Artists Statement
Performance, June 14, CCCB Hall, Public Event
Keywords: Machine agency, Live performance, photogrammetry, generative music, video-game engine
Fragments: The Shape of Things is an audiovisual performance in which 2 human performers act live on Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life algorithms to generate and modulate a poetic immersive experience.
The 35 minutes performance is divided into acts that form an immersive journey from silence and darkness to an explosion of light, sound, and frenetic images. The piece uses the concept of fragments, small elements that are transformed and reconfigured, to explore technologically mediated human connections, perceptions, and memories. These fragments consist of sounds, videos, and photogrammetric objects that are scavenged from the news, created by the artists, or generated by algorithms. During the performance, those fragments are analyzed and modulated live by a set of Markov chains, Spiking Neural Networks, Machine Learning, optical flow, and other AI & A-Life techniques. In front of the audience, the artists orchestrate the action of those algorithms and guide the public into a journey that moves from darkness and absence into a growing torrent of sonic and visual stimuli.
The work explores the aesthetic experience emerging from the “human/ non-human” collaboration and how complex systems algorithms can generate new improvisational triggers for human performers. Furthermore, Fragments: The Shape of Things intends to explore how artificial intelligence technology transforms human experience by recombining and reconfiguring real-world data such as photos and videos into virtual telematic experiences.
- ALMA (Alexandre Saunier & Marc-André Cossette) mixes together cutting-edge AI & A-Life algorithms with drum machines, analog and virtual synthesizers, photogrammetry, procedural graphics, and video-game engines to invoke memories of inaccessible places, the sensations of the material world, and the feeling of being together.
- Alexandre Saunier is a multimedia artist and PhD Candidate at Concordia University, Montreal, CA. His research addresses the intersection between artistic creation with light, autonomous systems, and sensory perception. His artistic work is regularly presented in international festival such as Mutek, Bcn_Llum, Impakt, and Festival de la Imagen.
http://www.alexandresaunier.com - Marc-André Cossette is a transdisciplinary artist and PhD Candidate at Concordia University (Montreral, CA) working on the relation between technology and performing arts using sound, visual, interaction design and Artificial. His work has been presented both in Canada and internationally, notably at Tangente Danse (Canada), Ars Electronica Festival (Austria), El Matadero (Spain) and CMMAS (Mexico).