Marinos Koutsomichalis here from the media arts and design research lab at Cyprus University of Technology.
I will briefly introduce
three instruments for live multimedia performance that I have built and used in the context of
real-world artistic endeavors of mine
All the instruments I will present draw exclusively on a certain
Non-functional Hertzian
Non consumerist approach towards electronic design and interface design in general
and all of them intend to become the agents that will allow me to experiment with non-standard and experimental fashions to
Perform and improvise with available materials and processes that are encountered in the context of some particular artistic approach
This instrument I called THEBRICK
it is a programmable device that is capable of
live video image audio data sonification data visualization and text printouts
Text printouts through this small thermal printer than you can see on the right side of the instrument
The parent project in this case
Pivots on
multi-dimensional
landscape exploration of a very broad geographical region that encompasses Iceland the Faroe Islands
parts of the North norwegian territory
In the course of this project I have collected video footage interviews
field recordings of various kind
Audio synthesis parts, there are pieces of text a lot of data to be visualized or sonified
so with THEBRICK
I built a dedicated machine
That could help me make sense of all these different kinds of materials and project them to a living audience improvised fashion
I designed and programmed the instrument in the process of formulating
the
Loosely structure narrative to be implemented in front of a living audience so that the instrument didn't pre-exists it
rather help define the
Constraints within weeks. I will eventually
improvise with the available content.
I have a few photos on how this instrument is used in real life
performances here with also some
exposition on its position of physical artefacts that relate with the parent project and I go to the next
Instrument I called EMFME. This is a rather simple instrument to
Present it is a real life
Loop antenna with an appropriate line driver circuit that I can use to register
electromagnetic activity
Which can be further amplified or recorded. The parent project in this case is
Essentially it's like a big
Sound walk through the city
The ruins of the ancient machining it's an archeological location in South Greece Peloponnese. So the project pivots on
this location as a present-day habitat for all sorts of
human and non-human
agents energies as well as a
Series of socio-political context and the construction of history I use this instrument in this case as the means
to
materialize to actualize the otherwise inaudible
Electromagnetic fields that exist in the area and present them to a living audience
The third instrument I call Hypersition Bot it is a very complex
Evolutionary machine that can be plugged into the world wide web it retreats content from YouTube singing verse
Free sound and the series of other repositories for media and the blowing and series of distributed software synthesizers
It generates new original multimedia content
video audio explain thousand stone and the whole project can be thought of as an
experimenting with the hypothesis of non-human creativity
What is important to highlight here is that?
The instrument is the composition itself the overall design follows the larger ecosystemic
Parody where we can speak of a few
individual components
Either hardware or software ones, they interdependent with one another and they also interdependent
Environment
The environment in this case is primarily the world wide web
but also the host in a physical space where
The project can be installed
Another thing to highlight in this case, we have hybrid materiality comprising
construction materials concrete net wire
juxtaposed with delicate electronic components and
cybernetic processes
And so far as their user interface are concerned
There are a number of properties that are common to all three instruments
All interfaces are minimal or interfaces are cryptic in the sense that they don't
Make it clear what their mode of operation is
their user unfriendly in a number of ways
They rather than faciliate in the implementation of some narrative
They rather put constraints around which a narrative is supposed to
emerge
They are post optimal and non-techno-solutionist in that they don't
Ascribe to a particular and clear-cut design ideals. They are experimental in the sense
they are not intended as
interfaces, that should be transparent
easy-to-use and
Functional but rather as interface is opposing additional layer of mediation
Some ramifications some concerns that are raised
All those instruments further and filled non-standard experimental compositional tactics
We have in certain cases
certain kind of material dialectics brought forth by the far that the materiality and elements of
Different kinds are brought together in the same
Operating
Instrument in the same operating hybrid all of them bear unique phenomenological crude footprint with in terms
Has certain area percussions performance one is that it will not fairly trivial curiosity active audience engagement
It is indeed very often the case that after a live performance
Audiences will approach me and ask me question about what a particular instrument does how it works if I have weighted myself and so on
And there is a certain DIY and make a result which is advertised throughout and
of course, they implicitly tell called a song severe of
To conclude I sincerely believe that we need much more
'Hertzian`/ rough-hewn instrument of sorts out there
Because they do push creators and audiences to operate outside
their sell confined comfort zones so that we may create an experience and art in
Unusual ways, which is always a nice thing to do
even from a very functional perspective
such
instruments do boost
Experimentation technological experimentation in directions. That might be otherwise
missed
They proclaim a DIY
non techno solutionist non consumerist
diesels
so that
practitioners that ascribe to such an ethos they are enabled to
actualize it in physical
terms with instruments that embody
Such questions and maybe much more importantly
The major question insofar as my particular approach is concerned. Is that the
Instrument of sort allow us inquire the very nature of instrument hood
What instruments are?
What other things they can maybe become?
And how all these were led with the bigger questions of agency technological mediation
and
creativity
with
certain kinds of interfaces that reciprocally question they're very
materiality
I think as far as the
My presentation is concerned. I'm pretty much done as I understand there would be some time left for Question and Answer so
yes do
Pose interesting questions and please those of you are really interesting for things that they might be distinct in this project
During the paper because in the paper
I am much more accurate much more detailed don't know the things that I have already mentioned and I discuss them in greater length
So do have a look at the paper to find my approach. So even slightly miss them
Thank you.
I have a slide on that
Thank you