Physeter (In Pursuit of the Mirage) is an audiovisual performance that investigates the artistic production of meanings within a performance practice that is marked by the use of chaotic, recursive processes. Chaos displays a contradictory set of qualities, on the one hand, there is the unstable, unpredictable, and volatile, but underneath it all, there is a system, a twisted form of logic that determines the fragile outcomes as the process endures. The balance between these two poles points towards an emergent aesthetic of surprise and discovery. Too frantic to allow for a seamless line of communication from performer to audience, yet bounded enough to maintain an elusive but nearly graspable semblance of patterns. The performer and audiences alike, are compelled to chase a mirage, marked by unfamiliar sonic behaviors, always on the hunt for the vivid evocation that breaches expectations. What does one perceive as one stares down into the deep?
Bio: Tijs Ham ('81) is a Ph.D. candidate in Artistic Research within the music department of the faculty of Art, Music, and Design of the University of Bergen, Norway. His artistic practice is situated in the field of live electronic music with a particular focus on the exploration of chaotic processes as he designs new electronic music instruments, develops often audio-visual compositions, and performs these onstage. Before moving to Norway, Ham worked at 'STEIM (The Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music)' in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is a founding member of 'The Soundlings Collective', releases music under the moniker 'Tapage', and is a member of the live electronics trio 'The Void*'.
Feedback is a fundamental natural process at the root of all existence. Experiencing a system in feedback - either digital or analogue - has significant metaphorical power, providing a means of representation for the inherent complexity, beauty and power of the universe. These metaphors can be moving, appearing to carry with them a signifier reflecting the chaos of experience. Discrete, symbolic systems, struggle to represent the same forms of fragile and violent complexity. In contrast, feedback appears to be the actual thing in itself.
Interacting with such systems can be rewarding and cathartic, perhaps because it affords these kinds of metaphors, allowing us to feel for a moment that the chaos and violence of the universe is somehow within our understanding or grasp. This kind of interaction can also require a lot of attention, making these systems very satisfying - if sometimes difficult - to use. Watching a system explode to see what happens can be fascinating, and often surprising, on occasion offering the chance peace offering of an equilibrium, perhaps even allowing us to measure and understand some aspect of existence with greater clarity for a moment.
This is significantly less rewarding when the system in question is a person, a home, a culture, or a planet.
Triumph is an interactive Audiovisual performance piece about this problem.
Bio: Mick Grierson is Research Leader at UAL Creative Computing Institute. His research explores new approaches to the creation of sounds, images, video and interactions through signal processing, machine learning and information retrieval techniques. Hardware and software based on his research has been widely used by world leading production companies, tech start-ups and artists including the BBC, Channel 4, Massive Attack, Sigur Ros, Christian Marclay, Martin Creed, Jai Paul and many others.
Noise Peddler
Noise Peddler is the electronic duo of Brighton-based composers / guitarists Danny Bright and Lee Westwood. A symmetrical duo of no-input pedalboards transmitting part-composed, part-improvised soundscapes, their music involves the re-appropriation of guitar effects, informed by their unique approaches to instrumental and electroacoustic music. The result is a performance where pedals are the signal generator, processor and instrument.
Noise Peddler live @ The Rose Hill – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkZ4iQoUZSc
Alberto Rizzo
Shadow Patterns (2021 – ongoing) for ML-mediated feedback instrument and ultrasonic fixed media
This site-specific performance shows the mutated relationship between human-machine in a feedback environment, using ML as a tool to maintain homeostasis creating at the same time more complex sonic palettes and transitions, keeping a physical and novel engagement with the performer. The visuals reflect this attempt to engage a ML-mediated synaesthesia between sound and motion through the process of visual listening as you hear what you see.
Bio: Alberto Rizzo (1994) is an Italian sonic researcher and artist constantly involved in the physicality of sound and the understanding of the cross-modal interaction between visual listening and bodily gestures into the ether. His experimental practice accumulated in his collaboration with the composer Ronald Kuivila led him to experiment in the last few years with chaotic sonic spaces in which air flows matter and inaudible streams are shaped and painted into reality. His latest research investigates the use of AI in his Feedback shadow instrument, interrogating the controversial human vs machine dilemma and critically investigating several ways of using machine learning to create new areas of sonic serendipity keeping a certain amount of unpredictability. He recently explored the world of colour-sound synaesthesia in his Sonic Re-action painting sound art project.
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