ArtScience Encounters: Stridulations — Robert Schwarz Live
Schedule
Fri Mar 06 2026 at 06:00 pm to 06:45 pm
UTC+08:00Location
ArtScience Museum | Singapore, SG
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<𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲>𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 — 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝘄𝗮𝗿𝘇 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲
𝟲 𝗠𝗮𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 (𝗙𝗿𝗶), 𝟲𝗽𝗺 – 𝟲.𝟰𝟱𝗽𝗺
𝗢𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘂𝘀, 𝗕𝟮
𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
https://marinabaysands.jotform.com/253551665381057
This live performance by Vienna-based sound artist Robert Schwarz marks the launch of Stridulations, extending the sonic logic of the installation through a real-time activation of the Oculus. Conceived as an embodied listening experience, the performance unfolds across the architecture through layered sound and live spatialisation, inviting audiences to linger and listen within the space.
Drawing on Schwarz’s long-term research into insect communication, the performance treats stridulation as both method and metaphor: sound emerging through friction, repetition and collective synchrony. Field recordings, synthesis and live spatial control articulate shifting relationships between the individual and the swarm, the organic and the synthetic, the programmed and the emergent.
<𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻>
𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝘄𝗮𝗿𝘇
𝟳 𝗠𝗮𝗿 – 𝟯 𝗝𝘂𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲
𝗢𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘂𝘀, 𝗕𝟮
𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻
https://www.marinabaysands.com/museum/plan-your-visit/artscience-encounters/stridulations.html
Stridulations is a site-responsive, multi-channel sound installation by Vienna-based sound artist Robert Schwarz, devised for the Oculus at ArtScience Museum. Adapted from Schwarz’s long-running research into insect and arthropod communication, the work takes its name from stridulation — a process through which sound is produced by friction between chitinous body parts.
Drawing from over two decades of ecological field recordings and sound experiments, Schwarz transforms these tiny, often unheard signals into an enveloping listening experience. Chirps and pulses drift through the space, forming ever-shifting sonic patterns that mirror the rhythms of insect life and the collective energies of the swarm.
Composed as a looping work for long-duration listening, Stridulations invites a mode of listening in which distinctions between the natural and the synthetic, the individual and the collective, begin to blur. Sound moves around and through the listener, suggesting an acoustic ecology that exceeds human scale and familiar ways of perceiving.
Presented as part of Forms of Life, ArtScience Museum’s wider seasonal focus on insects, ecology and more-than-human intelligences, Stridulations frames listening as a cross-species encounter and foregrounds sound as a medium of relation.
𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁
Robert Schwarz is a sound artist whose practice sits at the intersection of computer music, visual art and architecture. His work explores listening as an embodied and immersive experience, often blurring the boundaries between sound synthesis and field recording to create richly textured sonic environments.
Schwarz has presented his work internationally at institutions and festivals including CTM Berlin, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Kunsthalle Wien, Ars Electronica Linz and Tokyo Arts and Space. His recordings have been released on labels such as ETAT, ALTER, Gruenrekorder and AVA. He is also the co-founder and curator of PARKEN, a Viennese festival dedicated to adventurous music, and a co-creator of the experimental music series Los Bar, Strookoffer, Laxbar and Relax.
𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹 & 𝗦𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗺
𝗔 𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼 𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀, 𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀
𝗙𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗱: 𝟲–𝟴 𝗠𝗮𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲
𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲𝘀: 𝟭𝟲 𝗙𝗲𝗯 – 𝟭𝟬 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲
Signal & Swarm is a micro festival that explores intelligence in all its forms — biological, digital and mechanical. Inspired by the intricate worlds of Insects: Microsculptures Magnified and NOX: Confessions of a Machine, the programme weaves together practices of care, curiosity and co-evolution to invite reflection on urban futures, machine empathy and the hidden lives of insects.
Across walk-in activities, hands-on workshops, guided tours, talks, film screenings, live performance and a sound installation, Signal & Swarm offers spaces for repair, discovery and collective imagination. At its heart, the festival celebrates forms of intelligence that often go unseen, revealing what becomes possible when circuits meet colonies, and when care extends beyond the human.
Signal & Swarm is presented as a special event within ArtScience Museum’s year-long season Forms of Life: Beyond the Human, which explores multispecies worlds, more-than-human intelligences, and the systems that shape life on Earth.
For the full festival programme, please visit: https://www.marinabaysands.com/museum/programmes/signal-and-swarm-festival.html
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Where is it happening?
ArtScience Museum, Art Science Museum, 6 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018974, SingaporeEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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