Abandon Normal Devices (AND) is a catalyst for new approaches to art-making and digital invention; commissioning groundbreaking projects that challenge the definitions of art and moving image. On 21 to 24 September, they held AND Festival 2017 at Peak District National Park, Castleton, UK.
Across four days, the festival saw a host of site-specific installations, world premieres, and performances take over the village of Castleton. This year’s programme will reveal the earth’s layers, exploring themes of verticality and deep time in a series of prophetic, provocative, and uncanny reflections on the earth.
Therefore, the festival act as a site for the symbolic and subconscious, where artists become archaeologists of the future unearthing rare sounds, simulated environments, and technological ruins. One of the names that participated in showcasing his work is Yogyakarta-based Ikbal Simamora Lubys.
Ikbal is a musician, guitar explorer, and sound artist. In addition to his academic study of classical music and classical guitar, he is also active on several arts and experimental music communities; he’s the guitarist of a heavy metal band named Sangkakala and also one-half of experimental unit Potro Joyo with Senyawa’s Wukir Suryadi.
For AND Festival, Ikbal exhibits an interactive instrument that he called The Hive. It is intended as a collection of buzzing resonant sounds that sustain a note with gamelan instrument blades. The blade sound is triggered by the vibration generated when people interact with the instrument by vibrating, scratching, hitting, or shaking the object, and the resonance of the buzz is captured inside a large rotating resonator installation.
