STEIM

STEIM (the studio for electro-instrumental music) is the only independent live electronic music centre in the world that is exclusively dedicated to the performing arts. The foundation's artistic and technical departments support an international community of performers and musicians, and a... [more]

STEIM (the studio for electro-instrumental music) is the only independent live electronic music centre in the world that is exclusively dedicated to the performing arts. The foundation's artistic and technical departments support an international community of performers and musicians, and a growing group of visual artists, to develop unique instruments for their work. STEIM invites these people for residencies and provides them with an artistic and technical environment in which concepts can be given concrete form. It catalyzes their ideas by providing critical feedback grounded in professional experience. These new creations are then exposed to a receptive responsive niche public at STEIM before being groomed for a larger audience. STEIM promotes the idea that Touch is crucial in communicating with the new electronic performance art technologies. Too much the computer has been used, and designed, as an exclusive extension of the formalistic capabilities of humans. At STEIM the intelligence of the body, for example: the knowledge of the fingers or lips is considered musically as important as the 'brain-knowledge'. STEIM has stimulated the design of extremely physical interfaces and is widely considered as the pioneering place for the new live electronic concepts. STEIM has always encouraged the use of low-tech solutions and the creative "misuse" of recycled high-tech. STEIM stands for "a human approach to technology". This technology has to be tailored to the individual. Unique instruments such as The Hands, The Web, The Sweatstick and the MIDI Conductor were created as a result of personal and individual projects but are now used by other performers. > > > STEIM's former director and founding father Michel Waisvisz (unfortunately passed away in 2008) is generally recognized as being the first to invent a practice for ecstatic live performance with live electronic instruments. Over the years a great variety of the pioneering artists of the live electronic performance arts have worked at STEIM. More recently STEIM is being discovered by DJ's and VJ's who want to liven up their act with physical control of their sound machines and laptops, also dancers, actors, visual artists and are coming up to STEIM to use the ideas found at STEIM and develop these further for there personal goals. > > > >> > > > > > > > For many years, STEIM has nurtured a special line of activity where children are invited to play with its newly developed instruments. The playful, bright and inventive reactions of these children have often been of decisive importance in the process of creating playable electronic instruments. Since the mid-seventies STEIM has developed a series of tangible electronic devices that are intended not as toys but as instruments that have been 'approved by children'. These include the Crackle Boxes and LiSa, the live sampler. STEIM runs the Electronicmusicalinstrumentsexhibition (formerly the Electro Squeek Club), an exhibition in the form of an arcade where visitors can playfully discover the major directions in the tactile approach within STEIM's instrumental objects. [show less]