[ISEA2016] Artists Talk: Vygandas Šimbelis & Anders Lundström — S T R A T I C : Synthesized Performance

Artists Statement

Abstract
The S T R A T I C project [1] is based on the phenomenon that occurs when filming a pulsating light – lines appear on the screen. The thickness and movement of these lines are directly related to the frequency of the sound and of pulsation also to the sampling rate of the camera. The visuals are examined by the use of shutter speed and frame rate of a camera. In this project we explore the interactive potential and the space for aesthetic expression by synthesizing the audio and visuals. The expression often creates a noisy, hypnotic and relaxing atmosphere. We find it highly relevant to ISEA as it concerns aspects of materiality at the intersection of the analog and digital.

Introduction
We want to expand on the ongoing discussion on materiality research and various connections between the digital and physical worlds. The researchers explore the separation of the audio signal in visual appearances; they map and deconstruct its properties to speed, thickness and color qualities. The notion of abstraction relates to the rejection of representation of realistic and visual references in the world. This sends the focus from the content of the message to the sensual experiences and explores the logics of the formal and minimalistic constructs of the audio and the visual. This consolidate minimal appearance relates to synaesthetic experience. The concept of layers of abstraction talks about the sound being directly mapped to the RGB colors and layered in the strength of the colors perceived by the eyes of the viewers. This effect of seeing colors in different strength creates an illusion of 3D environment and involves the viewers into an immersive experience.

Artist Statement
The S T R A T I C project [1,2] is concerned with the limits of human senses at those edges where the boundaries dissolve. In the audio-visual performance, both audio and the visual work together – to create evocative and extreme experiences. The project seeks to overcome a separation of audio and visual, in broader sense, it also tries to merge practices and attitudes of contemporary art and new media art into a wholly perceived one.

S T R A T I C project
The S T R A T I C project explores the interplay of the sensed and the actuated in interactive media expressions, and the aesthetic properties of analogue/digital transformations formed by limitations and qualities of various forms of sensing apparatus. The result takes the form of noisy and hypnotic soundscapes linked with an abstract animation. The abstract animation is directly generated from the sound itself. In this way it becomes a kind of visual play of sounds.

References

  1. Vygandas Šimbelis and Anders Lundström. 2015. S T R A T I C : Performing the Sampling Rate. In Proc. ACE’15, ACM Press.
  2. Vygandas “Vegas” Šimbelis and Anders Lundström. 2016. Synthesis in the Audiovisual. CHI’16, ACM Press.

simbelis.com/photography/strata straticproject.tumblr.com

S T R A T I C Aesthetic example
  • Vygandas “Vegas” Šimbelis, Mobile Life centre, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. Vegas Simbelis, artist name – Das Vegas, is artist and researcher whose work examines power structures and humanizing aspect of technology. Research and creation unfold in fields of art and design, interactivity, unique user experiences, critical media studies, data economy and surveillance, ArtTech and FinTech. [source: simbelis.com]
  • Anders Lundström, KTH- Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.”I’m a curious person with combination of strong technical engineering background and design. That means that I have a design compass and think design. It also means that I build stuff, I code, and design electronics”. [source: kth.se/profile/andelund]