Petervan’s Musical Ride September 2025– 55 songs. For this episode, I got caught up in a Dub Techno rabbit hole. This includes discovering the new album by “Mister Dub” Adrian Sherwood, and the book “Dub Techno: The Orphic Experience of Sound“. But as usual, we have a lot of recent releases, including Mark William Lewis, Lucrecia Dalt, and Chantal Acda. Oldies from David Bowie, Deee-Lite, and keiyiA. Play in shuffle mode to increase the surprise factor. Enjoy!
Excited to announce that I’ll be speaking together with Andreea Ion Cojocaru at the 2025 UnitedXR Conference in Brussels, happening December 8–10, 2025. This is my first public appearance in a long time, finally fully disconnected from corporate life and enjoying new artistic endeavours.
The Forbidden Question is a branch of our New New Babylon (aka Dream My Dream) Performance. Andreea and I will give a talk on the genesis and evolution of our project. This performance is a choreographed yet spontaneous play between multiple dreams and dreamers.
Looking forward to seeing some old and new friends in December.
This week, another strange letter arrived in my mailbox—again with no sender name or return address. It seems to be from an investigator, a living being whose species I can’t be sure of, calling himself Douglas Spar and signing his notes with the pseudonym “The Holy Lamb.” This one reports from Paris.
There is also a strange video released on a YouTube Channel named “It’s Happening”. Worthwhile following?
Petervan’s Musical Ride August 2025– 70+ songs. Recent releases include Ethel Cain, The Black Keys, and yingtuitve. Oldies from Sammy Virji, Marc Moulin, and Pretenders. Play in shuffle mode to increase the surprise factor. Enjoy!
For the past few months, I’ve been co-working on a new, still embryonic project—co-written and co-directed with Andreea Ion Cojocaru, enriched by the expertise of my cousin Joost, a PhD art historian, and further shaped through the collaboration of several contributing artists.
Until now, I have only shared this project with a few people. Many of them suggested that I start documenting “the making of” our project, so this blog post will serve as the first episode.
Our project takes the form of an experimental alternate reality experience that explores the nature of flesh, human suffering, and the role of technology. At its core lies a question both ancient and urgent: Who are the new gods that might deliver us from suffering?
The project ultimately strives toward the organization of a Third Council on this topic, which we call simply: 3C
Our approach weaves together mysterious, multi-layered storytelling and conspiracies across several digital and non-digital platforms. Different strands and overlapping narratives unfold in various locations—one of them being Ghent.
This Ghent storyline begins with the renowned Mystic Lamb Altarpiece by the brothers Van Eyck. Commissioned by the Vijd family, the altarpiece was unveiled on 6 May 1432, coinciding with the baptism of Philip the Good’s son. Countless volumes have been written about this extraordinary work. An accessible introduction can be found on The Ghent Altarpiece site. For deeper study, Closer to Van Eyck offers breathtaking HD detail and analysis, and of course, there is always the comprehensive overview on Wikipedia.
The Mystic Lamb Altarpiece – Picture by the author
After a meticulous and highly professional restoration, conservators peeled away later layers of paint to reveal the original brilliance of the Van Eyck brothers. Today, the restored masterpiece can be admired behind bulletproof glass in Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent.
At a certain stage of our project, we began to wonder: was there ever an actual altar placed in front of the painting? I turned to my cousin, the art historian, and he replied:
“There has already much research been done on the original disposition of the Ghent Altarpiece e.g. by Dr. Elisabeth Dhanens and even considering the combination of that polyptich with sculpture, but non of the hypotheses has completely convinced the specialists. The oldest existing images of the chapel are too young to obtain a precise idea of the original situation. As in such chapels it was the rule that a yearly mass for the souls of the deceased and portrayed patrons was said by a chaplan, normally (a altar focs chapel being smaller than a main altar in the main church building) would have been foreseen. But we do not have an idea how it looked like.”
I wanted to buy the book by Dr. Elisabeth Dhanens, but like many art publications, it was prohibitively expensive, so I went instead to the Arts Library at the University of Ghent and borrowed a copy there.
In our project, the peeling away of layers from the Mystic Lamb becomes a metaphor for a deeper, more abstract process: the peeling away of layers of reality itself.
The Altarpiece also carries a built-in narrative advantage—its own entanglement in conspiracy. On 11 April 1934, one of its twelve panels, The Righteous Judges, was stolen and has never been recovered. This theft has inspired countless books, theories, and websites. Among them, the Righteous Judges site offers both a clear overview and an excellent timeline of the events.
On June 3, 2025, I undertook a short trip to Ghent, exploring the neighborhood in search of clues about the lost panel. Along the way, I recorded a compact photo-video documentary to capture my findings.
Here is one of the pictures: a café next to the cathedral called “De Rechters/The Judges”
Our project is multi-dimensional and undeniably ambitious. We’ve prepared a solid funding pitch, but if we wait for financial backing before taking any action, nothing may ever materialize. So instead, we’ve decided to start sharing small glimpses of the project—a slow drip-feed—and watch to see what resonates and what gets picked up.
But is there an audience for this? We hope, but don’t know. Perhaps only an audience of one. Kevin Kelly recently wrote an insightful piece on that very idea.
“From now on, the default destiny for most art will be for an audience of one, and it will abide in the memory of those who generate it. While some of this co-generated work might find its larger audience and some very tiny fraction of it might even become a popular hit, its chief value will be in the direct, naked pleasure of co-making of it.”
That’s very much our mindset—our “eye-set” too: as long as we enjoy creating, we’ll keep going.
On the more playful side, Ghent offers several signposted bicycle tours inspired by the Mystic Lamb Altarpiece and the story of the stolen panel. One of them is intriguingly titled “VermoedelEyck daar / Probably ThEyck” I plan to try it out soon and capture some photos and videos to share later.
“Delicacies” is my incoherent, irregular, unpredictable collection of interesting sparks I came across online. Handpicked by a human, no robots, no AI. A form of tripping, wandering, dérivé, with some loosely undefined theme holding them together. Delicacies have no fixed frequency: I hit the publish button when there is enough material. That can be after a week or after 3 months. No pressure, literally. Just click the image below. Enjoy!
Some highlights from this edition:
Symposium with Vladan Joler, Valentina Tanni & Eryk Salvaggio examining the transformation and consolidation of the Web from the 1990s up to the age of generative AI.
I went to the premiere exhibition of David Claerbout’s The Woodcarver and the Forest at the Castle of Gaasbeek. I went by bike, for me, a two-hour ride each way, on a warm sunny day through the Pajottenland, the region southwest of Brussels where I spent the first 25 years of my life. Cycling up and down its rolling hills stirred deep emotions and memories of my youth. This is the land of Bruegel, of Geuze and Lambic beer, of Remco Evenepoel. It is also, unmistakably, my land.
Before arriving at the castle, visitors walk about 15 minutes from the entrance through a carefully tended, forest-like domain. The path itself already feels like part of the experience, drawing you gradually into a slower, quieter, almost meditative state.
A top-level garden modelled on castle gardens from the 18th and 19th centuries. A strong example of living cultural heritage. Take a stroll through this magnificent Garden of Eden, with the old-model fruit repository, the beehives, and a wonderful view of Gaasbeek Castle and the Pajottenland.
I lingered in the garden for some time, sitting on a bench and gazing at another bench across the way, the two connected by a loofgang—a leafy tunnel formed by pear trees. I simply sat in silence, doing nothing. Eventually, I walked through the shaded passage to the other side, before making my way to the castle. In hindsight, the video I captured carries an unintended sense of suspense.
Once inside the castle, visitors are guided along a signposted route. Along the way, I captured this video of sunlight filtering through stained glass, casting vibrant patterns onto the wooden, carpeted floor.
The Claerbout installation awaits at the very end, rising three stories high beneath the roof.
From the brochure:
This work is Claerbout’s latest creation and presents itself as an intimate portrait of a reclusive young man. Do you feel the meditative effect of the slow, repetitive movements and their sound?
Specific audiovisual stimuli – such as soft sounds or rhythmic movements – can evoke feelings of relaxation and inner calm. This phenomenon is known as ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) and forms the foundation of this work
The Woodcarver and the Forest is an open film, which is completed using generative artificial intelligence. As a spectator, our experience also remains open and unfinished, partly due to the long duration of the work.
This reveals the dual nature of the film: an interplay between pleasure and sorrow, beauty and destruction.
“I want people to keep watching for hours or at least to settle into that idea of extended time, knowing that they will never be able to see everything.”
Still from Claerbout’s video installation – picture by @petervan
I sat in there for more than one hour. It put me in some state of limbo about my own work and where I want to go next. Following Google’s Gemini AI, it means “to be in an uncertain, undecided, or forgotten state where nothing can progress or be resolved, similar to being caught between two stages or places.”
I am a big fan of David Claerbout. See previous entries on this blog here. The Woodcarver gave me the chance to revisit some of Claerbout’s earlier works and conversations, while also helping me reconnect with the artistic drive within myself.
Here is a more recent talk by David Claerbout
Some interesting quotes
Change your mind-set ànd your eye-set, from inquisitive to open-ended
The Brain does not choose sides; it does not know how to
And around minute 18, he gets into a very interesting schema of “former” AI technologies. He really got me when he says “the camera is a profoundly liberal invention” and later “around the 2000s, we start to think of visual culture as a assemblage, the coordinate system is back, and a coordinate system knows exactly where you are it has exact points in space it can find you back and instead of a liberal body in a world that could be anything anywhere it changes into a pinpointing in a space that so we we get a gathering of coordinates and we’re no longer free”
In closing, he shares reflections on recent readings that explore AI, vision, and the language of thought.
After watching the video, I visited the University of Ghent library—you can get a visitor’s pass as a non-student for €15 per year, granting access to all of the university’s libraries! There, I picked up the book The Time That Remains, a title that resonated with me on two levels: first, the concept of time, so ever-present in Claerbout’s work; and second, the realization that I am approaching my seventieth birthday, prompting me to reflect increasingly on the time I have left and how I want to spend it—especially in my artistic practice, if I can even call my tinkering that.
From the intro:
This publication marks the welcome collaboration between internationally acclaimed Belgian artist David Claerbout and two European institutions: Wiels, Brussels and Parasol unit, in London. The publication accompanies Claerbout’s exhibition opening at Parasol unit, on 30 May 2012; but it also provides a highly appreciated documentation for Wiels, which held a solo exhibition of Claerbout’s work, The Time that Remains, in 2011.
It’s from 2012, but the content is, well, timeless.
Some quotes/insights from that book.
“I think the recent proliferation of black boxes for film and video-art is not just a practical solution to a problem of sound and light interference, but also reflects an incapability to coexist. This can become apparent in large group exhibitions, where media installations appear strong when they are shown by themselves in a small or large dark space, but they easily collapse when shown in a social space where people move about and interact. The black box is a social phenomenon, for me it is a problem.” Ulrichs, David, ‘David Claerbout. Q/A, in: Modern Painters, May 2011, pp. 64-66
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“Time is invested into something that will prove to be valuable and productive. By consequence duration’ becomes increasingly expensive. But duration can only be free if it is unproductive.”
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“Cinema, YouTube and film-festivals demand the prolonged physical immobility of the viewer. Music, exhibitions or a walk in the park don’t.“
My sense of being in limbo stems from a hesitation: to move further into abstraction rather than figuration, toward longer forms rather than shorter ones, toward meditative sound and video landscapes rather than straightforward documentary. It also comes from my struggle to resist the banality of social media—where time is squandered on addictive, bite-sized fragments of content that ultimately feel useless.
I believe I know the answer, yet I dare not leap just yet.
Petervan’s Musical Ride July 2025– 50+ songs. Recent releases include Rival Consoles, Ozark Henry, and Wet Leg. Oldies from Eric Clapton, Black Sabbath, and Grace Jones. Play in shuffle mode to increase the surprise factor. Enjoy!
Petervan’s Musical Ride June 2025– 50 songs. Recent releases include Turnstile, Kathryn Joseph, and HAIM. Oldies from Soulwax, Roisin Murphy, and The Beach Boys. Play in shuffle mode to increase the surprise factor. Enjoy!
Petervan Studios 