Victor Dissel is a multimedia artist, composer and co-founder of art festival We Are Water. Dissel is mainly known for his audiovisual installations, in which he examines new interventions between humans and nature. By using a combination of light, sound and natural elements, he aims to make natural patterns and processes tangible.
I aim to create shared, immersive experiences that invite a physical connection with nature. I want to emphasize the concept of a harmonious coexistence between humans, nature and technology, by exploring their symbiosis.
Reflect
Mixed-media installation
Reflect is a mixed-media installation that uses sound frequencies to create visual patterns on a water surface. It makes the unseeable become visible by exposing sound in water. Thesemiraculous patterns emerge in many choreographic ways, showing the beauty of interacting natural elements. Reflect invites people to look beyond the surface and feel how we all are connected to nature in a common way. Furthermore, Reflect examines the interaction between sound vibrations and the human body, consisting of 70% water. How does sound affect our bodily experience? And in what new ways can we observe the sounds and perceptions around us?
Concept & design: Victor Dissel
Code: Gerben van der Kleij
Exhibitions
2022 Rietveldpaviljoen, We Are Water
2022 Museum Speelklok, Springplank
2023 Havenloods, FAAM Licht/Donker
2023 Fort Pampus, Water Werken
Zonnewende
Audiovisual installation for Lipton Ice Tea
Zonnewende is an audiovisual installation that invites you to celebrate the magical transition from day to night. Multimedia artists Victor Dissel and Emanuel Nijkerk created an abstract interpretation of this shift, capturing the mesmerizing dance of light, color, and the interplay of the sun and the earth. The hexagonal design of the installation is inspired by Stonehenge, which was built to align with the sun on the solstices (or ‘Zonnewendes’) serving as one of the oldest human rituals. With its 6-meter-high light column and its own ‘sun sphere’ moving up and down, the Zonnewende serves as both a signpost and a space for collective ritual at Into The Woods. Through this, we honor the endless cycle of the sun, guiding us from day to night.
Made possible by Lipton Ice Tea
Commissioned by Kultlab Events
Credits:
Victor Dissel – creative director
Emanuel Nijkerk – creative director
Merijn Versnel – engineer
Jela Nieuwstraaten – light engineer
Daniel Steenhoff – technical assistance
Hugo Wierikx – pre-production and construction
Floortje Krikke – plant care
Reveal Works – floor construction
Timo Lejeune & Boris Acket – early-stage brainstorming
OostWest – workspace
On-site crew: Jesse Klemans, Jules Janssen, Feja Ruiter, Noa Iesberts, Casper Prinssen, Pepijn Rozer, Jim Steltenpool, Gabriel van der Sluijs, Twan Aalders, Lisa Bast, Julian Worron, Yonah Kalmann, Luca Schaap, Floortje Krikke
Reflect 2.0
mixed-media installation
Reflect 2.0 is a second iteration of Reflect, combining multiple custom speaker parts into modular shaped watersurfaces.
Concept and sound: Victor Dissel
Exhibitions
2023 Kunsthal KAdE – Blauwdruk, Amersfoort
2023 TivoliVredenburg – Betweter festival, Utrecht
2023 FCA – OostWest, Amersfoort
2024 Door Open Space, ADE 2024 – NDSM, Amsterdam
SouRCe; Water (2022)
Audiovisual installation
SouRCe is dedicated to the many faces of water and embraces the idea that all water streams originate from the same source, just like us. This is embodied on a towering six-metre LED screen with spectacular water sculptures falling from the sky supported by an electronic/acoustic composition. With a shared fascination for the countless shapes and forms of water, light artist Emanuel Nijkerk and composer Victor Dissel explore the ever-changing beauty of water patterns. Emanuel captured footage of streams, rivers and waterfalls during his journey in the Portuguese mountain area of National Park Gerês. The people there depend on a large network of pumps and hoses to provide clean drinking water. Around this, all kinds of social constructs emerge about how the limited amount of water should be distributed in the area.
Concept: Emanuel Nijkerk, Victor Dissel
Sound: Victor Dissel
Visuals: Emanuel Nijkerk
Exhibitions
2022 Rietveldpaviljoen, We Are Water
2022 Museumnacht, Alkmaar
2022 ORBIT Festival, Fort Vechten
SouRCe; Soil (2023)
Audiovisual installation
SouRCe is an annual series of audiovisual installations in which multimedia artist Victor Dissel and light artist Emanuel Nijkerk explore the elements of nature. Their aim is to reimagine our connection to nature by creating audiovisual rituals that examine the confluence of digital and physical perception.
In SouRCe; Soil, the audience gets transported to the hidden macro-cosmos of the earth. With the use of unconventional recording techniques, like dug-in microphones and macro cameras, the earth’s element is captured in a new light. These layers, textures and structures are brought together in an audiovisual piece, consisting of a 6-meter-high LED wall and 4,000 kilos of soil.
by Victor Dissel and Emanuel Nijkerk
Exhibitions
2023 Into The Woods ADE, NDSM
With the kind support of
Showdesign, Kultlab, ADE
Don’t F*ck With Culture
Audiovisual film installation
‘Don’t F*ck With Culture’ is an immersive experience in which two films are showcased on multiple movie screens. In addition to the films spatial sound, lightart and live-performances are being combined to create a on of a kind cross-over between film, exhibition and dance-event.
Director: Hylko Smit
DP: Bobby Littlejohn
Stage design: Victor Dissel, Emanuel Nijkerk, Hylko Smit
Composition, spatial sound: Victor Dissel
Visuals, live video: Emanuel Nijkerk
3D design: Chris kore
Spoken word: ZOOPHIS
Mix & mastering: Lars van Leeuwen
Exhibitions
2022 Sneak preview, KOSMIK
2023 Premiere, FLUOR
Circular
Audiovisual performance
CIRCULAR is a performative installation that plays with the sensory perceptions of its viewers. Composer & creative director Victor Dissel, visual artist Emanuel Nijkerk and creative coder Gerben van der Kleij joined forces to create an environment that is built to provoke, challenge and stagger the viewer using transparent projection screens, spatial sound and psychoacoustics. These manipulative experiences appeal to our primal senses, bringing us closer to them and, on the other hand, making us question their reality.
Visuals are created by light artist Emanuel Nijkerk and explored within a spatial design of transparent screens. Electronic sound composition is made by audiovisual artist Victor Dissel consisting of percussive noises, microtonal harmonies and psychoacoustic phenomena. These sounds are transmitted live within a spatial speaker system by creative coder Gerben van der Kleij. Is everything that exists perceptible? Is everything perceptible existing? How do we relate to our reality?
Concept, sound: Victor Dissel
Visuals: Emanuel Nijkerk
Creative coding: Gerben van der Kleij
Commissioned by UNCLOUD
2021 Nicolaikerk, Utrecht
2022 UNCLOUD, De Nijverheid
Constellations
Light installation
Constellations is a light installation focusing on connectivity. The work completes the decor of Straight From The Horse Mouth Festival, a music and art festival taking place in the hangar of the Amersfoort arts hub OostWest. 30 moving heads have been placed in the roof of the hangar and another 10 or so scattered at different heights from the floor. The columns of light create spectacular patterns and connections that fill up the space. The lights also make connections with the performing artists, resulting in an impressive three-dimensional web of light.
Victor Dissel: creative director & composer
Silence Of The Lights: technical director & light operator
Bart Kipping: light programmer
Commissioned by Waldo Volmer and Camiel De Kruijf
Located at OostWest
CAELUM
Short film
‘Caelum’ is Latin for heaven, or sky. In many religions, it is a place where God or Gods reside and a place where the soul goes after death; a blissful place of eternal happiness, a dimension where time does not exist.
‘Caelum’ is a short film in search of the deep now by exploring guided meditation, spatial sound and visuals. This translates into a multi-sensory ritual in which there is room for self-reflection and connection with the inner soul.
This project is a S.O.A.P production and a collaboration between multiple artists. Sound design and spatial composition is made by audiovisual artist Victor Dissel. 3D-animations are made by digital artist Chris Kore (UKR). Spoken-Word is done by Nadia Azimzadeh and the cinematic story is created by co-director Bobby Littlejohn and director Hylko Smit.
Director: Hylko Smit
Co-director, DP: Bobby Littlejohn
3D artist: Chris Kore
Sound design: Victor Dissel
Spoken word: Nadia Azimzadeh
Exhibitions
2022 Blauwdruk, OostWest
2023 Première, FLUOR
info@victordissel.nl
+31 6 22828088
Partners
Uncloud, Tivoli, ORBIT, Museumnacht, Into The Woods, Wildeburg, Amsterdam Dance Event, Centraal Museum, Lipton, Museum Speelklok, Metaal Kathedraal, FAAM, FLUOR, De Nijverheid, Betweter festival, Monopol Berlin