BLOB
BLOB
is a multidisciplinary collective based in the Netherlands consisting
of artists Sophie Waller, Dualtagh McDonnell-Grundy and Biyi Zhu.
Through the fabrication of distinct technologically bound spaces, BLOB aims to examine the physical encounter between these two entities, investigating the consequences of this relationship for the possibilities and limitations it offers the body. They have presented their work at DeSingel Arts Centre, Antwerp; 4bid Gallery, Amsterdam; and the Royal Conservatoire, Antwerp.
Photo by: Celia Tort Pujol (2025)
control.
Presented by BLOB Collective at Royal Conservatoire Antwerp as part of Convergence. The seminar on Co-creative Strategies in Interdisciplinary Artistic Practices in March ‘25.
Using blob-tracking technology in Isadora, we built a system that mapped sounds and texts to each performer, so their body movement triggered sound and text output throughout the piece.
Three bodies enter a system.
Who is in control?
Whose decisions are we making?
We begin. We end. What is our purpose?
IN/OUT
Presented by BLOB Collective at B.base Festival, 4Bid Gallery, Amsterdam (December, 2024)
IN/OUT uses the technological framework created in our ‘UnderConstruction’ project (2024) and investigates it through a post-human lens, exploring technology’s need for a physical presence and the human body's desire for a new mode of being through technology.
Two bodies, along with the audience, discover how the system works and experiment to see what they can do with it. They then use the system to attempt to transcend the limitations of their bodies, allowing them to access new and unseen aspects of themselves through a partnership with technology.
Through a system of input and output, a fusion of body and machine is produced, an amalgam of sound, movement and persona. They are then faced with the consequences of what this means for their agency, reflecting on our increased dependency on technology.
Photo by: Celia Tort Pujol
UnderConstruction
Created and presented by BLOB during RAIVE (The Algorithmic Gaze and CREATIE) at Royal Conservatory Antwerp/DE SINGEL International Arts Centre - September ‘24, Antwerp, Belgium, under the guidance and mentorship of Işıl Bıçakçı and Frederik De Bleser, Umut Eldem, and Giusy Caruso.
BLOB artists: Dualtagh McDonnell-Grundy, Biyi Zhu, Sophie Waller and Andres Milan.
‘UnderConstruction’ is a performance project which uses both the structures of artificial intelligence and the technology itself (Max/MSP) to investigate an encounter between the body and technology. By mapping the space using body-capture programming, we have created a system in which each movement by the performer triggers a new sound in the space.
Four performers search to try and discover what their role is in the space and how their presence is both restricted and released by this connection to the machine. They realise that the computer only recognises the biggest body, and they fight to take control of the system, which ultimately pulls them apart before they realise and ultimately destroy it.
This iteration was a site-specific work which mapped sounds of the DeSingel building to areas of the performance space. When a performer moved to one of these points on the map, a sound was triggered, which in turn prompted movement among the other performers. Inspired by the primary framework of AI, which creates an output from an input, we explored what happens when the body is entered into this framework.