Petr Válek / VAPE: Algorithmic Resonances
Renowned noise artist, experimenter, painter, solderer, sound engineer, and performer Petr Válek, known as VAPE, has long documented and presented his work, created in the deep forests of the Czech Republic’s borderlands, through his own videos. With the advent of AI, orchestrated environments are becoming more complex, cyclical, and referential, transforming our very concept of imagination.
The work of Petr Válek is complex and rich in general. He creates kinetic mechanisms reminiscent of extraterrestrial organisms, soldering, painting, perforating, and recording them, using them to generate new images and even realities. Video is one of his basic means of archiving and communication, but also his own aesthetic stylization. Recently, he has also been using artificial intelligence in his work. This creates a remarkable tension that extends the already complicated concept of metamedia to other domains.
Válek often situates his live sound performances in unorthodox and surprising environments that ultimately motivate his imagination. They are usually mysterious, humorous, and ironic. These backgrounds, in some cases created by artificial intelligence, are not mere projections, but integral destabilizing elements within his audiovisual performances, dissolving the traditional boundaries between body, environment, and medium. This situates Válek’s audiovisual practice within a broader shift: performance is no longer anchored in live presence or narrative coherence, but is becoming an immersive, speculative experiment in co-embodiment with synthetic spheres. Fortunately, it always returns to a concrete object—a mechanism that can be touched, communicated imaginatively, and through which one can also reflect on one’s own life.
Petr Válek / VAPE
Petr Válek is an experimental sound artist, musician, and creator of kinetic and audiovisual objects. He lives and works in Loučná nad Desnou, where he has developed a unique artistic practice combining sound, motion, improvisation, and absurd humor. His work blurs the boundaries between visual art, performance, and music. Válek constructs his own instruments and mechanical devices from recycled materials and found objects, transforming them into unpredictable, self-playing sound sculptures.
Válek’s performances and installations are characterized by spontaneity, chaos, and the interplay between control and randomness. Through his practice, he explores the agency of objects and machines, allowing them to act as co-authors of the resulting compositions. Válek has performed and exhibited across Europe, presenting his work at international festivals of sound and experimental art such as Alternativa, Stimul, or Ružové město.
He also runs an online archive of short experimental videos and sound improvisations, through which he has gained a cult following in the field of contemporary sound art.
