Sound Landscape

Sound Landscape of Virtual Reality

Athens & Epidaurus Festival, duration 60 minutes, 2020, Curator Katerina Sperentzou.

Sound performance, in conversations with Savina Giannatou - Primavera en Salonico live performance, titled "Water Song", 14 and 15 August 2020.

The performance concerns the synthesis of elements from the sounds of the voice, as an artistic tool, in real time, in conversation with the social space of the concert, in the small theater of Ancient Epidaurus. It is the result of experimentation with the Unity sound engine. (video game development software).

Unity's sound engine supports 3D specialization, which allows sounds to be placed and played in a 3D space. With spatial audio, sounds can appear to come from specific directions and have location effects such as distance attenuation and Doppler shift. This enhances the immersion and realism of the game's audio.

The practice: Phrases were recorded in the studio from the voice of Savina Giannatou and a database of sounds was created. Sounds are placed in the virtual algorithmic world, on a graphical Cartesian plane, embedded in virtual cubes. With the mouse they move to interact with each other in real time.

The conceptual meaning of the algorithmic mechanism is the idea of harnessing technology as a creative tool, blurring the lines between human expression and computational processes. It represents the integration of technology and human creativity in the composition process.

It is a digital platform that enables composers to explore and shape sound using computer-based tools. Composers can manipulate graphic elements in time and space, creating complex and evolving musical structures, emphasizing the exploration of multidimensional soundscapes. This spatial exploration aligns with post-human notions of embracing complexity and moving beyond linear, one-dimensional modes of expression. It examines spatial and multidimensional aspects of existence and perception.

Posthuman theory explores the idea of overcoming human limitations through the incorporation of technology and the expansion of human capabilities. The project investigates the limitations of traditional musical notation and instrumentation using computer-based interface and compositional composition. It emphasizes the role of technology in shaping and augmenting human experience and creativity, mediating their creative process, providing new possibilities for sound production and manipulation, blurring the line between composer and machine.

It challenges anthropocentrism by recognizing the agency and importance of non-human entities. This collaboration between the human composer and the computer aligns with posthuman perspectives that emphasize hybridity and coexistence. It encourages the exploration of hybrid forms of artistic expression that transcend traditional categories. to combine visual and audio elements, merging the fields of visual art and musical composition.

In the research that followed I discovered a tradition of experimental music. The UPIC System (Unité Polyagogique Informatique CEMAMu). Composer Yiannis Xenakis developed the UPIC synthesis tool in an attempt to turn drawings into synthetic sound in the late 70s.