find the Sisyphean Field Recorder running up his mountain again, by interviewing a fence, moving a chair in the church, listening to a washing machine. Every time he gathers only one sound, harvesting sonic pigments. These seemingly mundane sources turn into auditory landscapes, sparkling with the sounds of our chatty universe.
About the artist
Werner de Valk has a background in (neuro)psychology and software development. He graduated from Unstable Media at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2021 and works on the intersection between art, psychology and technology. In his films and short stories he often returns to the absurdity of the mundane, to vulnerability and contact: the human condition. In his post-human performances he tries to coincide with software-interfaces and nature. As a sound artist, he translates field recordings into soundscapes - just like his alter ego in this RietveldTV episode.