Cathy van Eck (1979 Belgium/Netherlands) is a composer, sound artist, and researcher in the arts. She focuses on composing relationships between everyday objects, human performers, and sound. Her artistic work includes performances with live-electronics and installations with everyday objects. She is interested in setting her movements, actions and gestures into relationships with a rich palette of different sounds, exploring peculiar sonic sceneries. The result could be called “performative sound art”, since it combines elements from performance art, electronic music, and visual arts. She regularly performs her own works such as Empty Chairs, In Paradisum, Cheering for Others Makes You a Leader, and Song No 3. Her work transcends genres and is presented at occasions as diverse as experimental or electronic music concerts, open air festivals, sound art gallery venues, digital art events, or performance art festivals. She is a member of iii (instrument inventors initiative), an artist run, community platform supporting new interdisciplinary practices linking performance, technology and the human senses.

Cathy has a permanent teaching position at the Department for Sound Arts of the Academy of the Arts in Bern, Switzerland and holds a Konrad Boehmer Visiting Professorship at the Institute for Sonology in The Hague, Netherlands. She is a regular guest lecturer at other art and music universities. In her PhD-research Between Air and Electricity (supervised by Richard Barrett, Marcel Cobussen and Frans de Ruiter), she investigated the use of microphones and loudspeakers as musical instruments. Her book Between Air and Electricity – Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments has been published in 2017 and she writes regularly on www.microphonesandloudspeakers.com.

Performances and Festivals (selection), see also my agenda for up to date information.

• Zaandam (Netherlands) Try to Turn the Wind is on view at het HEM during the exhibition Chapter 5IVE (2022).
• Geneva (Switzerland) Try to Turn the Wind is on view and I perform Klangverordnung during the Archipel Festival (2022).
• The Hague (Netherlands) My installation Try to Turn the Wind is on view as part of the Proximity Music exhibition during the rewire festival (2021)
• Tblisi (Georgia) Premiere of Favourite Pieces in Cardboard Boxes and concerts with my works In Paradisum, Song No. 3, and Cheering for Other Makes You a Leader (2021)
• Chicago (USA) I perform Empty Chairs and give a key note on composing with feedback at the Circulations Symposium in Chicago (2020)
• Berlin (Germany) Maulwerker performer my new piece We Are Prepared at Ballhaus Ost (2020)
• Vienna (Austria) Ensemble Schallfeld performs my piece Stumme Diener during Wien Modern (2019)
• Deventer (Netherlands) My installation Breeze is a part of the Instruments Make Play exhibition in Kunstenlab (2019)
• Warsaw (Poland) At Warsaw Autumn Festival Paul Craenen and I perform his piece Tubes, and Michal Gorczynski, Paul and I perform my piece Wings. I also perform Hearing Sirens (2019)
• Zurich (Switzerland) Premiere of In Paradisum at the Generator concert series at Mehrspur in Zurich (2019)
• Dordrecht (Netherlands) My installation Erster Versuch den Wind zu drehen is on view during the exhibition Science of Sound at DordtYart (2018)
• Evologia (Switzerland) Premiere of Empty Chairs at the festival les jardins musicaux (2018)
• Wijnegem (Belgium) Premiere of Silver Breath for NADAR. They performed their program Tomorrow you sing in paradise at Inspiratum (2018)
• Huddersfield (UK) We Spoke performed Wings at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2017)
• Vancouver (Canada) My interactive sound installation Breeze was presented during the ISCM World New Music Days. (2017)
• Washington DC (USA) I performed Music Stands, Song No 3 and Cheering for Others Makes You a Leader at the Sonic Circuits Festival. (2017)
• Rümlingen (Switzerland) Premiere of De Beweging for demonstrators and loudspeakers at Festival Rümlingen. (2017)
• Aix en Provence (France)  Phone Call to Hades was presented at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the The Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel (2017)
• Witten (Germany) My new interactive .sound installation Erster Versuch den Wind zu drehen for anemometer, fans, sound and breath or wind was exhibited during the Witten Festival (2017)
• Munich (Germany) Premiere Phone Call to Hades 15th Munich Biennale (2016)
• Stuttgart (Germany) Premiere Breeze Eclat Festival (2015)
• Salzburg (Austria)  Song No 3 by Ute Wassermann Salzburg Biennale (2015)
• Shanghai (China) Music Stands, Song No 3 and Groene Ruis Chronus Art Centre (2014)
• Cologne (Germany) Music Stands, Song No 3, Groene Ruis and Klangverordnung Academy for Media Arts (2014)
• Schangnau (Switzerland) Song No 3, Groene Ruis and Klangverordnung Open Air Festival Zapperlot (2014)
• Berlin (Germany) Premiere 412 Meter Laufen DieOrdnungDerDinge (2014)
• Huddersfield (United Kingdom) Song No 3 by Ute Wassermann Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2013)
• Hilltown (Ireland) Premiere Uncage the Colours Hilltown Festival (2013)
• Belgrade (Serbia) Wings by Ginger Ensemble (2013)
• Graz (Austria) Premiere Double Beat Mind The Gap Symposium (2013)
• Bern (Switzerland) Premiere Klangverordnung Bone Performance Festival (2012)
• Munich (Germany) Premiere a Game of Fives – Ways and Means 13th Munich Biennale (2012)
• Cologne (Germany) Premiere geluid gemeten nr.23 en nr.32 new talents biennale cologne (2012)
• Berlin (Germany) Premiere Stumme Diener Klangwerkstatt Festival (2011)
• Porto (Portugal) Hearing Sirens, Wings and Song No 3 Trama Festival (201l)
• Buenos Aires (Argentina) Premiere of Muziek als Licht with Mandala Boogie Woogie (2010)
• Cascais (Portugal) Zwischen Schlaf und Schlaf, Cascais Art Center (2010)
• Tilburg (Netherlands) Wings, in blik and Hearing Sirens incubate Festival (2009)
• New York (USA) Hearing Sirens, NYCEMF Festival (2009)
• Minneapolis (USA) Hearing Sirens and Groene Ruis SPARK Festival (2009)
• Zurich (Switzerland) Hearing Sirens Performance Festival Der längste Tag ((2008)
• Cagliari (Italy) Groene Ruis and in blik Festival Spazio Musica (2008)
• Schwaz (Austria) Groene Ruis and in blik Festival Avantgarde Schwaz (2008)
• Holon (Israel) Hearing Sirens Hapzura Festival for Digital Arts (2007)
• Leuven (Belgium) Premiere of a search for renoise – Wings festival TRANSIT (2007)
• Amsterdam (Netherlands) Premiere of Hearing Sirens Mobile Music Academy (2007)
• Berlin (Germany) Premiere of Blik na blik Festival Klangwerkstatt (2006)
• Rümlingen (Switzerland) Premiere of Oefening in stilzwijgend zingen Festival Rümlingen (2005)

Teaching

• Since 2020: Konrad Boehmer Visiting Professor at the Institute for Sonology.
• Since 2009: Permanent teaching position at the Sound Arts Department of the Academy of the Arts in Bern, Switzerland. She teaches at the Sound Arts Bachelor, the Master of Arts in Contemporary Arts Practice (MA CAP) and the Master of Composition Creative Practice.
• 2007–2009 Department of Sound Arts, Academy of the Arts Bern, Switzerland: Lecturer.
• Teaching Workshops on themes such as “Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments” and “Gestures in Electronic Music”, for example at the Young Composers Meeting 2015 in Apeldoorn, University of the Arts Berlin, Institute for Sonology The Hague, University of Film Konrad Wolf in Potsdam, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Leeds University, and SARMA in Brussels.
• Many guest lectures at for example School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Manhattan School of Music, Cologne Music Academy, New York University, Zurich University of the Arts, Brooklyn College CUNY, Institute for Sonology The Hague, Amsterdam Music Academy, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology Zurich, and Royal Academy of Art in The Hague.

Research

• 2023-2024 Research project Academy of the Arts Bern on The Origins of Sounds on gestures used in electronic music together with Tobias Ruetschi.
• 2022-2026 Team member of the SNF Research Project Triple Instruments. Through truth wind blows.
• 2015-2017 Team member of the SNF Research Project Mit Kopfhörern unterwegs – Wahrnehmung, Aneignung und diskursive Konstitution von öffentlichem Raum. Künstlerische und ethnografische Verfahren im Dialog at the University of Zurich.
• 2014 Team member of the PEAK Research Project TransCoding–from ‘Highbrow Art’ to Participatory Culture.
• 2013 Dissertation Defense Between Air and Electricity—Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments.
• 2013 Team member of the Urbane Künste Ruhr Project Sonozones—Labor Mülheim ZHdK.
• Lectures and posters at conferences and symposia such as SAR Meeting at the Stockholm University of the Arts (2013), Digital Art Week (2007, ETH Zurich, Switzerland), The Musician as Listener Conference (2008, ORCiM, Ghent, Belgium) or Theatre Noise Conference (2009, University of London, London, United Kingdom).
• Articles (selection):
• sonozones, together with Jan Schacher, Kirsten Reese and Trond Lossius, JAR No. 6 ((Journal for Artisic Research) (2014)
• Song No 3 – Singing through Gestures, JAR No. 0 (Journal for Artisic Research) (2011)
• Where music starts, RTRSRCH No. 2 (2010)
• A good servant dismissed for becoming a bad master – Zur Geschichte der gleichstufigen Temperatur, Dissonance No. 110 (2010)
• Lautenlaute – Humor in Musik über Musik, Zeitgenössische Komische Oper, edited by Titus Engel und Viktor Schoner (2010)