Emotional Machines - Composing for Unstable Media.

Thorolf Thuestad

Emotional machines – composing for unstable media. Thorolf Thuestad In partial fulfilment of PhD in artistic research The Grieg Academy, Department of Music, Faculty of Art, Music, and Design, University of Bergen, 2021 The artistic research project Emotional machines - composing for unstable media explores how non-representational kinetic objects may afford affective and emotional responses, in particular experiences of kinship and relation between an audience and animated objects. Further possibilities for artistic expression are opened through composition and dramaturgy, in works where the animated objects perform alongside human performers and other media, such as light and sound. How may such animated non-representational physical objects be developed? How does animating the physical objects change the potential for experience of kinship and relation between audience and object? How does context modulate the potential for experience of kinship and relation between audience and animated physical object? How does the potential experience of kinship with the animated object differ for the creator of the object, and audience? These questions have been investigated through the creation of a set of animated kinetic figures. These figures have performed in a series of artistic presentations such as gallery exhibitions and stage presentations. The artistic research concludes with two complementary public artistic presentations taking place in bergen in June/July 2021; a time-based stage production at Cornerteatret and a gallery exhibition at Lydgalleriet. The presentations are considered connected and have the common title For one – for many – for all. This is an exposition of the research that presents the kinetic figures, the process of developing them, the questions they have contributed to explore, resulting artistic works (with particular emphasis on the final artistic presentations taking place in June/July 2021), the additional artists contributing to these public presentations, and a series of reflections resulting from the research. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emotional machines – composing for unstable media Thorolf Thuestad. Denne eksposisjonen presenteres som del av gjennomføring av doktorgrad i kunstnerisk utviklingsarbeid ved Griegakademiet, Institutt for musikk, Fakultet for kunst, musikk og design, Universitetet i Bergen, 2021. Emotional machines - composing for unstable media utforsker hvordan ikke-representative kinetiske objekter kan skape affektive og emosjonelle responser hos mennesker. Spesifikt opplevelse av slektskap og relasjon mellom et publikum og animerte objekter. Det åpnes ytterligere muligheter for kunstneriske uttrykk gjennom komposisjon og dramaturgi i verk der de animerte objektene opptrer sammen med menneskelige utøvere og andre medier, som lys og lyd. Hvordan kan animerte ikke-representative fysiske objekter utvikles med dette startpunktet som inspirasjon? Hvordan endrer animasjon av de fysiske objektene potensialet for opplevelse av slektskap og relasjon mellom publikum og objekt? Hvordan modulerer konteksten de animerte objektene presenteres i potensialet for opplevelse av slektskap og relasjon? Hvordan er den potensielle opplevelsen av slektskap med det animerte objektet forskjellig for skaperen(e) av objektet, og publikum? I Emotional machines – composing for unstable media har spørsmålene har blitt undersøkt ved hjelp av en gruppe animerte kinetiske figurer. Disse figurene har opptrådt i en rekke kunstneriske sammenhenger hovedsakelig galleriutstillinger og scenepresentasjoner. Prosjektet ble avsluttet med to utfyllende offentlige kunstneriske presentasjoner som fant sted i Bergen i juni/juli 2021: En tidsbasert sceneproduksjon vist på Cornerteatret og en galleriutstilling vist på Lydgalleriet. Presentasjonene er tilknyttet hverandre og har fellestittelen For one – for many – for all. Denne eksposisjonen presenterer de kinetiske figurene, prosessen med å utvikle dem, spørsmålene de har bidratt til å utforske, resulterende kunstneriske verk (med særlig vekt på de endelige kunstneriske presentasjonene i juni/juli 2021), kunstnerne som bidro til disse offentlige presentasjonene samt en rekke refleksjonstekster drevet frem av arbeidet med prosjektet.

Composition and composing

A composition is, in the context of this project, a time-based work featuring animated physical figures combined with other things, including but not limited; to a sonic score, light, text, inanimate objects and physical space. Some compositions also feature human performers. They are snapshots of an ongoing compositional process presented to an audience as a delimited work of art.

Composing is in the context of this project intended as an umbrella term to encompass the entire process of creating artistic output, including but not limited to:

The design of the figures including 'dreaming' of figures(dreaming them up) and what affective response they may impart.
The various stages of prototyping and constructing the figures and their sub-assemblies.
The creation of the sonic score.
Experimentation with movements for figures acting alone or in concert with other figures or human performers.
Considering suitable presentation venues and situations for the compositions.
Making formal considerations when organizing compositional materials in time.
The affordances of technical equipment used in any part of the compositional process.
Writing computer code to be run on the microcontrollers each figure is equipped with.
Developing software systems and communication protocols to communicate with the microcontrollers of each of the figures to allow the time-based organization of their movements.
Placement and movement range of each figure in a performance space.
Position of audience in a performance space.
What, if any, informational material an audience is presented with before or after encountering the composition.
Considerations such as what portion of the audience' encounter with the composition is part of the composition, and which is provided by context. For example, when does it start? Is it when they enter the performance space? Before? When the lights go down? When does it end? When the audience exits? When the composition is no longer featured in the thoughts of the audience?
The time-based organization of materials used in the creation of a composition.

I find the term Composed Theatre as discussed by Matthias Rebstock and David Roesner to be relevant.1 The term describes works that explore musical strategies of organization as viable means of organizing theatrical work. It encompasses works by composers of music that use non-sonic material such as movement, action, text, and light and works by persons working within stage arts employing compositional thinking (as it is generally thought of in a musical context) to organize the same types of materials.

In this project, the term compositional strategy is not primarily intended to mean an approach for organizing pitched and unpitched sounds in time, nor is it concerned with adopting established western musical forms to either organize sonic or non-sonic materials. But there is a substantial concern with perceived tension and release over time that I consider musically motivated.

"The field of interest is characterized by the use of compositional strategies and techniques, these strategies, techniques and ways of thinking are typical of musical composition, and moreover, are applied no longer just to musical material but to such extra-musical materials as movement, speech actions, lighting or whatever you have in the realm of theatre."2

When composing, meaning the totality of tasks involved in developing a composition, I consider my way of thinking to have musical thinking and motivations at its core.

The English word composition has been defined as an "arrangement into specific proportion or relation." 3 It does not only relate to musical composition. The word's meaning depends on which context the term is used, which informs whether it is a musical composition. That context is primarily given by the axiomatic understanding of what constitutes music for the partakers. However, in my case, where I am arranging physical objects, spaces and actions, as well as sounds, it may not be immediately apparent what kind of compositions this project bears forth. I am positive to any interpretation of what kind of compositions they may be. For me, both the compositions and composing them are musically motivated, making them musical compositions, but I am very open to alternative readings.

The movement sequence sent to the Figures performing alongside Jostein Gundersen in For one - for many, Lydgalleriet 13.01.2019. Control system V1.

Movement sequences used in For one - for many - for all using Control system V2.

The other side of the screen.

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Composition and composing