First of all I would like to wish everyone a happy 2020! It has been a long time since I gave my dear supporters an update about my crowdfunding campaign, and for this I have to say I am genuinely sorry it took this long...

Since my residency period at STEIM is still going (yes in March it is already a year since I started there!) things has been a bit chaotic. I have moved to The Hague with my studio and home, while continuing my research at STEIM, while also co-operating on the 50 year anniversary project for EKWC and STEIM. And during this time the exhibitions have also been continuing, which was very important since these moments were a part of my research, putting my composition ideas with materials in spaces into practice.

In the background I have been preparing the rewards for you, my supporters, and because I wanted to make it special, it also took longer than expected. But right now, I am sitting here, with all the adoption papers in order (my brother Ruben Maalman helped me getting these in order) and the gnomes packed and prepared, so in the next few weeks, I can start sending them out to you!

So keep an eye on your mailbox, it might be that a gnome will try to crawl into it.

If you moved in the past year, please let me know your current place of residence, so your gnome will not get lost in the mail. If I have all the correct addresses, it will be a matter of a few weeks before all gnomes are in their new homes!

When I am finished sending out the gnomes to their new homes, I will continue with the other rewards, like the Lost & Found Orchestra compositions, they are also coming!

Hello everyone! It has been silent for a while, so I thought to give you all a small update of where I am in the development of the project, and when your support is going to be rewarded!

From November until beginning of February I was immersed in the world of clay at the European Ceramic Workcentre (EKWC). Making molds, pouring slib, firing kilns, glazing, glazing, glazing... I learned so much and had an amazing time with all the international artists that each approach the material from their own point of view. I made new friends, gained new views, learned new techniques, and built a huge collection of ceramic objects.

During my residency I was approached by Ranti Tjan, the director of EKWC. He had a chat with Dick Rijken, the director of STEIM, the institute that I am currently working at in my next artist in residence. EKWC and STEIM are connected institutes, and both celebrate their 50 year anniversary in 2019. Because I happen to be doing a residency on the sound properties of ceramics in exactly this time frame, they asked me to develop a multiple, which is an object that can be produced in editions.

Because I researched shapes, sizes, materials and their properties for three months, I had several prototypes that I wished I could further develop with the information that I gained over the months, so this quest was a perfect one for me!

Together with the staff from EKWC, I started developing a perfected version of the prototypes, resulting in five versions of a shape that would combine light with sound, which could be reproduced into 100 pieces to commemorate the happy occasion of 50 years EKWC & STEIM.

Besides producing these objects for selling them, we made it part of the plan to produce also quite a large amount for my Foundscape installations. In this way I could gain so much from the multiple project, because it means I get to compose musical pieces with the perfected versions of my experimental prototypes!

The title of these objects we are calling Soundshapes. So Foundscape contains many Soundshapes (try saying that quickly ten times!)

So the project is continuing at EKWC, under the watchful eye of Rinke, my ceramic co-conspirator (check out Studio Rinke on instagram) who is responsible for creating the molds and pouring the slib into the molds while I moved on to STEIM, where I will research and build the technical side of things, to pull the project out of the clay into the future!

So, this was a long update, but it also has been a while since I wrote to my Foundscape supporters. I am preparing the gnomes for the first wave of supporters (the xmas ones) at the moment, the adoption papers are being made in order, the packaging is taken care of, the gnomes all get a new layer of paint before they leave their old home, so they can start their new lives fresh! As I told you guys before, I will sent anyone who supported me by adopting one gnome, a pair of gnomes, a red one & a green one.

They keep each other in balance, like yin and yang...

More news soon, when the gnomes will start marching out of my studio!

Daniel

Everyone a happy new year from the EKWC! I have been working most of the holidays, taking only two days off in total, but it is showing in the results! I was pouring liquid porcelain into my molds and I prepared a range of objects that are now ready to fire in my first full kiln (ceramic oven) on monday the 7th.

I had some help from some casual assistants, my mom came by to help me out with the pressmolds, and around the new year, artist Jan Barceló, friend and colleague, helped me pouring porcelain into molds, and pressing clay slabs into shape! And he helped me decide on the color schemes...

I have now made different instrument installations consisting of loads of small sound objects and next week I will do my first glazing tests to define which colours will be used for which objects.

Also I have made some first tests with different electronic actuators to try to get sounds out of different objects, which sparked some new ideas.

Because the Voordekunst campaign was extended for almost a week, there was not enough time to send the special christmas gnomes to their new homes for christmas, but the supporters who selected an early-bird-reward will be receiving their gnomes right after my residency at EKWC ends, still in a slightly earlier stage than the other gnome-owners.

And since a lot of the gnomes found a new home, and I felt sorry for the other half, everyone who supported me by choosing a gnome, will receive two, and everyone who chose two, will receive four!

I will keep you updated!

Thanks again everyone!

Daniel

Yesterday my campaign reached 80% because of all of your generous donations! I feel very happy to have reached this point because crossing the 80% border means that if no one decides to back out of supporting the project, I can keep these donations, even though the 100% finish line is not yet reached.

Because of reaching this milestone just before the campaign ended, Voordekunst gives me four more days to try and reach as close as possible to 100%!

So if anyone was planning on adopting one of my little friends or one of my other rewards but missed the last deadline, there is still some time to support the project!

Somewhere in the future I will do a Foundscape composition in co-operation with the European Ceramic Workcentre (EKWC). I received a donation from the institute to help me in my research, and this brings me to 72%, with two days on the counter!

Do you want to help me get me to the necessary 80% within these two days? Please share it with your friends and network who you think would be interested in supporting my project!

Now it's getting up to speed... I received a big donation from Genetics NL: I am going to develop a series of workshops in which I am going to be searching for the sounds of a location during an symposium event that is still under development.

I will be making a sound composition during a workshop with a group of molecular scientists in coöperation with GeneticsNL.

The theme of making the inaudible audible matches well with the quest of molecular scientists to make the invisible visible.

Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds has donated 750 euro's to support my project!

Hey everyone! A quick message from EKWC (The ceramic centre)! It took a little while to get acquainted with all the possibilities and techniques in this amazing place... But I got an amazing feeling yesterday taking the first porcelain shapes from my freshly made moulds...

Today I am going to finish my biggest plastermould that I have made until now, consisting of three parts. I also will make pour more porcelain slib clay in the moulds that I did finish already, creating a collection of shapes to try out once they're baked!

I will try to post more updates soon, the Voordekunst campaign is now half way, so only 13 days to reach my goal!

I am talking to some festivals at the moment that can give me some bigger jumps towards the end goal, but increasing visibility is key at the moment, so visit my Facebook page and Instagram account and share my Foundscape posts if you think you know some people who might be interested in supporting me as well!

www.facebook.com/studiodanielmaalman

www.instagram.com/danielmaalman

www.foundscap.es

You can also e-mail me at [email protected] and I can send you an e-mail with more info on how to support this project!

Thank you all!
Daniel