Serge Verstockt worked on a project around immersive technology, AI and spatialization.

LES NYMPHEAS DIGITALES was created with HERMESensemble and ChampdAction in collaboration. 

During the premiere of LES NYMPHEAS DIGITALES in De Bijloke (Ghent), Serge took us to the last stage of the journey: with LES NYMPHÉAS DIGITALES he designed an experience in octophonic sound. Reality and a digital world, where physical laws do not apply, are increasingly merging into a new reality. Without realizing it, our most intimate thoughts and images surf an icy stream of binary code where there is no doubt: it is 1 or 0.

But sometimes the glitch strikes: disruption. And there both worlds meet. In the prophetic book “Zum ewigen Frieden” by Immanuel Kant, rational thought is directly opposed to our natural drives. “Foolishness, infantile vanity, selfishness, malice and destructiveness are part of our human nature. And at the same time we want peace and togetherness. That is why we need rational rules.

In “Les Nymphéas digitales” this “Ungesellige Geselligkeit” becomes physically palpable and we hear razor-sharp digital glitches that collide with impressionistic sound clouds and seemingly innocent children’s songs accompanied by earthy junk pots.

By means of an octophonic sound system it is audience in the middle of this clash, which makes the experience even more intense: no escape possible. ​

Development and production LES NYMPHEAS DIGITALES – in collaboration with Royal Conservatory of Antwerp and Royal Academy of Antwerp, St Lucas Antwerp and Royal Conservatory of Brussels, HERMESensemble & ChampdAction