Archive

「play, listen, share, repeat」

Department

Design

Author

John Haag

Year

2026

「play, listen, share, repeat」 is an audiovisual piece that takes on a referential approach to software usage and sonic composition. It is a journey through networked platforms and software interfaces where music is created, consumed, shared and discussed. It unfolds in two musical pieces that are in constant conversation with their own conditions of origin. Created through sampling, reassembling, and rerouting material across different environments, the piece carries the traces of its own construction. The project engages with software not only as a tool, but as a material and a structure that shapes perception. Everyday interactions with digital systems suggest immediacy and control, yet remain embedded in preconfigured, opaque frameworks.

This work approaches these systems from within, by stretching and misusing their logic. Through repetition, translation, and deliberate friction, the process becomes visible. Screenshots and internal audio recording build bridges between closed systems, transforming them into collective sites of participation. The software becomes a source, the process becomes the content, reflecting their mutual interweaving. The material is sourced entirely from networked platforms, like YouTube, Soundcloud or bandcamp—the spaces where music, tutorials and their communities coexist and exchange. These sources are not treated as static references, but a personal list of recommendations of living fragments that carry their own histories of circulation and use. Downloading, compressing, and re-encoding them already transforms their status. Where does a source begin, and when does it become something else?

Fedlev building & Benthem Crouwel building
Fred. Roeskestraat 96
1076 ED Amsterdam
Netherlands