plastic_data
plastic_data (Dominic Denz) is a Swiss-Dutch musician, sound artist, audio engineer and DJ based in The Hague, working across electronic composition, audiovisual practice, and process based research. Drawing on data moshing and the Clicks and Cuts lineage, his work explores data compression and signal manipulation, moving between fragile detail and abrupt rupture as familiar media becomes unstable. He is the founder of the intermedia collective Polymer, with work presented at Kino Rex Bern (2024), Soso Space Bern, and Kunstraum Aarau, and hosted the concert series data_pulse at KIFF Aarau (2025). From 2023 to 2025 he was in residency with Transition Radio in Fribourg.
Music
Links
DJ and Live
- Polymer w/ plastic_data, Transition Radio
- Polymer, Transition Radio
- Guest Show w/ plastic_data, Transition Radio
- plastic_data — CRTTR for Radio Bollwerk
Works
Rift (2024)
Short film: A surreal interplay of image and sound, where digital reality shatters into fragments. In this shimmering dimension, the boundaries of the recognisable blur, and the familiar becomes unsettling. The short film was part of the research in the bachelor thesis „The Art of Error: Aesthetic Principles of Data Compression in Video and Audio” (2024).
There’s Acid Etching My Semiconductor (2023)
In this performance, the essence of digital data is intertwined with human emotion. Manipulated samples, noise, drone, and ambient elements form a multilayered soundscape that reflects reality as fragmented and multifaceted. Drawing on the imagery of silicon and germanium, the piece creates an atmosphere between digital and analogue worlds, inviting listeners into a suspended, timeless space.
data_entry (2024)
data_entry is a performance conceived as an homage to the pioneers of the Clicks and Cuts movement. The piece is generated entirely through synthesis in MaxMSP, focusing on microstructures, rhythmic fragmentation, and reduced sonic gestures. Through tightly controlled digital processes, the work explores precision, repetition, and rupture, situating itself within a lineage of experimental electronic music while reinterpreting its aesthetics through a contemporary, performative framework.
data_pulse (2025)
data_pulse is a mastered recording of the live performance presented in March 2025 in Aarau. The piece is constructed from field recordings made in the immediate surroundings of the performance site, which are heavily compressed and algorithmically manipulated using local weather data. Temperature, humidity, wind, and atmospheric conditions are mapped onto signal processing parameters, directly shaping the sonic behaviour of the material.
Klangtisch (2022)
The sound table was developed in collaboration with Patrick Jüdt, Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the Bern University of the Arts. I advised on the electroacoustic aspects of the project and designed the sound concept for the table. Together with various HKB students, individual instrumental parts were recorded in the studio, with each instrument captured separately. The table allows users to assemble a unique composition by placing wooden listeners on its surface. A custom-built player embedded in the base of the table stores and plays back the tracks through a six-channel sound system.
