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.

For one – for many

Lydgalleriet, Bergen, 13.01.2019

For one – for many, as it was presented at Lydgalleriet was part of a program consisting of three pieces where this page discusses the first:

For one – for many for 7 animated figures, a human musician, live electronics and ambisonic surround sound.

Composer/live electronics/figure operator/figure builder: Thorolf Thuestad.

Musician/physical performer: Jostein Gundersen.

Vitality Forms for human back and voice.

Composer/voice/physical performer: Alwynne Pritchard.

Heart(nothing) for kinetic sculpture and ambisonic surround sound.

Composer/sculpture operator/sculpture builder: Thorolf Thuestad.

Presented in cooperation with Lydgalleriet Bergen.

House technician: Michael Bjørnaali

Live, and gallery art – For one, for many at Østre vs Bomuldsfabrikken

In the first year of the research project Emotional machines, composing for unstable media I constructed 8 animated figures. They have a certain clumsy fragility to them. Part a result of limited technical facility, part a result of a desire for the figures to be a certain size without requiring powerful actuators and electronics, and part aesthetic preference.

In the artworks I make I typically hope for the audience to feel immersed. I hope for the audience to experience engagement and affective responses. I like the words like focus, intensity, presence, emotion, and engagement when describing the work.

I have presented the figures of this project in gallery exhibitions and featured in time-based compositions presented in concert settings. The approach to each is very different. The social contracts differ and therefore invite different ways of interacting with the work.

In a gallery exhibition the viewer is free to take in the figures for as long as they choose. In a sense they control what they choose to take from the encounter with the artwork and how much time they spend with it. The audience retains a much greater freedom in their encounter with the animated figures and surrounding artistic material. Meeting the figures in a gallery setting is likely to allow the audience to focus more on the thingness of the figures giving the potential for audience to experience relations between themselves and the figures based on their physicality. In a concert setting such as the one at Østre, the audience does not have the same physical autonomy, and the audience vantage point is as a spectator. By placing the figures on a stage the audience – artwork separation becomes more explicit, underlining the impression that the figures and audience belong to different categories. The experience becomes much more about the implied relational connections between the entities on stage, figures and human, than between the audience and the figures. The regulated nature of a performative space such as a black box theatre affords additional means for enhancing affective experiences such as theatrical lights and the possibility of controlling audio content quite precisely. Another fundamental difference is the possibility of regulating the timing of the audience' experience by creating a time-based composition. The performance space at Østre was such that the audience was "looking in" at a performance area to view the activities of several motorized figures and a human figure creating a palpable distance.

Gallery and stage

In the gallery setting, such as the one housing For one – for many at Bomuldsfabrikken the audience does not generally experience a time-based structure in its entirety. It is untenable to attempt compositional trajectories that are not open-ended.

Given that the figures are kinetic, there is always a time-based element in their activity as their physical movement unfolds in time. I approached the exhibition at Bomuldsfabrikken by assuming that it would be possible to create micro trajectories that may consist of as little as a single gesture from a figure. I also implemented a scripted loop guiding the activities of the figures creating formal development for audience members remaining in the space for long durations. There was no "start" or "end". It was impossible to predict at what point in the loop audience may enter, which makes formal consideration and distribution in time fundamentally different to a set duration work.

For one – for many at Lydgalleriet was a set duration performance for 7 kinetic figures, a human musician, live electronics and ambisonic surround sound. It was presented in a concert setting and was created as a time-based musical composition with formal considerations to develop compositional and dramaturgical development within its 20-minute running time.

As in any social interaction, there exist unspoken agreements guiding the encounter. Most audience visiting an art exhibition «know how to act» at an art exhibition. To experience the art, they have given up some of their autonomy. Still, the audience member retains a considerable level of control over the situation. In a scenario such as the performance at Østre, the dynamics are pretty different. The audience adheres to a whole different set of unspoken guidelines regarding acting and relating to the artworks.

The performance

At the start of the performance, as the audience arrived, they were held in the downstairs lobby where they were, as showtime was approaching, given a short introduction by Hans Knut Sveen.

After the introduction, the audience was escorted up a narrow stairwell in small groups and told where to sit, giving them no choice in this process. As they arrived in the space, the piece was already underway. Jostein Gundersen performed repeated physical and musical actions with a surround sound landscape derived from the processed sound of his recorder sounding in the space.

I intuitively desired the audience to interpret the figures and the human musician as belonging to a collective. I hoped it would seem apparent that there were relations between the figures and the human. The figures inspire a sense of kinship in me, but in this performance, I had the impression that what I was experiencing was more like a physical empathy with their movements. It seemed difficult to avoid seeing the human musician as outshining the figures. At least to human eyes. The figures used in the performance have a limited movement vocabulary and limited ability to adjust their behaviour.

The figures have a particular nature of being, and it seemed that if I wanted to somehow "level the playing field", I would have to make the people involved in the performance (Jostein, the audience and myself) more like the figures rather than the figures more like the people. So that's what I tried to do.

The human

In preparation for the concert, I worked with Jostein Gundersen starting with the idea that it would be a good approach to try, rather than making the machines human-like, to make the human more machinelike. For me, the figures' expressiveness is, to a large degree, facilitated by their limitations. Maybe imposing similar restrictions on the human performer could be a way to make the expressive vocabulary of the human and figures more alike?

Therefore we prepared ways of inhibiting the human. He performs his tasks in this composition, interrupted by a set of physical tasks. These are various tasks intended to turn his attention towards his own body and the bodies of the figures.

For example, whenever he blinked his eyes, he attempted to focus on his perception of time and slow it down. Another involved applying the same approach to his breath. In one section, whenever he had to breathe, he was to do so slowly, attempting to slow the passage of time. These actions sabotaged his facility with his instrument and made him aware of his body. A musician of Josteins calibre, particularly one playing a wind instrument, already has a very high body awareness. My intention with giving him these tasks was to force his attention toward his body in a manner novel for him. This allowed him to be aware of other aspects of what his body does while playing his instrument than what he would typically experience.

I was hoping that these exercises would allow him to experience a renewed focus on what his body was doing, not just to play the recorder but as a physical presence in the space alongside the figures.

The physical and perceptual tasks he was executing during the performance were an attempt at bringing the human body closer to the figures' bodies by, to some degree, subduing the mannerisms expected from a musician. The exercises resulted in Jostein carrying himself in a manner that seemed almost excessively considered.

Towards the end of For one – for many there is a segment where several of the figures are communicating to Jostein giving him a series of signs that he interprets in a manner similar to what may occur in a sound-painting session.

Body and machine

For one – for many as it was performed at Østre brought to light many challenges of combining human performers with the figures.

Placing the figures in a formalised and prescriptive setting like a concert, where all in attendance subjugate themselves to the norms of such an event, encourages goodwill from the audience in the encounters with the figures. The audience makes up for what the figures lack in physical abilities by imbuing them with intent, humanizing them. This is facilitated and even strengthened by the social norms in effect at art presentations such as this.

This audience interaction with the figures appeared very different from what I experienced when showing the works in a gallery setting. The audience attending has surrendered control over their time and are willing to have their attention directed. In the typical gallery setting, there are similar social norms in play, but less restrictive. The audience retains a larger degree if control over their interaction with the works, deciding how much time they spend, and free from having their attention prompted.

What then, when all this carefully directed attention from the audience to allow imbuing the machines with human characteristics, is agitated by the presence of a human, Jostein Gundersen?

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