Composer, theatre producer, theorist, and co-founder of the Art Science Interfaculty in The Hague, Dick Raaijmakers (1930 – 2013) pioneered work in the fields of electronic and tape music, as well as paving the way for innovative practices in both pedagogy and creativity in inter-media arts.
To commemorate Raaijmakers's recent passing on 4 September 2013, CTM is honoured to present his "Ideofoon III" installation, developed in the early 1970s as the last of three separate installations, consecutively named "Ideofoon I", "II", and "III". In linguistics, "Ideophones" are defined as words that evoke certain sensations, e.g. smell, colour, shape, sound, action, or movement; through his Ideofoon trilogy, Raaijmakers’s aimed to explore the voice of the speakers themselves. Whether using visible, concrete material such as metal balls in "Ideofoon I", or simply air waves in "Ideofoon III", each of Raaijmakers’s Ideofoons possess a unique voice, where the speakers activate themselves through feedback loops in order to "speak".
The presentation of "Ideofoon III" complements an exploration on Electronic Music Pioneers in the Netherlands within CTM 2014.
Ideofoon III is presented with the kind support of the European Union Culture Fund and the Mondriaan Fund. Thanks also to the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag for the installation loan, and to TodaysArt.