My excitement for this new knowledge changed my capacities and vision of my artistic practice. Even though the learning curve was steep and quite difficult, to begin with, I found myself exploring new ideas about code manipulation that allowed me to increase control with acoustic and electronic environments. I became able to design code that could react and sound in a specific way, to blend better with extended techniques on the acoustic instruments that I composed for this project.
This was an encouraging process! It gave me a strong insight into my future research proposals. It inspired me to think about machine-performer co-creation, and the potential of AI for community engagement, sound aesthetic development, and performative interactiveness, while engaging in scientific knowledge and sonification as main materialities.
When I wrote my research proposal, my coding skills were on a very basic level, so naturally, diving into a research project involving so much work in this area was risky, but at the same time exciting! So I asked myself:
I decided to trust my experience and professional skills in composition and performance, so I presented Sounding Numbers. One of my goals was to develop structural and creative programming tools in the context of my artistic practice. I believed that going through this process in a research context, could guide me to new aesthetic parameters and potentialities within programmed sound designs, and help me find a more defined way of blending acoustic and electronic instruments within my artwork.
In this sense, planning was a key point for success, so for the four semesters that I had ahead, I decided to explore different coding languages with increasing difficulty, and apply that knowledge to my regular practice toward an artistic outcome.
In the first and third semesters of my project, I attended the IT University in Copenhagen, where I studied object-oriented programming and data mining. They were challenging studies to take at a master's level, as the lectures were meant for people with a background in computer science. During these studies, I programmed a computer game and made data science analysis by applying unsupervised algorithms and neural networks for clustering and prediction.
do I need to be proficient in all the areas of my research to be able to create a sustainable process and a professional artistic outcome?
I learned how to code in JAVA, Python, and SuperCollider, and worked with Raspberry Pi, ESP32 boards, motion and CO2 sensors, heart rate monitors, and midi controllers. I also applied machine learning algorithms to my last sonification. In my piece, I AM THE OCEAN, the sounding outcome changes based on predictive values triggered by the environment.
In an overall sense, I think that researching new and unknown materialities, in the frame of an artistic practice-based research project, can create a strong setting for novelty discoveries, opening a potential for knowledge and spiritual artistic development, if the planning is set to realistic but still ambitious goals.
At one of the lectures at ITU, a professor made the following statement: “the future is based on algorithms, and you have the tools to create them”. In relation to my project, this statement proposed a reflection on our responsibility as artists working with technology. I asked to myself: how can we shape the future of sound in relation to our world views and the listening experience? How do we approach this act of listening? I became more conscious of the machine-human relation, through machine learning algorithms. It encouraged me to seek a deeper technological development of my sonifications, where parameters between environment, machine, and audience/performers could be designed to co-create together.
During my research, I revisited my artistic outcome many times, as I discovered new techniques at the ITU that could improve my already finished sonifications. This re-working method was new for me, as I am used to working on one piece until is finished and carrying on to the next one. By doing this, the working time for each piece got extended. In return, a more profound expressiveness was achieved for each sound, and the interactiveness with technology developed on a deeper level. I believe that this development brought more emotional meaning to the scientific dissemination and engagement intentions of my project.