ALMAT @ impuls - Workshop 2019 by Hanns Holger Rutz

Algorithms that Matter (ALMAT) focuses on the experimentation with algorithms and their embedding in sound works. Rather than conceiving algorithms as established building blocks or the a priori formalisation of a compositional idea, we look at them as performing entities whose consequences are irreducible to models. Algorithms “matter” in the sense that matter and meaning cannot be distinguished, neither can artists and their computational tools. Algorithms actively produce spaces and temporalities which become entangled with their physical embeddings. In 2019, we created a workshop within the impuls . 11th International Ensemble and Composers Academy for Contemporary Music, taking place in the Museum of Perception (MUWA) Graz, February 11–21, 2019. It focused on the development of a site-specific sound installation. The installation explored the interactions of algorithmic and physical spaces and their dynamic and mutable properties. Participants worked on the premise that spaces and our perception of them change depending on presence, absence, the movement of visitors, the time of the day, the rhythm of the surroundings as well as the sonic and algorithmic interventions we bring into them. The workshop sought to attract computer music practitioners, sound artists and composers by offering a platform for exchange and reflection about their personal approaches towards algorithmic experimentation. The participants were invited to develop their various approaches within an atmosphere of collaboration, where special emphasis was given to the translation of environmental data (such as sensor input from the surroundings and visitors) through computer music systems developed and assembled by the participants and tutors. The workshop was held with technical infrastructure provided by the Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM), including an 48-channel sound system and a selection of sensors. The workshop ALMAT was developed by David Pirrò and Hanns Holger Rutz (both IEM Graz) and was held together with the special support by Robin Minard.

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---
meta: true
date: Feb-2019
event: impuls academy
place: muwa
keywords: [exhibition, sound art]
author: Tim Pauli
---

atof

Sit down and fade to grey.

{origin: program notes, keywords: [_, sit, fade, grey]}

Tim Pauli

Project proposal

This installation is an installment in a series of works where I want to explore the topic of algorithmically misreading data. For this purpose I want to create a live transformation of room sound involving all the noise of people visiting where people recognize that they are being recorded and amplified to a point where they no longer understand the connection of input and output. I already started working on this project implementing the core sound transformation of this piece as a C-external for Pure Data. This external reads every incoming floating point number (amplitude of the microphone membrane) as a string and converts it back to a float using the C-function ’atof’. This process basically results in waveshaping using a table with 2^32 entries where most entries are zero. Problems so far involve the design of algorithms analyzing the microphone input and automatically creating a very smooth transitions from the original input to the total madness of the external. I would be also interested in using data of other installations via osc to further influence the transformation.

{origin: project proposal, function: intention, keywords: [_, misreading, room, noise, audience, amplification, input, output, waveshaping]}

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