Transsonic - Sonic Lightning

PubPub Link

https://aimc2024.pubpub.org/pub/q1fn26ci/draft?access=oo6hmae8

Project Description

Transsonic develops new site-specific works that communicate intermedial conceptions of music consisting of the use of machine learning based musical agents in combination with site-specific light installations, electric guitar, multichannel live electronics and relays working as oscillators.
Transsonic is the duo project of sound artist/ composer and light artist Viola Yip as well as guitarist and sound artist Nicola L. Hein. The project centers around the development of “light as musical material” and questions the ontology of music from this intermedial perspective in conjunction with the use of musical agents.

In addition to our existing set, Sonic Lightning develops a new performance using self-built instruments with solar panels as microphones and BELA computers as synthesizer units. Furthermore, it enhances Yip’s light bulb instrument Bubble by using a 360-degree laser projection and a fog machine. Furthermore, Yip and Hein will not only perform as a duo, but perform together with the musical agent “NicolAI” that live trains on their musical material during the performance and interacts as a third musician together with Hein and Yip.

Transsonic focuses on the vibrations of light and sound. They develop a transmedial aesthetic language using Yip's self-built light bulb instrument Bulbble, which generates both light and sound (with relay switches) and the electronic sounds of Hein, working with Buchla synthesizers and electric guitar.

In addition to their performance, they use a third autonomous A.I. musical agent (NicolAI) as an additional voice, which is trained live on the musical material of Hein and YIP and is performing together with them. Transsonic develops complex cybernetic systems as a space for transmedial musical performance.

Sonic Lightning further develops the systems of Transsonic:

- For this piece, Yip and Hein developed instruments that use solar panels as microphones for light signals and can further process these incoming audio signals using BELA microcomputers to develop them musically with effects and synthesis and spatialize them on a multichannel-channel loudspeaker system. In Sonic Lightning they work with a 360-degree laser projection based on the bulb instrument Bulbble by Yip. For the first time, Transsonic uses lasers as a light source and uses them to fill the performance space.

- Furthermore, Transsonic brings in fog machines to create a projection surface for the laser. The lasers are controlled by sound signals in a strictly analogue fashion, i.e. encode sound to light emission. The sound of encode to light is decoded by the use of solar panels as microphones. These sound signals (recorded by the Solar Panels) are interfered by Yip's light instrument Bulbble used as oscillators, which bleeds into the sound recorded by the solar panels.

The musical agent “NicolAI” is able to react in real-time to audio-input (Buchla and itself) and to compose on its own, generatively developing the audio material of NH's guitar playing which it was trained on, using MFCC and other MIR approaches, k-NN algorithms and interactive concatenative synthesis.

Sonic Lightning develops the dances of agency (Andrew Pickering) between human and machine, between the history and future of music technology.

Viola Yip | Bulbble, Light Bulbs, Laser+Solar Instrument
Nicola L. Hein | Laser+Solar Instrument, Electronics
NicolAI (Musical Agent) - A.I. Guitar / Live-Video

The duration is 25-35 minutes(flexible)

Type of submission

Audiovisual Concert Piece.
The piece would fit into all three venues offered by AIMC 2024.
However Oxford University performance space or the Old Fire Station would be our preferred venue. We are the performers of our piece, so we would perform it by ourselves and need no other performers.

Technical/Stage Requirements

• We are flexible about the sound system that we would get to work with. We would be happy to work with multichannel system options but could also work with a stereo option.

  
  Techrider: 

• 2x Table (without metal parts)

• several electricity cables/extension cords

• (1x Smoke Machine)

• 2x Access to Front of House (FOH) either via analog inputs or DANTE ethernet cable

• 1x Stage mixer (/w at least 4 in / 2 out)

• Jack to XLR cables to connect from audio interface to ADC on Stage, in case an analogue sending option is chosen.

Program Notes

Transsonic aims to develop new site-specific works that communicate intermedial conceptions of music consisting of the use of machine learning based musical agents in combination with site-specific light installations, electric guitar, multichannel live electronics and relays working as oscillators. Transsonic is the duo project of sound artist/ composer and light artist Viola Yip as well as guitarist and sound artist Nicola L. Hein. The project centers around the development of “light as musical material” and questions the ontology of music from this intermedial perspective in conjunction with the use of musical agents.

The duration is 25-35 minutes(flexible)

In addition to our existing set, Sonic Lightning develops a new performance using self-built instruments with solar panels as microphones and BELA computers as synthesizer units. It enhances Yip’s light bulb instrument by using a 360-degree laser projection and a fog machine. Both will perform together with a musical agent that live trains on their musical material during the performance and interacts as a third musician together with Hein and Yip.

Viola Yip | Bulbble, Light Bulbs, Laser+Solar Instrument
Nicola L. Hein | Laser+Solar Instrument, Electronics
NicolAI (Musical Agent) - A.I. Guitar / Solar Panel and Light Bulb Sound / Laser

Media

• Image of Transsonic (Viola Yip and Nicola L. Hein). Copyright: Jan Thierhoff

  

• Video (excerpt of 30-35 minute performance):
  ·       Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15GxglxwhEo

  ·       Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t16oltv-Fmk

Acknowledgements

• This work was supported by Initiative Neue Musik Berlin e.V.

Ethics Statement

• No known conflict of interest.

• There was no ethics committee overseeing my artistic work, as is it is often the case with artistic work.

• This work tries to find new ways of dealing with AI, human-machine interaction and possible cybernetic interpretations of musical personality in the 21st century.