In summer and autumn 2020, /Algorithmic Segments/ presents various positions in sound art and digital art, spread across gallery and museum spaces in the inner city of Graz (AT). The project initiated by Hanns Holger Rutz and David Pirrò is supported by the framework of Graz Cultural Year 2020 and organised at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) of University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.
After a delay caused by the pandemic, and after moving the partner event 'xCoAx - Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X' into the virtual domain (https://2020.xcoax.org), we are happy to announce that the first two exhibitions are now starting in physical space: - on 23 July at 19:30h opens the audio-visual installation 'Wordless: A Conversation with Samuel Beckett and Morton Feldman at the End of History' by Netherlands-based sound artist Jonathan Reus. Using machine learning algorithms, he invokes an absurd conversation between the late writer and the late composer. This dialogue can be witnessed daily between 11–19h at the entrance of Forum Stadtpark Graz (Stadtpark 1), visible on two tube monitors and audible through outside speakers. The sparseness of the sound recordings lead the algorithm to create abstract sounds that capture the cadence and timbre of the voices, but it fails to produce comprehensible speech. The exhibition runs until 06 September. - on 31 July at 19:00h opens the space and sound installation 'in|filtration' at esc medien kunst labor Graz (Bürgergasse 5). It deals with persistent and inconspicuous processes of exchange, in which surfaces and membranes between adjacent actors and systems are not only regarded as forms of dissociation, but as partially permeable layers, thus allowing imaginings, signals, materials, light and sound to propagate and melt the identities of the separate. A translucent and sensorial space/body acts as a vessel for sound structures that migrate between two seemingly opaque computer systems. The physical space is interwoven with an algorithmic space, sounding and sensing its environment. Algorithmic space is understood as intrinsic speculative movement and the interaction with humans who write code and experiment with it. Making visible and audible the exchange processes between humans and machines becomes a means of critically articulating this space. The exhibition is open Tue–Fri 15–18h and runs until 28 August. Further information and dates can be found at https://algorithmische-segmente.mur.at About the project: Segmentation is a core principle of analysis in many different disciplines, such as biology (literally to disassemble organisms, but also the sequencing of DNA), in music and phonology (to structure the stream of sound), or in informatics (to formulate and implement an algorithm). It is also an artistic operation, ranging from film cut to the sampling of sounds and other existing materials. What we are interested in this project is to understand the segmentary, not as an expression of isolation or fragmentation, but on the contrary, as a decentralised surface of "fitting pieces" whose meaning emerges through assembly by the audience. Algorithmic Segments is built as an interaction between various stakeholders, institutions and events, which contribute to, carry and shape the project in different ways: Algorithms that Matter (ALMAT), Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X (xCoAx), Master Module in Art, Science and Technology (MAST) at the Institute of Spatial Design of TU Graz, esc media art lab, Kunsthaus Graz, Forum Stadtpark, Reagenz – Space for Artistic Experiments, Grazer Kunstverein. ______________________________________________ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://post.in-mind.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre
