Speakers: Nicolas Collins, Alberto de Campo, Hannes Hoelzl, Robert Lisek, Simon Whetham
Chair: Ján Solčáni

The use of computer algorithms, which was once the domain of avant-garde artists and composers, has recently become ubiquitous and prevalent even in mainstream production. Neural networks, robotics, virtual agents, and automated content generation have become part of everyday life, blurring the boundaries between human and non-human agency. From a wider perspective, the use of sophisticated algorithms — in general applications as well as in the domain of art — is far from unproblematic, seen from both aesthetic and ethical points of view. In his book Hearing the Cloud, Emile Frankel somewhat provokingly questions the foundations of the turn from emotional and subjective expression to rationalistic and supposedly more ‘objective’ and truthful nature of the avant-garde compositional (or improvisatory) approaches: “Instead of a belief in your own subjectivity (composition which is inspired by your own ear and culture) numbered chaos is considered in some ways to be more true — the fundamental state of the knowable universe is chaos. Chaos is considered the answer to transcend our fallible ‘humanness’.” Could we perhaps contemplate relying on randomness and chance, or “numbered reason” — as once fostered by John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, and other great composers who wanted to liberate musical creation from human subjectivity — as “magical belief”? How do artists utilise new technologies in a creative or subversive way, without falling into the trap of “enchantment”, yet still keeping the “magic” of the human-machine performance functional?

During this mini-symposium, we will focus on the aesthetics and poetics of inspiring approaches to 21st century algorithmic music and performance art. Together with this year’s festival artists, we will explore unique ways in which we can employ algorithms in the support of visionary — or even radical — ideas and artistically challenging concepts.

Part of the project “Education in Contemporary Music”. Supported using public funding by the Slovak Arts Council and Foundation of the City of Bratislava.