ALMAT - "Algorithms That Matter" Workshop at the impuls 11th International Ensemble and Composers Academy for Contemporary Music 2019
Special workshop for computer music practitioners, sound artists and composers
Call for Participation Deadline: October 1st, 2018
with Robin Minard, David Pirrò, Hanns Holger Rutz
http://www.impuls.cc/academy-2019/special-programs.html#c5169
[please distribute]
Algorithms that Matter (ALMAT) focuses on the experimentation with algorithms and their embedding in sound works. Rather than conceiving algorithms as established building blocks or the a priori formalisation of a compositional idea, we look at them as performing entities whose consequences are irreducible to models. Algorithms “matter” in the sense that matter and meaning cannot be distinguished, neither can artists and their computational tools. Algorithms actively produce spaces and temporalities which become entangled with their physical embeddings.
The 2019 edition of the workshop focuses on the development of a site-specific sound installation. The installation will explore the interactions of algorithmic and physical spaces and their dynamic and mutable properties. Participants will work on the premise that spaces and our perception of them change depending on presence, absence, the movement of visitors, the time of the day, the rhythm of the surroundings as well as the sonic and algorithmic interventions we bring into them.
This workshop seeks to attract computer music practitioners, sound artists and composers by offering a platform for exchange and reflection about their personal approaches towards algorithmic experimentation. The participants are invited to develop their various approaches within an atmosphere of collaboration, where special emphasis will be given to the translation of environmental data (such as sensor input from the surroundings and visitors) through computer music systems developed and assembled by the participants and tutors. One question we want to pursue is how behaviours can be composed that transition from "technical and artificial" to "organic and alive", particularly through the articulation of spatiality.
The workshop starts with an internal presentation of the participants for the other participants and tutors. An initial sound situation using a large number of small reconfigurable speakers forms the starting point for in-situ work. This structure will then be available for decomposition and rearrangement by the participants. The space will become a public exhibition halfway through the workshop, making it possible to observe and adapt to the interactions with the audience, a central question in the making of sound installations. The workshop will be held with technical infrastructure provided by the Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM), including an 48-channel sound system and a selection of sensors. The workshop ALMAT was developed by David Pirrò and Hanns Holger Rutz (both IEM Graz) and will be held together with the special support by Robin Minard.
How to apply: 1.) First, you must register and be accepted as a participant of the impuls Academy 2019.
2.) Along with your application, you must submit a statement concerning your specific interest in participating in the ALMAT Workshop or send this by e-mail to office(at)impuls(dot)cc.
3.) In addition, please send a description of your personal work in relation to the workshop's theme stating your previous experiences and describing employed computational approaches, their aesthetic