Imagine: you’re about to play a trombone performance in front of an audience. Except there is one thing that is quite different from your usual experience. All eyes are on you, as you take a deep breath, lift your instrument, press the cold metal to your lips and begin to play a phrase. Then a computer plays sounds back to you. The sound you generate is interpreted in real-time by a computer program, that produces an audio response based on what you’ve just played. The machine’s reply is unpredictable and unknown. It autonomously selects a snippet of sound from its repertoire, pulled from a library of babbles and toots, clatters and creaks. Its audio selection is then transformed: spliced, pitch-shifted, compressed, elongated – shaped by any number of operations. The computer then plays this phrase, and you respond. In this process, you form a dialogue – between machine and trombone. The performance builds as many sounds layer on top of one another, all the while being unpredictable in nature… but somehow forming a coherent piece. You imagine if the machine was embodied – what type of player would it be? Without visual cues or miniature bodily nuances, it is impossible to imagine what will be played next. And then, the performance ends – unpredictably of course. It feels as though the life of this queer artificial agent has just died. The enthusiastic, sonorific life it lived both started and ended abruptly. Silence. Applause.
This was my unusual and unique experience last year, as part of the algorithmic improvisations night, held at Serial Space in April 2012:
http://serialspace.org/events/event/algorithmic-improvisor-performance-night/ The idea was to put a bunch of scientists, musicians and technology enthusiasts in a room together for three days to see what they came up with. This three day hackfest was for anyone interested in exploring computational creativity and autonomously generated sounds. The aim was to see what people could produce within a limited timeframe, amalgamating in a performance night at Serial Space. I can proudly say the night was an absolute blast, with gigantic thanks to organisers Ollie Bown and Peter Hollo (and of course everyone who performed, coded, hosted and/or helped out on the night).
The piece that I played was created in conjunction with Ben Carey http://www.bencarey.net and Aengus Martin https://soundcloud.com/runciblenoise . It is difficult for me to imagine how the piece sounds from an external ear. I imagine it sounds quite different to a trombone player, versus a computer-scientist, a non-musician or a person who just enjoys listening to music. But I do hope you enjoy from whatever background! Here is the link again:
https://soundcloud.com/runciblenoise/trombone-and-live-electronics
Astrid Zeman 