Stan Wiersmabiography
Stan Wiersma (b. 1996, Groningen, NL) is a sound artist based in Amsterdam. He explores the act of mediated listening through performance, improvisation, publishing and broadcasting. With a background in image and media technology, Stan’s practice spans live group performance, site-specific sound works, programming, and experimental forms of publishing.
He is the founder and curator of not@home, an online media archive for freeform radio, and a performer in various collaborative constellations including my imaginary friends (of which I have many) and the music project spullen. Recent performances and presentations include Paradiso, De Melkweg, Tale of A Tub, Kunstpodium T, Garage Noord, and Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Design at the Sandberg Institute, Stan investigates themes of mourning, and listening as a collective, spatial, and embodied practice.
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Instagram pressing into pillow // blurring of whole2025
Description
2 channel audio piece (7:44min), hearing aids, packaging material, battery stickers, printed photograph on paper
The audio piece can be listened to here:
The installation ‘pressing into pillow’ explores the shift from presence to absence through sonic and material gestures. The installation is activated by removing hearing aids and placing them on the floor, like just before falling asleep.
Close to eachother, the devices form a new body of sound, making the absence of ears audible. They produce a delicate, phased choir of feedback-like tones, amplified by the frequencies that my ear does not register — filling the room with a calming but sharp high-pitched whirr.
The 8-minute sound piece layers these phased tones with pitched-down recordings and a subtle poetic text, enabling a quietude, a moment for reflection. A processed voice in the recording is cast into the reverberant space, reminding of the distorted character of impaired hearing.
The hearing aids placed on the floor rest on soft duvet feathers, their light weight echoing the intimacy of the pillow, while small flowers made from battery stickers appear nearby on the wall, gestures of imagination and dreaming.