FIBER Festival

Man’s fascination with the universe is as old as mankind itself. Audiovisual performance ‘The History of Darkness’ takes us through different chapters in the never-ending impulse to understand ourselves and the universe that surrounds us.

Just like the alchemists, Recent Arts duo explore the materiality of the cosmos. Using old photographs, drawings and diagrams of the universe, taken from old astronomy books as well as glimpses into the future, they retrace the process of analysing the composition of the universe. Examining the spectra of stars and planets, they take us on a trip, deep into the structure of the universe.

The Recent Arts duo, Chilean visual artist Valentina Berthelon and German musician Tobias Freund (aka Tobias), use real time sound and image manipulation in their performances. Their shows implement their own loop-based software and a range of analog synthesizers.

Their special software application has been developed by the renowned musician and composer Max Loderbauer and Tom Thiel, and finalized based on ideas by Tobias Freund. It processes sound in a naturalistic way, which feels like listening to the flowing water of a creek, or the sound of wind.