AI x MUSIC FESTIVAL Opening Ceremony

5:30PM – 6:30PM (CET)

Opening remarks to AIxMusic Festival

Gerfried Stocker (AT), Artistic Director, Ars Electronica
Roberto Viola (IT/BE), Director-General, DG CONNECT (Directorate General of Communication, Networks, Content and Technology), European Commission

Intermezzo: AIxMusic Performance (30 min)

6:30PM – 7:30PM (CET)

Taming Tech: Delivering a Global Framework for Humane Technology Through Art, Tech, and Policy

Moderated by Martin Rauchbauer, Austrian Tech Ambassador
Q&A session for public feedback

7:30PM – 8:30PM (CET)

Red Carpet Event & Concert Ars Electronica AIxMusic Festival

Performance
Composition and computer environment design by Edmund Campion (US); Tenor Saxophone by Steve Adams (US); Software contributions by Manuel Poletti, Matthew Wright, Edmund Campion (and a host of others)

CORAIL (Coral) is performed by an improvising saxophonist who interacts with a computer system simply by playing his instrument. The computer extracts fine details of gesture, pitch, dynamics, durations and silences, then transforms the data into an oceanic sound space. Constrained and guided by the ocean of sound, the soloist is instructed to seek a balance within the environment. The musician learns to play through playing, and together with the computer-generated responses establish a feedback and feedforward eco-system. The oceanic sound can be turbulent, but the soloist is instructed to work with the computer as a partner, not an adversary. The musical score for CORAIL consists of a number of “flight training” exercises designed to help the soloist learn to interact without destroying a fragile relationship. It is very easy for any player to create chaos within this system, but a great saxophonist like Steve Adams is able to find beautiful design and that is the goal. The piece is dedicated to John Campion.

This performance is spart of the AIxMusic Festival, a S+T+ARTS flagship event organised by Ars Electronica and the European Commission.

percussion, distributed audio and electronics

Performance
Music composition and performance by Andrew Blanton (US), Text by Yvette Granata; Composition and software by Andrew Blanton; Special thanks to Neal Riley for technical support

WAVEGUIDE is an attempt to draw a critical reflection on the growing dependence on networked computation, the new interconnected nature of our artificially intelligent cultural reality and intervene in this newfound intimacy with the glossy black panes of glass. The work was initially conceived to send data from drums on the stage, to a remote server, and back through the audience’s cell phones in real time, using the networked infrastructure of the internet as a resonant body for the drums. But in light of the ongoing pandemic, the work uses the infrastructure of the internet to perform through the audience’s browsers as they watch the screened performance from remote locations via live video and interactive webpage. Still using the internet as a resonant body, the work creates a multi-headed virtual sound sculpture, connecting the audience and performer in that third virtual space.

This concert is being streamed live from the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) at UC Berkeley and made possible by CNMAT Researcher and Technical Director, Jeremy Wagner.

andrewblanton.com

This performance is spart of the AIxMusic Festival, a S+T+ARTS flagship event organised by Ars Electronica and the European Commission.

Panel Discussion

In this panel discussion, a group of policy experts from the European Commission, Washington DC, and California will debate the findings of the preceding Taming Tech Strategic Working Session. The goal is to find a new global framework that can address downsides of emerging technologies that negatively impact our human dignity (“human downgrading”), without ignoring their potential benefit.

Moderated by Martin Rauchbauer (AT/US), Austrian Tech Ambassador Silicon Valley

Find out more about the participating speakers here: https://www.getonthegrid.org/exposure

This project is co-funded by the European Commission’s DG CONNECT, in the framework of the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union under the S+T+ARTS programme’s Regional STARTS Centers.

Spring Spyre (electronics) and live video processing

Performance
Composed and performed by Laetitia Sonami (FR/US), with SUE-C: Live video processing

The Sound of You is part of Sonami’s Magnetic Memories series, which expands on the use of her Spring Spyre. After 25 years performing with her iconic lady’s glove, Sonami’s attention turned to Machine Learning and its application to performance. In 2012 she created the Spring Spyre. The instrument uses ML (Rebecca Fiebrink’s Wekinator) for the manipulation of real ime audio synthesis. Sonami’s intention was to “train the system to never learn” so it would be left exploring synthesis terrains of various spans. Sonami can adjust what she refers to as the “predictability index” by controlling the roaming parameters in ML. The Sound of You is a reflection on our current conditions where “live” is relegated behind the screen; “latency” becomes a space for emergence, and absence an echo…

sonami.net

This performance is part of the AIxMusic Festival, a S+T+ARTS flagship event organised by Ars Electronica and the European Commission.