hidden movables – a generative sound installation by Marco Schröder

At my residency at the l’escaut architecture collective in Brussels in March 2025 I gathered an ensemble of found objects and arranged them in the old warehouse floor. Every object was retrieved from the basement of l'escaut, where I discovered a plethora of hidden sculptures that have been clustered together there over the time people have been working and organizing events in l’escaut. It turned out the place was really a historical archive for items and objects of all kinds. Everyday objects, like lamp shapes, or pieces of styrofoam, but also ropes, tubes and a clay pipe, or metal sheets and sticks with all sorts of shapes and hidden features that were lying dormant in the old workshop basement. The structures of an architectural intervention by artists Olivia Lennon and Jan van Schaik built the back bone for the arrangement of the sound installation. Their work was mirroring the structures of the old warehouse and my objective was to once more mirror their structures within my sound composition. Different algorithmic entities were programmed to vibrate the found objects with the help of bodyshakers (transducers). With the aim to create a generative composition, based on the resonant behavior of each object. The algorithmic impulses, waveforms and gestures were wandering between the objects, creating patterns and networks of erratic activity and sound, echoing in the spaces of l’escaut. By algorithmically generating those movements and behaviors the hidden sounds of objects were articulated. A weird and jolly song of agency was enfolding. The word play 'hidden movables' aims at the fact that we sometimes forget the history and production of the goods around us, as well as the meaning and value of objects. How strange their status and ontology as property sometimes resonates with our actions. While sometimes it seems they have a life of their own… The piece was following an invitation by Olivia Lennon and Jan van Schaik to reflect on their work, and kindly supported by Olivier Bastin and the Goethe Institute Europe. Video by Lisa Hoffmann see: itemsobjects.org