I langtidskonserten MicroSleepDub lytter og leter den belgiske kunstneren Peter Lenaerts etter lyder som er for stille, for vage eller for dype. Med mikrofonen som mikroskop zoomer han inn på og forsterker disse glemte, undereksponerte og bortkastede lydene. MicroSleepDub varer gjennom hele natten, her kan du både lytte og sove.

For å samle materiale til prosjektet tilbrakte Lenaerts en uke i spøkelsesbyen Nansha, en såkalt State-Level New Area i Kina, for å ta opp lyder. Lenaerts fikk også tilbringe to ensomme netter i Sydneys ikoniske operahus, hvor han samlet lyder fra tomme scener, konserthaller, øvingsrom og garderober. Med disse opptakene skaper Lenaerts et live soundtrack for dubplater – vinylplater som mangler et beskyttende lag og som derfor blir brutt ned mens de spilles av.

MicroSleepDub begynner ved midnatt og slutter klokken åtte om morgenen. Lytt, slumre, sov; vi sørger for madrasser og tepper. Lenaerts leser godnatt historier om nye byer og vugger deg til søvn med lyden av tomme bygninger. Ta med det du trenger for å være komfortabel (klær, pute, toalettsaker etc.). På slutten av konserten blir det servert en liten frokost.

Presentert i samarbeid med Borealis. Foto: Peter Lenaerts.

The sleep performance MicroSleepDub is about micro sound, architecture and urbanism. It’s a research and recording project, and a durational performance built around a sound composition for dub plates. In MicroSleepDub, Belgian artist Peter Lenaerts listens and looks for sounds that are too quiet, too vague, or too low. By using the microphone as a microscope, he zooms in and amplifies these neglected, underexposed and discarded sounds. MicroSleepDub is an all night performance, where listening and sleeping are both encouraged.

In preparation for this project Lenaerts spent a week recording in Nansha, a so-called State-Level New Area in China. 15 years ago it was rural farmland, now it’s a rapidly developing city with high-rise apartments, office buildings, shopping malls, hotels, and a dilapidated entertainment park. It’s a city built for 1 million, but the current population is around 300,000. Nansha is not a ghost town, because no one left, but not many people have arrived yet, giving the city an eerie and empty feeling. Nansha is caught between a rural past and high-tech future, the present that lies in between is out of sync with reality, and already slowly but surely falling apart. Lenaerts also collected sounds during two nights alone at the iconic Sydney Opera House where he recorded its empty theater spaces, rehearsal and dressing rooms, and concert hall.With these recordings,

MicroSleepDub starts at midnight and ends at 8am, and you are invited to come, listen, doze off and sleep, mattresses and sheets will be provided. Lenaerts will read you bedtime stories about new cities and empty buildings and lull you to sleep with the sound of empty rooms.Please bring anything to make your sleepover comfortable (clothes, cushion, toiletries, etc.). At the end of the performance, a small breakfast will be provided.

Presented in collaboration with Borealis. Photo: Peter Lenaerts.