Born in Belgium in 1962, Olivier Vanderaa studied sound engineering at the I.N.S.A.S. school of Cinematic art in the Belgian capital. He worked as a sound engineer from 1989 to 1997, on TV reportings and documentaries, feature films, news, theater soundtracks. He then studied Photography at the Ecole de Photo de la Ville de Bruxelles and web design at St-Louis Informatique. He undertook in 2002 a reflection on web interfaces and transmission of information through the Internet, and is now using New Media and extended computer capabilities to interact with audiences.

Vanderaa’s grounding in these diverse, but related, fields has enabled him to work with both sound and images. He was in 1998 and 1999 member of « Ici & Maintenant », a Brussels photographic collective structure, dedicated to expanding the borders of Photography. Following a ten year period of self discovery in black & white, he started, together with the exhibition of his early work, to use colour in 1996, and, more recently, computer modified photography. The main theme of his work is contemporary western society, and particularly urban structures and cultures, viewed from a critical and poetic viewpoint, leaning on a documentary base. The question of space transcription through photographic and digital medias, the place of probable in the representation of reality, as well as the participation of the audiences in the creative process, are among themes that subtend his work. Vanderaa’s work has been shown in many venues since 1997, and forms part of the permanent collection of the Communauté Française de Belgique.

He is currently working on CITYSNAPPER_X, an interactive photographic observation project of main western cities by means of Internet platforms, jointly to physical exhibitions in the concerned cities. He realized in June 2005 an interactive urban photographic game, >CITYSNAPPER_game_BRUSSELS, and at the same time exhibited a retrospective of the cities already approached, at the MAAC and Mediaruimte, Brussels. Early 2006, he completed a new Citysnapper edition on the city of Berlin, >CITYSNAPPER_5 [Berlin], that was exhibited as an interactive installation in Berlin at >A trans Pavilion in December 2007/January 2008. Other ongoing projects include >SUBJECT][NO SUBJECT, a series of shots to be revealed in 2008, a conceptual research on the elimination of the subject in the picture.

_Studies :

2002 to 2007 : initiation to Webdesign. Institut d'Informatique Saint Louis, Brussels. Follows workshops on New Media technics and languages at Imal, Brussels. Initiation to Metadesign (architecture of information processes, computation and communication) by the members of LAB-[au], Brussels.
1999 : Flemish evening courses. Formation permanente, Brussels.
1995 to 1997 : Studies of photography, Ecole de la Ville de Bruxelles. Graduated.
1987 to 1989 : Studies of cinema at I.N.S.A.S. (Institut national supérieur des Arts du Spectacle et des Techniques de Diffusion), Brussels. Sound engineering and initiation to photography. Graduated.
1983 to 1985 : Journalism courses as a free student at Université Libre de Bruxelles.
1981 : baccalauréat section D (sciences of nature), Lycée français de Belgique, Brussels.

_Languages :

French : mother tongue.
English : very good active and passive knowledge.
Dutch : basic active knowledge, average passive knowledge.
Italian : average active knowledge, good passive knowledge.
Spanish : average active knowledge, average passive knowledge.
Good communication skill no matter the language.

_Publications :

- Promotional pictures for dance companies in newspapers, leaflets, programs & websites.
- Html Newsletters for gift sales companies & dance companies.
- Pictures for a paper on game boy electronic music, Geo Ado, Geo Magazine.
- Pictures for a paper on veejaying, La Libre Belgique.
- Several publications in Ad!dict magazine:
  Chaos edition, photos from " Now[here]/Non lieu " + graphics & text on the theme of chaos.
  Voyage edition, extracts from " Citysnapper/Observatoire_2 " on the city of Montréal (CA).
  Art Magazine Container, extracts from the work " Citysnapper/Observatoire_3.light " on Rot-
  terdam (NL).
- Reportings published in the newspaper " Le Matin ": Midi fair, Rock'n'roll supermarkets.
- Fashion shooting for the Brussels magazine " Tenue de Ville ".
- Cover page " Belgian Pro, the buyer's guide 2000 ", belgian fashion year-book.
- Exhibition folders.

_Workshops on photography and sound :

2001-2002 : photography workshop at Lycée Français Jean Monnet, Brussels, leading to the building of a stage set based on photographs and video sequences.
1999-2000 : photography workshop at Institut Frans Fischer in Schaerbeek, secondary classes.
1999-2000 : " Génies en herbe ", photography workshop for 8-12 years old, schaerbeek, Brussels.
1995 : Workshop on Documentary film, at G.S.A.R.A, Brussels. Theoric and practical introductory course on sound recording, analysis courses on film narration and soundtrack.

_Professional work :

- Communication material & computer services for 2 corporate gift sales companies, Blue Planet, Boomergy (html newsletters, network & computer assistance).
- Communication material for Fuepalbar Dance Company – Fernando Martín (photographs, graphic and web design, leaflets, newsletters, etc.).
- Advertising (DRUM, B-EXCURSIONS).
- Event covers (VIVA MUSICA, EventAttitude) and reportings.
- Illustration of pedagogic booklets over environmental issues, transportation and science vulgarizing.
- Portraits.
- CD covers.
- Images of contemporary dance and music shows.
- Artworks and jewels reproduction.
- Printings for professional photographers.

_Technical skills :

- outdoor, indoor and studio shooting.
- use of mid and large size format cameras.
- black & white film development and printing.
- color printing.
- scan and computer work on photoshop.
- webdesign on the following softwares : Illustrator CS, Photoshop CS2, Fireworks MX, Flash MX and Dreamweaver MX.
- video and sound techniques and language.
- average knowledge of sound and video editing on Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Sound forge and Protools.

_Other activities:

- average knowledge of music. instruments played : guitar and bass guitar. former member of a big band and several rock bands.
- poetry short texts writing.