[ISEA2017] Artists Statement: Roger Malina & Scot Greshamlancaster — Reunion 2: Performance of the Data Stethoscope for complex networks of fMRI data and chess board

Artists Statement

The performance is in honor of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Nine Evening performances in 1966 where prominent artists and Bell Labs engineers performed in public in New York. The performance used both the data and the software developed for a data stethoscope project that is associated with ongoing research with a team of Neuroscientists at the Center for Vital Longevity Studies at UTDallas. The project data was fMRI data on age cohorts of healthy individuals from 20 to 80. The research involved adding sonification to visualisation tools as a strategy for data exploration. The performing artist is Scot Gresham Lancaster in collaboration with astrophysicist Roger Malina. The artist developed an interface and performance strategies with a chess board and various midi controllers. Using various data sets from the research a soundscape and real time interventions based on the “Reunion” electro-acoustically enhanced chess match between Cage and Marcel Duchamp from 1968. In this case the two collaborating scientists play chess on an electronically enhanced chess board. The moves they make drive the soundscape and interaction of both the video and audio of the performance. The interactions are enhanced by actions and reactions during the performance.

  • Roger Malina (born 1950) is an American physicist, astronomer, Executive Editor of Leonardo Publications at M.I.T Press and distinguished professor of arts and technology, and professor of physics at the University of Texas at Dallas, USA.   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Malina
  • Scot Greshamlancaster  (born 1954 in California) is an American composer, performer, instrument builder, educator and educational technology specialist. He uses computer networks to create new environments for musical and cross discipline expression.  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scot_Gresham-Lancaster