Speculative Sound Synthesis Symposium

György-Ligeti-Saal
Lichtenfelsgasse 14 8010 Graz

Black Box Music
Performance
Thomas Grill, Angélica Castelló, Patrik Lechner, Marco Döttlinger (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna)

In our new artistic research project “Spirits in Complexity – Making kin with experimental music systems”, we explore the functional and affective relationships of humans and technological objects in the context of experimental music-making. We use the titular term “spirits” in a metaphorical sense to refer to an opaque complexity that characterizes human and non-human interaction in the artistic-creative context. In contemporary music-making, objects of artistic practice are often intransparent dynamic systems – appearing as black boxes.
We propose a musical performance involving black box electronic music systems that have each been created/selected by one team member, but are played by another team member, unaware of the inner workings. The technologies involved as non-human partners are vintage analog systems, physical modelling systems and AI-driven synthesis based on a sample corpus. The fact that one of the players knows more about the instrument than the actual player shall give rise to interesting dynamics of musical anticipation.

https://speculativesoundsynthesis.iem.sh/symposium/