Hacking into sonic algorithmic aesthetics. On noise, silence, sound, voices and music in the age of AI

Hacking into sonic algorithmic aesthetics.

On noise, silence, sound, voices and music in the age of AI

Think Tank II with Prof. Dieter Mersch(ZHdK, Switzerland); Dr. Hanns Holger Rutz (University of Music and Performing Arts (KUG)Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM), Dr. Miguel Marques Cardoso, Alexander Gerner (CFCUL), Vinicius Jonas (CFCUL)

Org. by Philosophy of Human technology//

Hacking Humans. Dramaturgies and Technologies of Becoming Other

(free entry_ inscription_ [email protected]/[email protected])

13. December 2019  10-13h, Room 8.2.13, Faculty of Science University of Lisbon

This Think Tank is a take on the sonic technological condition in cultures of digitalisations, that push further the limits of mathematization and algorithmic influence in the making of our digital selves and aesthetic social experiences (such as by automatized personalisation and identity strategies in listening and production of aesthetic experience- as for example shown in aesthetic recommendation strategies of listening  to music and watching films -Netflix and Spotify/ Dazer or algorithms to reduce stress or other apps (e.g. Endel) that puts the lister into a resonant state of mind) in which pre- and posthuman quantification, big data analysis and acceleration of computing power and simulation strategies enter the field of arts, aesthetic and sonic production and music composition/ performance/ listening/ experience.

How does the field of computer music or AI endowed sound algorithms and machine learning transform the condition of human music production or listening strategies and how do they relate to or change music’s mediality and performative dimensions, such as in co-AI-endowed compositions or in human-computer/ robotic/ AI stage performances or transformations of states of embodied minds? Can we hack these new technological approaches by reflecting and experimenting with immersive experiences of sound or the strategy of pure or reduced listening as opposed to causal or semantic listening? Can sound and noise be an interruption, bifurcation or crossing out, a scandal and outburst of pure temporality as in the face-to-face encounter of the other (Lévinas) or the voice or word? What are musical counterpoints such as silence (Cage) when we temper with the un-programable sound or music or social aesthetic resonance practices? How can these hacking methods inform aesthetic and social production in an age of electro-acoustic programming, AI-endowed compositions and human-machine/AI co-performances? Could noise even be a sonic experimental-reflexive practice, rather than a reduced information concept? In how far can we have the possibility of unpredictability, glitch and unconceptuality while tempering with musical digital networks?

Hacking is understood here as a sonic method of probing, re-composition, improvisation and investigation in the sense initially proposed by P.R.Samson, of an unconventional application of technology that may enhance the potential of human experience by multiplying its energy, by transforming its habitual uses to open up new perspectives of interacting with and becoming an “Other”.