Sonic Alchemy

AS: I don’t try to force generative systems to fit preconceived notions or traditional media conventions. My ideation is a collaborative process with my algorithms, the errors or glitches we make along the way, and our surrounding environment – I often combine code with sound, light, movement, and architecture/space. I’m influenced by the Bauhaus principle of letting the material guide you, which may sound weird given the “material” in question here is digital programming as opposed to metal or clay, but as you create an open-ended process that welcomes deviation, you get the sense code wants to be free. On that note I don’t think generative art can ever be reduced to “what program do you use”, but the values and transparency in free and open source tools and communities are key to maintaining strong, dynamic practice and results.

AS: I hope people leave with a heightened sense of wonder, where any moment of your life can become an artistic or meditative experience. I hope their awareness for the environment and our connection to it is refreshed and they start to question where noise ends and signals and music begin. I want to brighten the everyday rhythms that get overlooked as mundane. Or if people just see that art that questions and challenges can also be playful and accessible, that’s something I dream of too when so many folks are often made to feel that art appreciation is exclusive to standing around stiffly with white wine in white cubes. No offence, but that’s not the most welcoming atmosphere, especially for Web3.

AS: We definitely need more transparency and open source models that allow for archiving, future cultural preservation, and shared learning. I think the greatest advancements will be strongly community-based and social in tandem with technical prowess. I’d also like to see an embrace of the art form as an ever-changing system in which we co-create transformative, maybe even joyful somatic experiences. It’s time to go beyond some very specific established conventions. Why should computerised art of all things be confined to a canvas? Or even a screen?

JS: The audio always comes first. My partner Eaton Crous designed the sound using generative systems developed in Ableton Live and Max for Live devices. My creative process is very experimental, and I’ll explore various techniques and outputs while immersing myself in the sound until I arrive at a place that feels right with the music. I use Vuo, a node-based visual programming environment which enables this kind of iterative workflow, where you uncover and discover the path as you go along.

The connection between sound and visual happens both through the audio-reactivity – as there is a tangible connection between the two – and through my emotional response. Aesthetically, my work tends to be quite minimal, with moments of chaos and intensity but always fundamentally rooted in restraint. I try to amplify the details within the frequencies in a very precise way and create an atmosphere with sound and visual where it feels like they belong together.

JS: The Vuo compositions receive frequency data via a live audio input, which drives the behaviours and animation. I create rules where I tell the software to do something depending on the frequency band I’m targeting and also the loudness of that specific frequency. The audio-reactive elements exist within the constraints and thresholds I’ve defined but I also program additional parameters which I manipulate via a MIDI controller in real-time, adding a performative layer to the process.

When working with frequencies, you can get some really unexpected results depending on the audio input. This is especially true in a live performance setting where I have no control over what the DJ is playing. Live performance brings an element of spontaneity and improvisation and allows me to guide the visuals in response to what’s being played, and those visuals have behaviours and motion that respond to the frequencies within the defined constraints. So it really is a collaboration between the sound, the machine and myself.

JS: Yes absolutely. My goal is to amplify sound with visuals and to heighten the experience of listening to music by creating a symbiosis between the two. It can be very hypnotic when the two complement one another because it finds you in a space where everything is in balance. One thing is not shouting for attention more than the other. Music reflects in us how others are feeling and gives us a common language to express ourselves. This expression often connects to escapism and can be simultaneously a very individual but also a defining collective experience. I’m particularly sensitive to this, there is power in restraint, and in not overpowering the sound and enabling that space for interpretation.