dalpofzs
//(de)constructing the distances between us
about ↓
dalpofzs is a contemporary art project active since 2013, that offers a meeting and working place for a small group of people with different professional backgrounds, living (sometimes) thousands of km apart. the project focuses especially on small-scale works that examine the distances between us. our practice takes various forms, from net art works, to temporary installations in public spaces, to experimental music and audio-video works. some of these works were exhibited in art galleries, both online and offline, other remain informal collaborations that are posted on our website and social networks. sometimes dalpofzs produces works that do not leave any public trace.
for an overview of our work check out our portfolio with some selected projects: portfolio
the name ↓
dalpofzs is our chance-generated project name born out of instinct and pleasure and the interplay of the two. a name that doesn't designate or represent, but is to the extent that our platform works, so far as it becomes. Franz, our canine-hero chose to eat his way into giving us a name. and so he did.
discreet monuments series (2024 - ongoing) ↓
discreet monuments is a new series of projects made in dalpofzs, that reimagines the 'public monument' in the context of contemporary cultures permeated by digital technologies and marked by their consequences. we create works that interrogate the limits between public and private, personal and political, perceptible and imperceptible in more or less known public spaces.
you can see the documentation of the projects here: link
discreet monuments III - bucurești, casa scânteii:
dedicated to the fastly disappearing personal memories of slide films (diapozitive, diafilme) produced in communist romania
[site specific online work; start date 28 Feb 2026]
the work can be accessed in front of casa scânteii, bucurești, in the area where, until 1990, stood the statue of lenin, by following this link:
link
if you are not at the location, you can check out the documentation of the project here: link
discreet monuments II - sofia:
dedicated to the absurdity of being alive
[site specific online work; start date 20 Oct 2024, 19:00]
the work can be accessed near the pigeons statue in south park, sofia, by following this link:
link
if you are not at the location, you can check out the documentation of the project here: link
discreet monuments I - bucureşti, universitate:
dedicated to the act of breathing in bucharest
[site specific online work; supported by a CONNECT residency at WASP București, 28 March-6 April 2024]
the work can be accessed in piața universității, bucurești, by following this link:
link
if you are not at the location, you can check out the documentation of the project here: link
video recording of the live audio-visual performance that marked the opening of this discreet monument: link
online projects ↓
dynamics of sensemaking (2023-2024)
video work + theoretical essay: published in Tecmerin. Journal of Audiovisual Essays, Vol. 13, No.1, 2024: link
video work: link
dynamics of sensemaking is an exercise in blending different media elements in order to explore our environment and create a difficult but rewarding sensemaking opportunity for our minds and bodies. We live technologically mediated lives in which the act of seeing is fundamental. But such a complex phenomenon is also viscerally linked to our affects and moods, our desires and memories. Through our eyes, screens, cameras and neurons, through our skin, microbiomes and quilted threads we are unable not to make sense of what we perceive. The live camera footage was modulated with Hydra, a live coding video synthesizer developed by Olivia Jack (https://hydra.ojack.xyz) and recorded in real-time.
[the video was first exhibited at SIMULTAN FESTIVAL XVIII. OSCILLATIONS: Things to Remember 5 — 8 OCT 2023, Timișoara.]
the mirror: a sound exhibition (2023)
to visit this exhibition you need a mouse cursor, does not work on mobile: link
six seconds series (2022)
online video project on our facebook page (link), posted between 1 august - 13 october 2022
offline projects ↓
objet trouvé series (2025-ongoing)
maybe art is not about making. sometimes the best work of art is just out there for you to sign it.
a signature is a frame. event. context.
see the documentation of the project here
soundtrack for murnau's nosferatu (2023)
comissioned by Deutsche Kulturzentrum Hermannstadt, curator: Iris Ordean
we were interested in rediscovering the viscerality of murnau’s nosferatu across a temporal gap (the centenary) which saw an exponential increase in ever more thrilling and spectacular visual experiences. is it still possible, after 100 years, to resonate with nosferatu on an embodied level that goes deeper than a rational enjoyment of a genre defying, historically significant cinematographic work? we played with the relationship between the visual and the auditory experience, with the resonances and dissonances that can be created between the visual images and the auditory ones, in order to raise this question.
download the entire soundtrack here
[premiered at consommé sibiu, 2023]
0RELE (2021)
a gesture of specta(c)torship inspired by the works of Octavian Nemescu (1940-2020)
saturday, 11 december 2021, at the corresponding hours, we’ve listened to the Music Cycle for 24 hours composed by Octavian Nemescu:
String Quartet for Midnight, 1993
Quindecimortuorum for 1 o’clock AM, 1994
NegantiDiaDua for 2 o’clock AM, 1995
PhosisTriPercMetaMor for 3 o’clock AM, 1996
Septuor for 4 o’clock AM, 1997
QuintaBeit for 5 o’clock AM,1998
BeitSonorum for 6 o’clock AM, 1999
BeitIntervallum for 7 o’clock AM, 2000
BeiTrissonum for 8 o’clock AM, 2001
rouaUruauor for 9 o’clock AM, 2002
OUA for 10 o’clock AM, 2002-03
OU for 11 o’clock AM, 2004
A=1 a music for Noon, 2005
ErAImII or EAE ou EA for 1 o’clock PM, 2006
EUI or ErUImII for 2 o’clock PM, 2007
OUIEIUO for 3 o’clock PM, 2008-2009
ITRIssonumBE oder ssonumBEITRI for 4 o’clock PM, 2009
ITintervallumBE or vallumBEITinter for 5 o’clock PM, 2009-2010
ITsonorumBE for 6 o’clock PM, 2010
BEseptimaIT for 7 o’clock PM, 2011
ORsept for 8 o’clock PM, 2011-12
PerMETAMor or MorMETAPer for 9 o’clock PM, 2013
duaNEGdia oder diaNEGdua for 10 o’clock PM, 2013-14
NATIVITAS QUINDECI for 11 o’clock PM, 2012
performance locations:
Sibiu (ROU/GMT+2)
Baia Mare (ROU/GMT+2)
Melbourne (AUS/GMT+11)
we did not communicate with each other during the performance.
at noon (GMT+2) during A=1, respectively 9 pm (GMT+11) during PerMETAMor or MorMETAPer, as previously agreed, each of us touched a wall, creating a synchronous experience across our different time zones.
except for this description, the only documentation of the 24-hour performance is the unreadable trace and imaginary soundscape that it left in us.
we offer our sincerest gratitude and appreciations towards Erica Nemescu for supporting the idea and providing us with all necessary materials. thank you.
the aesthetics of property(i) (2016)
25000 cuvinte înregistrate (80000 propuse)
surse sonore
ciocane de gheață
sticlă, oglinzi și bule antișoc
video
Teritoriu-Proprietate-Identitate
Sunetul talăngii unei vaci, sunetele porților închise și deschise, ale ușilor și geamurilor, sunetele portierelor și portbagajelor, sunetele roților pe carosabil, mașinilor, sunetele claxoanelor, alarmelor, notificărilor și caselor de marcat, sunetul phoenului, al mașinii de spălat, centralei electrice și frigiderului, sunetul trazancțiilor POS reușite și sunetul neoanelor.
Tu ((de ce) (nu))) vorbești ca mine?
Ne gândim la toate cuvintele unei limbi adunate și amestecate, supuse unor permutări continue. Ne amintim de fabula borgesiană a maimuțelor și mașinilor de scris. Șansa + posibilități de computare rapidă vor (re)scrie în cele din urmă capodoperele trecute și viitoare ale umanității. Pe noi ne interesează toate celelalte rezultate ale procesului.
Vacile lui Gunther Anders
Sunet puternic romantizat, talanga unei vaci e în fapt un dispozitiv de control auditiv. Ciobănașul știe că vaca lui e în regulă, teritoriul e sigur, proprietatea e întreagă. Anders se întreabă cum, în aceste condiții, mai poate fi considerat sunetul acesta bucolic, liric și frumos, cum de ne provoacă plăcere?
Cine vorbește de fapt?
Sunt înconjurat de sunete emise de lucruri al căror atribut principal nu e cel auditiv, și mă simt în siguranță. Bâzâit, clipocit, sunet strident sau lin și continuu, zgomotul de fond sondează adânc ființa mea: într-un mod inconștient în majoritatea timpului, ca rețea structurală a sistemului meu referențial, al realității ambianței mele.
EuEuEu
Limbajul nu este un mijloc de reprezentare, ci de diferențiere. Limitele sunt trasate, granițele zidite: când nu te mai poți împrăștia pe orizontală, profiți de un PUZ deficitar și te tot înalți: ascultă cuvintele emise, îngrămădite, suprapuse, greutatea lor e tot mai mare, spațiul dintre tot mai mic, cu cât ajungi la un număr mai mare cu atât prețul e mai ridicat pe mp: nu se poate respira. Comunicarea nu e egalitaristă. Ne diferențiem vorbind, dominăm vorbind. Civilizație. Ordine, structură.
Teritoriu-Proprietate-Identitate
Exprimând diferenața stabilesc limite, trasez teritorii: cunoscut-necunoscut, eu-celălalt, alfabetizat-analfabet. Mă apăr. Mă pun la adăpost. E cald și bine.
Ne place să fim părtași în putere, chiar și a altora, atât timp cât există posibilitatea să le luăm locul și să nu fim excluși, să devenim ceilalți. Proprietatea înseamnă cunoscut, domesticit, opusul ei fiind natura sălbatică, starea de absență a posibilității de-a avea în proprietate
Două mențiuni: natura există doar prin cultură, natura e cultură, iar lumea e plină de hibrizi. Limbajul constituie diferență, dar nu e diferența dintre om și animal.
Pungi anti-șoc
Rămâneți în ordinea birocratică a limbajului și totul va fi în regulă, completați-vă / reinventați-vă Eul, viața și identitatea și totul va fi în regulă, nu există durere, nu există traumă, nu există contingențe.
Oglinzi
Peste tot sunt oglinzi, oriunde te-ai afla există o suprafață lucioasă care reflectă și care-ți spune ăsta ești tu, ești întreg, ești unul și ești al naibii de mișto (PS: ai grijă să rămâi așa!). Oglinzile reflectă, clădirile de sticlă reflectă, vopseaua de pe mașini reflectă, geamurile și vitrinele reflectă. Limbajul produce subiecți, nu invers. Ecranele televizoarelor, calculatoarelor, mobilelor reflectă, reflectă și frigiderul, geamul mașinii de spălat, toasterul din inox, reflectă gresia curată, podeaua și tacâmurile lustruite. Un regim al vizibilității se impune: oglinda nu reflectă adevărul, ci idealul / conceptul preformat marketat nouă și în care vrem cu disperare să intrăm. Ne vedem și suntem văzuți permanent, astfel că buletinul, carnetul de conducere, cardul bancar reflectă și ele cum reflectă Google+, Instagram, Facebook sau LinkedIn.
Trebuie să spargi oglinda
Îmi place sunetul claxoanelor tirurilor pe autostradă pentru că înseamnă că economia funcționează, că teritoriul prosperă, așa cum îmi place sunetul barelor de la metrou dimineața la ieșirea de la Pipera, când lumea merge la serviciu.
limbajul ca diferenta, limita. limbajul ca ordine simbolica si structura birocratica.
eseurile deteritorializeaza limbajul si alte medii si le reteritorializeaza in imbroglio-uri virusate, glitchuite, in care eroarea arma de rezistenta
*Lista Oficială de Cuvinte realizată de Federația Română de Scrabble - https://frsc1.fortunecity.ws/dic-loc2.htm
Căpușa lui Uexhull
Hibrizii lui Latour
Gheața lui Sorokin și Realul lui Lacan
[exhibited in bucharest during the night of art galleries 2016 at nod makerspace]
cha(n)t (2015)
“Having lost one of his quarry, Ivan focused his attention on the cat and saw this strange cat go up to the footboard of an ‘A’ tram waiting at a stop, brazenly elbow aside a woman, who screamed, grab hold of the handrail, and even make an attempt to shove a ten-kopeck piece into the conductress’s hand through the window, open on account of the stuffiness.” (Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita)
cha(n)t is an unusual sound event, beyond the limits of daily life. almost chat and almost chant, almost noise and almost music, it brings to life a series of acoustic experiences born at the intersection point between personal and social, planned and random, huge and small. an almost imperceptible impression, an almost invisible finger-print in the deafening soundscape of the contemporary metropolis.
the event has three parts: the sound installation CHATtering, the experimental musical project scriu cu albastru and the performance song prints.
CHATtering: on a small plastic table a structure of pvc pipes and empty juice cans. micro-soudscapes can be heard in the pipe system and inside the aluminum cans. the spectator is encouraged to explore the barely audible sound universe of the installation. in the noise of the contemporary city, on the verge of deafening loudness, we are trying to explore the other limit of sound, the one towards silence. the distortion of the sound inside the aluminum cans is a sign that stands for the deformation that each one of us faces in the society of consumption and mass production. we do not intend to critique this deformation, on the contrary we are trying to explore the new possibilities that it offers.
scriu cu albastru: it’s an experimental interactive sound game. the spectator will create his own musical piece starting from an unconventional musical score. the score can be performed by anyone, anywhere, at any time. the results can be sent to our email address postoffice@dalpofzs.com, and we'll further play with them.(see here a video for a later version of scriu cu albastru)
song prints: everyone is invited to leave a finger-print on the empty musical stave we prepared
how does it sound? – 23 august 2015, 18.30 Mihai Pintenaru (clarinet) will decode it. (video)
[the project was exhibited at kulturama contmeporary art space in bucharest, and then as part of the event muzexpo, both in 2015]
hoagunknown (2015-2016)
audio-video installation inspired by the story and images of PGC 54559 or hoag’s object, a non-typical ring galaxy discovered in 1950 by the astronomer arthur allen hoag. situated at about 600 million light-years away, this strange object is presented to us like an almost perfectly-shaped ring, formed from millions of young stars, with an older yellow nucleus at the center shining brightly. this galaxy is even today considered a mystery for most of the scientific community because of the difficulty in determining it’s origin and matter arrangement.(wikipedia)
audio: 7-8 sounds (effects made using a recorder’s mouthpiece and some eolian/wind sounds) which appear and disappear randomly in a soundscape created by 6-8 speakers.
video: a few seconds long video with the image of the galaxy, played in loop.
the installation is best shown at night and, if possible, with a live ensemble playing long drone-like sounds combined with spontaneous, short interventions.
a version exhibited at the gallery in march 2016 included live performance by darie nemeș bota and francisco ramonda
[muzexpo, 2015; the gallery, 2016]
our story (2014-2015)
three people, living in different parts of the world, are recording their own voices while reading the same text over and over again. the main focus of the work is the background sound recorded along with their voice. maybe it's about being aware of the sound world we inhabit. maybe it's about exploring the relationship(s) we have with the space around us and its sounds. maybe it's about being able to say something essential about yourself while hiding behind the same simple text. maybe it's about questioning the meaning of the here, since we're here, together, while at the same time being all over the globe. maybe it's about offering each other small (audio) fragments of the different worlds we live in, a celebration of sharing. or maybe it's just a simple game, no meaning, just the joy of playing.
text by: cornelia, maya, clara, silvie, alexandra, luca, darie, juan, mihai
recordings by: silvie, darie, mihai
when?: 2014 - 2015;
where?: bucureşti, 北京 (beijing), olomouc, pardubice, hradec králové, 昆明 (kunming), 丽江 (lijiang)
[audio cds containing all the recordings were offered to the spectators during the dalpofzs event "glas/distance(s)" at the night of art galleries 2015]
miniature (2015)
the biggest distance that can occur between two people on earth it’s approximately 20.000 km. in a somewhat medieval gesture we offer a symbolic miniature of it: 20.000 milliseconds of audio and visual experience resulted from the exercise of exploring the distance(s) between us.
video:
drawing a line. czech republic, romania, china. combining the frames.
audio:
1.took all frames from the video and placed them in succession, creating a mixed image.
2.print screen, crop, etc.
3.convert images (bmp) into sounds (wav/mp3).
[exhibited in bucharest during the night of art galleries 2015 as a part of the dalpofzs event "glas/distance(s)", at mignon theatre]
glas (2014-2015)
glas (romanian for "voice") is a project initiated by dalpofzs in august 2014, as part of the I-SON event/performance (a collaboration between trio zvuv and dalpofzs).
it was inspired by "ison" , a continuous, low, slow-moving or fixed pitch drone sound, present as a form of accompaniment to the main melody in religious byzantine chants.
we speak more than 6000 languages around the globe, in over 7.000.000.000 voices, each one of them recognizable, each one of them unique. the intensity, the timbre, the frequency of the sounds that form our words and sentences, but also the emotions that inform them, define the voice that we wear, and in the last instance who we are.
in glas we are interested in bare voices devoid of linguistic meaning, the different shapes they can have, the acoustic landscapes and improbable distances they create when encountering each other.
we invite the spectators to record their own voice keeping a long, fixed pitch sound, and we add it to our small archive that is randomly played back into the exhibition space.
[part of the event "I-SON" - palatul universul (2014), and "glas/distance(s)" - mignon theatre (night of art galleries 2015)]
postcards (2014)
we transformed two sets of images into sounds, and we introduced the later in an improvised system of pvc pipes. a simple soundscape resulted and we invited the spectators to explore it.
as for the two sets of images: the first one consists of 25 stills from the same second of a movie (a second that in its specific context is a border between silence and sound), the second set is formed from images of well known classical music scores (another way of “playing” a music score).
we used free software available on the internet to interpret pictures as spectrograms, and then we recorded them in an audio editing program.)
[postcardzs was exhibited in 2014 in bucharest as part of the I-SON event, a collaboration between trio zvuv and dalpofzs]
cucurigu (2014)
“the cathedral of national redemption” is currently being built in the centre of bucharest. its towers are supposed to rise victorious above the level of the nearby, colossal, communist era building: “people’s house” (a symbol not only for the absurd ambitions of a dictatorial political regime, but also for the amnesia of the post-communist romanian society, that allows institutions such as the parliament and the national museum for contemporary art to function here). it’s hard to miss the vulgarity of this moment when the erect phallus of the power (in this case the romanian orthodox church) is meeting the black hole of the traumatising past (the negation and oblivion that are enveloping the memory of the communist era).
and is this type of pornography that constitutes the base of the whole contemporary romanian society. simply inverting the old values produces an equally unintelligible, incoherent discourse, that is far from being an acceptable solution. the “cathedral of national redemption” is nothing more than a mirror image of “people’s house”.
it is this embarrassing state of things that we want to criticise by reading backwards the “july theses” (a famous speech delivered by romanian dictator nicolae ceaușescu that marked the beginning of an offensive against cultural autonomy), in the proximity of the new formed couple: “the people’s house” / “the cathedral of national redemption”.
two approximately one hour videos resulted from the project: 1. the complete text of the "july theses" read backwards near the site where the cathedral is being built; 2. the first video reversed (for a romanian speaking audience the text of the "july theses" becomes comprehensible)
the following text (available only in romanian) is part of the project
[cucurigu was exhibited in bucharest at question mark in 2014]
urban minstrel (2014-2017)
is a performance we do on the 10th of december each year. the minstrel wanders the streets and leaves behind small gifts that anyone can discover. at first, the gifts were musical packages, selections from the minstrel's rather strange and diverse collection, later on they also included non-musical objects (books, images, lists, links etc) and original contributions specifically made for this project. the material support included mp3 players, audio cds, audio tapes, memory sticks. every year, items recommended by close friends were included too.
afterwards, the urban minstrel returns to the unknown, somewhere / anywhere / everywhere.
accidentals (2013-2014)
accidentals is an exercise in translation. by deconstructing objects from a traditional medium and reassembling them into another, we attempt to lose a certain institutionalised concept of meaning and transition to a dynamic of becoming. It consists in three exercises:
becoming-territory:
creating a sound territory by mapping and manipulating a given set of parameters subtracted from Bucharest's North Railway station. a territory is made out of lines, intensities, encounters and their interplay. 20 different music tracks are played in loop simultaneously in a large open-space. people are invited to inhabit the newly formed space, to move through it and discover the way the sounds mould and change around them and to territorialize the space by marking their favourite spot.
audio
sound-photos:
superimposed sounds made from very short samples from different sources (field recordings, concrete music, speeches, musical recordings, etc), played in a loop and delivered at once to a dynamic year. the preexisting aesthetic values of the sounds are negated and transformed into an exploration of space and a search for meanings.
audio
post’er:
printed classical music scores are cut in small pieces (4-5 notes), mixed and randomly glued to a wall by the audience. two musicians, olga (violin) and alex (guitar), start playing the resulting composition by means of an ongoing dialogue between themselves, offering new interpretations or solutions to the musical puzzle on the wall. meanwhile, darie attempts a live-composing exercise, which is afterwards played by the two musicians.
video
the exhibition also included two texts in romanian
[accidentals was first exhibited in piatra neamț (2013), and then in bucharest (during the night of art galleries 2014)]
net art course ↓
we recommend a free course on net art -- that dalpofzs is not stranger from ;)
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website background
we used hydra by olivia jack https://hydra.ojack.xyz/
thank you naoto hieda for the youtube hydra tutorials
contact
postoffice[at]dalpofzs.com