Interview about Tragedy of the Commons and plis/replis with Aude Lavigne in La Vignette on France Culture, Thursday February 9 2012, 20h55 CET
The Body is a Vessel on the Radio in Montreal
January 30th, 2012 by
Artist and radio host Liz Pieries did a short piece on my free-diver performance The Body is a Vessel on her monday morning show on CKUT 90.3FM in Montreal
Biofeedback Exhibition in Nice
December 17th, 2011 by
The Tragedy of the Commons, Photo by Aurélie Cenno
During the Biofeedback exhibition in Nice, Côte d’Azur curator Marcin Sobieszczanski shows photographs and videos from The Body is a Vessel, Truce: Strategies for Post-Apocalyptic Computation and the Tragedy of the Commons, in particular a series of photographs by Aurélie Cenno.
Biofeedback dans l’art contemporain
Salle de « l’Avant-Scène » au Campus Saint Jean d’Angély
Nice, January 17 – February 27
Website
plis/replis on ArchDaily
December 17th, 2011 by
Architecture blog ArchDaily just published a note on our work at Pommery. check it out here
plis/replis: from rendering to photo
Truce at Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes
November 3rd, 2011 by
For the final days of their exhibit “L’Inquiétante Étrangeté” the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes presents our mosquito piece “Truce: Strategies for Post-Apocalyptic Computation” . If you happen to be near Nantes check it out from January 12 – 15 2012.
“L’inquiétante étrangeté sera cette sorte de l’effrayant qui se rattache aux choses connues depuis longtemps, et de tout temps familières”. S.Freud (1919).
A partir des collections du musée et de façon transchronologique (XVIIe-XXIe), l’exposition présente un nouveau regard sur les oeuvres de la collection du musée. Choisies par Blandine Chavanne, directrice du musée et commissaire de cette exposition, les oeuvres ici réunies, ont toutes à voir avec le singulier, l’insolite, le trouble, le difficilement reconnaissable, voire l’inacceptable. Le concept freudien est ici davantage un outil méthodologique q’une thématique. [Musée des Beaux Arts Nantes]
“plis/replis” : Pommery #9 – La Fabrique Sonore (2011)
September 28th, 2011 by
Robin Meier and Ali Momeni
Curated by Claire Staebler and Charles Carcopino
for Vranken Pommery Monopole, Reims
“The Baroque refers not to an essence but rather to an operative function, to a trait. It endlessly produces folds. [...] the Baroque trait twists and turns its folds, pushing them to infinity, folds over folds, one upon the other. The Baroque fold unfurls all the way to infinity [...] moving along two infinities, as if infinity were composed of two stages or floors: the pleats of matter and the folds in the soul. [...] a great Baroque montage that moves between the lower floor, pierced with windows, and the upper floor, blind, and closed, but on the other hand resonating as if it were a musical salon translating the visible movements below into sounds up above.” - Gilles Deleuze from “The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque”, 1992 [“Le Pli: Leibniz et le Baroque”, 1988]
The fold, as a multi-layered metaphor for the relationship between mind and matter, inspires plis/replis. The installation is made up of a highly geometric, folded and suspended structure that amplifies the experiences and metaphors of champagne. The primary structure, a 10 x 10 x 12m cone suspended in a pyramid, underground cave (a “crayères”) – one of the largest crayères of Vranken-Pommery’s 18km long underground system of corridors and caves dating back to Roman times. This architectural augmentation of the space also serves as a functional loud speaker. A glass platform suspended at the focal point within the cone holds a vessel filled with champagne. Using the actual sounds of effervescence picked up by a special microphone immersed in the champagne vessel, a real-time analysis/synthesis audio system creates a continually evolving sound environment, diffused downward from above.
The architectural design of this work combines ancient paper folding techniques with contemporary computer-aided-design and manufacturing processes. The form is inspired by mathematician and origami expert Taketoshi Nojima, especially his work reproducing organic forms from folded paper. Our collaboration with architect Hyoung-Gul Kook allowed us to design, fabricate and assemble this suspended 345 cubic-meter structure from 285 flat sheets of aluminum/polyethylene composite, precisely folded 2,535 times. This structure acoustically amplifies the sound from a single speaker-driver in order to create an enclosed space that bathes the listener in its center in sound.
Architectural Drawings
Pour La Fabrique sonore, Robin Meier et Ali Momeni conçoivent une nouvelle gamme de sons. Les deux artistes, également musiciens, mettent en commun leurs différentes ressources et créent un dispositif amplifiant et étirant dans le temps et dans l’espace le son de l’effervescence du champagne diffusé à travers un haut-parleur monumental. Passionnés de formes organiques et biologiques, pour l’élaboration de la forme de ce pavillon sonore, Meier et Momeni ont utilisé des formes comme l’organisation d’une pomme de pin ou des graines de tournesol.
Inspirés par les travaux de l’artiste origami et mathématicien japonais Taketoshi Nojima, les deux jeunes artistes, avec l’aide de l’architecte Hyoung-Gul Kook, ont traduit la fragilité de l’origami à l’échelle d’une crayère. Détournant le son microscopique du champagne, Meier et Momeni, explorent l’acoustique de ce pavillon déplié et de la crayère tout en conviant le public à une pluie de bulles sonorisées. – Claire Staebler
Interview on Radio France Inter
September 12th, 2011 by
Interview with journalist Daniel Fièvet in Ouvert la Nuit on Radio France Inter broadcast September 12 2011
The Tragedy of the Commons (2011)
August 20th, 2011 by
Robin Meier and Ali Momeni
Palais de Tokyo, from July 7 to September 18 2011
Curated by Marc Bembekof and Marc-Olivier Wahler
Supported by Pro Helvetia and LEEC Paris 13
[EN] The Tragedy of the Commons consists of a live experiment in the form of an installation, in which thousands of Atta ants – commonly known as leafcutter ants – create a choreography while reacting to certain flavours and smells expertly selected by Robin Meier and Ali Momeni with the help of the Laboratory of Comparative and Experimental Ethology of Paris 13 University. The installation is structured via three circular boards, all connected to one another either directly or through video surveillance and sound. The first of these, at the show’s entrance, is occupied by the ant colony and is physically linked to a second and central board through a long transparent tube; the insects move back and forth through this, accessing goods and bringing them to their nest. In this instance, the goods (or ‘commons’) are a mix of privet and rose leaves and petals, discharged daily onto the central ‘platter’. Contact microphones and cameras, set up on its entire surface, amplify the sound of the ants’ stridulation and offer live playback of their gleaning on a couple of monitors, installed – for closer observation – on the third and last board at the back of the room.
In other words, Meier and Momeni have created a metaphoric ‘food stock market’ for the ants, since every smell or flavour available becomes merchandise capable of affecting their collective behaviour. Accordingly the two artists, who share a background in electronic and experimental music, here manage to make audible and visible a mechanism of social manipulation. On the sonic level, the amplified sound within the installation space corresponds to the ants’ more or less sustained activity – which is particularly effective, grating and loud when, for example, rose petals and leaves are ‘served’ on the central ‘platter’; for, logically enough, the more the ants are fond of a certain flavour, the more greedily they cut that certain plant within their mandibles and, accordingly, the more noise they make. On the visual level, when the central board is flooded with goods – and the insects’ gleaning drastically intensified – quite stunning traffic jams occur in the tube that the ants use to bring food back to the colony.
The transition from the purely biological and ethological experiment to the social and political critical discourse is cleverly or thoughtfully supported by a few hints on paper: namely an atlas and an exchange rate (or currency) book that have been installed with the ‘commons’ on the central board and sprayed all over with natural scents such as orange blossom water. Inevitably the attractive smell of these two manuals leads the voracious ants to tear their pages to pieces. In this installation that evolves with a living colony, then, the symbolic mechanism of the capitalist market – which functions via the creation of demands that largely exceed the vital and primary needs of the population – manifests itself within an aesthetics of saturation, and therein appears the actual ‘tragedy of the commons’.
- Violaine Boutet de Monvel, Art Review, Issue 53, Oct. 2011
[FR] Tous deux de formation musicale, Robin Meier & Ali Momeni développent une pratique complexe où la science se mêle à une forme d’art hybride. En véritables éthologues, et en étroite collaboration avec scientifiques et laboratoires spécialisés, ils observent et manipulent le comportement de certaines espèces animales pour établir ensuite des dispositifs mécaniques et informatiques mettant en scène une interaction entre la machine et l’animal par le son.
The Tragedy of the Commons [La tragédie des biens communs] consiste en une installation où des milliers de fourmis Atta – surnommées fourmis coupe-feuilles – produisent une chorégraphie en réagissant à des couleurs et à des odeurs judicieusement choisies. Amplifié, le son des fourmis génère des textures sonores à l’image de leurs mouvements au sein d’une structure architecturale, acoustique et automatisée.
À travers une forme de conditionnement, les deux artistes créent un marché de valeurs et de coûts fictifs pour la nourriture des fourmis. En introduisant cette notion de valeur, une couleur ou une odeur est transformée en marchandise capable d’influencer le comportement collectif. Mêlant biologie et économie comportementale, Meier & Momeni rendent audibles les mécanismes cachés d’une manipulation sociale.
- Marc Bembekof, Palais de Tokyo, 2011
The Tragedy of the Commons a été conçue avec l’aide du Laboratoire d’Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée de l’Université Paris 13 (LEEC).
L’apport quotidien en feuilles de rosiers non traités est rendu possible grâce à l’aimable participation de :
Direction des espaces verts et de l’environnement. Division du XVIe arrondissement de Paris (atelier des jardins du Trocadéro)
Musée Rodin, Paris
Arte TV
January 28th, 2011 by
“Truce“, “A Tentative Call to the Other” and “Serenity and Serendipity” – 3 works I created with Ali Momeni, are presented in Arte’s TV show “Tracks”
français:
deutsch:
Paris Art Interview
January 25th, 2011 by
Back in July 2010 the french art magazine Paris-Art published an interview by Elisa Hervelin on my works with Ali Momeni for Dynasty at the Musée d’Art Moderne and the Palais de Tokyo. Read it in french, after the jump!
Mêlant théories scientifiques et technologies de pointe, les deux artistes-musiciens, Robin Meier et Ali Momeni, traduisent les comportements du vivant en morceaux acoustiques. Leurs travaux donnent une nouvelle fraîcheur à la question, souvent débattue, de l’interaction entre l’homme et la machine.
Music for Robert and Maria
January 24th, 2011 by
The following track was a teaser for Robert Steijn and Maria Hassabi’s show in New York. It’s based on recordings of Robert’s and Maria’s voices we made at Performing Arts Forum PAF, France.
Music for Walking People
January 24th, 2011 by
This is a 5 minute recording of the interactive music system I created during the Poitiers residency for Interac Wearing (Experientiae Electricae). The music is based on recordings I made in Tiruvannemalai, India as well as various sounds, synthesizers, bits and pieces, which are controlled and triggered in many ways by the visitor’s walking around.
Visitors are wearing Interac Wearing’s costumes which contain sensors and communicate amongst each other wirelessly. As the visitors move around outside (pictures), I use the data gathered from their collective behavior to control and generate various musical structures, an example of which can be heard right here:
Experientiae Electricae Residency in Poitiers
January 20th, 2011 by
1 week residency with Michael Roy, Natacha Roussel and a bunch of wearable ZigBees from Experientiae Electricae at Espace Mendès France in Poitiers. Great place, great food, great people! sounds and more to come….
Interac wearing est composé de 10 costumes qui émettent un son suivant le rythme de la marche de leurs utilisateurs. Chacun est à la fois immergé dans le son généré par sa propre marche et celui produit par les autres marcheurs. La mise en réseau de ces costumes communicants fait émerger un environnement sonore propice à la composition musicale. Robin Meier, compositeur et chercheur dans le domaine de l’intelligence artificielle et des systèmes auto-organisateurs informatiques et biologiques, utilisera les données générées par les utilisateurs et les interprétera afin de créer une composition sonore spatialisée diffusée dans le planétarium.
Press Review DYNASTY
December 20th, 2010 by
For DYNASTY the Musée d’Art Moderne and the Palais de Tokyo compiled two press reviews, which you can download here (33.2Mb) and here (1.8Mb). Amongst many others, this little gem (TV5 Monde) caught our attention!
There’s also two articles by BeauxArts Magazine here and here, an interesting account in Liberation (“Vuvuzela de l’art contemporain”) and le Monde. To round it off, a great piece on the opening of DYNASTY in the New York Times.
Metropolis 2011
November 18th, 2010 by
After new footage of Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece “Metropolis” has been found in Argentina (and the movie was sped up from 21 frames a second to 24 frames a second), we rearranged the existing music by Martin Matalon for this new version. It will begin touring across europe in early 2011 performed by Ensemble Moderne.
The Body is a Vessel (Video)
October 17th, 2010 by
Robin Meier 2010
Diver: Elisabeth Kristoffersen
Camera: Karl Hofmann
Comissioned by the Supercollider Symposium Berlin
With support from HE-Arc St. Imier, Switzerland
Traces 1-7 in Paris
October 15th, 2010 by
Tonight Martin Matalon’s Traces I – VII for various soloists and live-electronics are performed by Ensemble Sillages and myself at Église St. Merry in Paris. 20.30h – free admission! See you there!
“Gone” at Festival Musica Strasbourg
October 6th, 2010 by
Sunday Oct 3 @ La Bourse Sacha Lino Lemke Hellerau Lesen for Flute and Electronics performed by Mario Caroli and myself
Tuesday Oct 5 @ La Bourse Yann Robin Art of Metal 2 for double bass Clarinet and Electronics performed by Armand Angster
Jérôme Combier Gone (premiere) for Clarinet, String trio, Piano and Electronics performed by Ensemble Accroche Note, Electronics: Robin Meier
The Body is a Vessel (2010)
August 19th, 2010 by
For Freediver and Computer
Performance duration: 15 minutes
Radio transmission of an excerpt of The Body is a Vessel on national radio Deutschlandradio Kultur, Klangkunst (by Marcus Gammel)
PDF documentation here
Premiered at the SuperCollider Symposium at the kleine Wasserspeicher in Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg on September 25 2010, 7pm (Google Map)
The Body is a Vessel is a musical composition determined and performed by the human body. Special microphones and sensors let us listen to the physiological processes of professional freediver Elisabeth Kristoffersen.
Submerged under water, which is contained in a rowing boat on stage, Kristoffersen will hold her breath for up to six minutes, letting us experience the physiological transformations she undergoes whilst doing so.
The diver’s strict organization of time during preparation and diving form the basic structure of the music. The sounds of the heart, lungs, bloodflow and diaphragm are used as musical material and heard live in the hall. Using an EEG, changes of brain activity are made audible and take us even deeper into the diver’s body.
The Body is a Vessel submerges us in a baptism set to the sounds of science. protective and exposing, this work explores the perspectives of human evolution.
The Body is a Vessel was produced thanks to the support of the SuperCollider Symposium, Berlin and the Haute Ecole Arc Ingénierie in St. Imier, Switzerland.
Introduction
“The Body is a Vessel” is a musical ritual exploring the limits of the human body and possible futures for humankind and its physical shell. In 2000, shortly before his death, Jacques Mayol, the famous free-diver portrayed in Luc Besson’s movie “Le Grand Bleu” (1988), publishes his book “Homo Delphinus – The Dolphin Within Man” imagining evolution of mankind beyond its landlocked barriers and transporting the future human body far under the ocean’s surface.
“The Body is a Vessel” takes up this post-humanist promise to create a performance using modern-day technology in collaboration with professional free-diver Elisabeth Kristoffersen. Together, Meier and Kristoffersen embark on a journey towards the next step of human evolution.
Materials
“The Body is a Vessel” (TBIAV) uses various sensors to control electronic musical instruments in real-time with the performers body and the physiological changes it goes through during free-diving.
An electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors and amplifies the diver’s heartbeat. With a trained free-diver the heart rate can drop down to 30 bpm and go up as high as 130 bpm or more. Certain drops are triggered by physiological reflexes, eg. when the face is immersed in water. These dramatic changes in heart rate, the body’s natural evolutionary adaptation technique, are the basic building blocks for the rhythmical structure of TBIAV.
Thanks to the support of swiss university HE-ARC we use an electroencephalogram (EEG) to monitor the divers neural activity. During an initial relaxation period the general activity of the divers brain will slowly decrease, thus inducing an audible change in the resulting sounds in the hall. After prolonged breath holding periods a diver’s body will slowly reduce blood flow in certain regions of the body to limit oxygen consumption to strictly vital parts of the central nervous system. These literally breathtaking properties of the human body and brain control the harmonic content of TBIAV.
Finally a miniature microphone monitors and amplifies the divers breathing patterns during preparations and after the dive. It also allows us to hear contractions of the diaphragm, which is triggered by the acute lack of oxygen. A free-diver however, will consciously ignore these audible and sometimes painful contractions to carry on and go beyond the perceived limits of our body.
Conclusion
“The Body is a Vessel” explores the human body in its contemporary form using various technologies and tries to explore future perspectives of human evolution. But it also raises questions on the notion of the cyborg by using the body as a source of data for a musical composition; it questions the omnipresent commodification of the living: the common worldview considering living organisms as biological machines and the brain as a biological computer.
Cordes in Bregenz, Austria
July 31st, 2010 by
Garth Knox, Annick Pütz, Jérémie Papin and I are going to perform our piece “Cordes” in Austria for the Bregenzer Festspiele on August 14 and 15.
DYNASTY on Radio France
July 3rd, 2010 by
French radio show Escale Estivale on France Inter visiting the DYNASTY exhibition at Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (A Tentative Call to the Other) and Palais de Tokyo (Truce).
Imaginez Maintenant
July 2nd, 2010 by
from July 2 – 4 i’m presenting A Tentative Call to the Other at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris from 17h-18h for the Imaginez Maintenant Festival
Sounds from Space
July 1st, 2010 by
Sounds recorded with a VLF-Antenna picking up electro-magnetic activity in earth’s atmosphere and ESA’s CoRoT Satellite. This satellite picks up tiny variations of the light intensity from stars and sends that data to earth. For A Tentative Call to the Other we convert these variations – vibrations of light – into sound.
We wish to thank Eric Michel, researcher at Paris Observatory’s LESIA Lab and the CoRoT space mission – developed and operated by the French space agency CNES, with participation of ESA’s RSSD and Science Programmes, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, and Spain
Serenity and Serendipity (Madras-Madrid) (2010)
June 17th, 2010 by
Architectural sound installation by Robin Meier and Ali Momeni for Auditorio Nacional de Musica, Madrid
Produced by Auditorio Nacional de Musica de Madrid for indian music festival (June 15 – June 31 2010)
Serenity and Serendipity (Madras-Madrid) by Robin Meier and Ali Momeni is a sonic work inspired by superstition, premonition and observation. In the winter of 2009-2010, Meier and Momeni travelled through Sri Lanka and South India in search of practices and practitioners of soothsaying, astrology, prophecy and the like. This work is presented as a musical installation made with recordings from these travels and composed specifically for a garden of hanging loudspeakers in the entry hall of Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid.
The musical composition is comprised of Indian soundscapes, electronic sounds, and recordings of astrologers, oracles and rituals that we met or attended during our travels. Sounds are diffused among the array of speakers to create a series of immersive sonic environments that transport the acoustic world of India into the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid.
This version uses an analog-digital spatialisation system diffused through a twenty four channel suspended loud speaker installation.
Truce at Palais de Tokyo
June 10th, 2010 by
A Tentative Call to the Other (2010)
June 10th, 2010 by
Architectural Sound installation with Ali Momeni for DYNASTY (June 10-September 5, 2010) commissioned by Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris with support from the Council for Artistic Creation and the City of Paris.
PDF documentation here
A Tentative Call to the Other consists of a forest of suspended loud-speakers as well as a large speaker nearly 2m in diameter. The installation is situated at the entrance of the Dufy Hall at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris.
Within this immersive sonic environment, the visitor discovers the barrage of electromagnetic activity that surrounds us. Invisible but omnipresent, these signals are picked up with a special antenna placed on the roof of the museum. In parallel with the sonified electrical activity, visitors also hear sounds originating in outer space, picked up by ESA’s CoRoT Satellite, that are made audible in real-time thanks to a collaboration with Eric Michel from the Paris Observatory.
The diffusion of these sounds is punctuated by interviews with astrologers, hymns, and incantations of ritualistic prayers in Southeast Asian languages. This installation thus offers a contemporary reinterpretation of the painted mural by Raoul Dufy, La Fée Electricité (1937), itself a commentary on the impact of the urban electric grid human society.
Sounds from Outer Space
Thanks to a collaboration with renown astronomer Eric Michel, we gained access to France’s CoRoT satellite. This peculiar space-telescope uses ultra-sensitive light sensors to measure the tiniest variations of luminosity – the twinkling of the stars. For “A Tentative Call to the Other” these light waves are translated into sound waves and can be heard through our speaker setup at the Musée d’Art Moderne.
The observation technique used by CoRoT is known as stellar seismology. Just as seismic waves travel through our planet, sound waves travel through a star, making it vibrate in different modes and at different frequencies. These vibrations make the surface of the star wobble and thereby change the light it emits. By translating these variations of light back into sound, scientists can learn about a star’s size, age, rotation and chemical composition just by listening to the sound it produces.
Every 24 hours the data collected by CoRoT is transmitted to earth and made available to a small group of researchers and for the duration of the DYNASTY exhibition to us. Together with Eric Michel we adapted the sonification method used by him and other astro-seismologists for “A Tentative Call to the Other”. By automating the process and by using new audio synthesis techniques we were able to obtain a continuous stream of new sounds from the stars as they are observed by CoRoT.
Sun Storms and Submarine Communications
The sounds obtained with CoRoT described above make for one layer of “A Tentative Call to the Other”. Another layer is driven by a Very Low Frequency (VLF) receiver placed on the museum’s roof. A VLF is a device used in radio-astronomy, which allows to listen into the electromagnetic activity around us – notably the earth’s magnetosphere. This global electromagnetic field is punctuated by activity from geological shifts within earth and atmospheric events such as sun-storms or lightnings from around the planet.
VLF’s are typically used in environments with almost no electrical pollution such as deserts and mountains; when used in urban environments however, they uncover a flurry of human activity: In addition to picking up signals from hidden electrical power lines, we also pick up activity from elevators, cars, navigation systems, light switches, submarine communications and many other artefacts of la Fée Électricité as anticipated by Dufy. In quiet conditions we can even pick up bio- electrical activity such as the static electricity produced by an insect’s wing beat or a walking person’s muscles.
Analog Spatialisation System (ASS)
Using low-cost electronic components such as analog relays and a Teensy micro-controller, we were able to create a cost-effective and highly scalable sound spatialisation setup. Thanks to its scalability it has become easy for us to create immersive sound installations with hundreds of speakers at a very low cost. We have successfully tested and deployed this system in Minneapolis (USA) at the University of Minnesota, Madrid (Spain) at the Auditorio Nacional de Musica, and Paris (France) at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Acknowledgment
We wish to thank Eric Michel, researcher at Paris Observatory’s LESIA Lab and the CoRoT space mission – developed and operated by the French space agency CNES with participation of ESA’s RSSD and Science Programmes, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, and Spain.
“For Alan Turing” in Zagreb
May 26th, 2010 by
Trajal Harrell’s dance piece “20 Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church (s)” was performed in Zagreb at the Dance Week Festival. During his performance Trajal uses my composition “For Alan Turing”
Cordes (2010)
May 16th, 2010 by
Premiere of Cordes by Garth Knox at the Philharmonie Luxembourg. Co-Production of Philharmonie Luxembourg and Muse en Circuit.
Philharmonie Luxembourg: May 16th 2010 / Centre Culturel du Kremlin Bicêtre, Paris: May 25th 2010
Explorateur d’un nouveau genre, le quatuor d’artistes mené par le musicien Garth Knox (Annick Pütz, danseuse, Robin Meier, artiste son et Jérémie Papin, vidéaste), remonte le temps autour des premiers sons, ceux de l’arc à chasse, ancêtre de tous les instruments à cordes.
“Saori”, José-Manuel Lopez Lopez and 2e2m
May 6th, 2010 by
I created the electronics for José-Manuel’s composition Saori premiered by Ensemble 2e2m at the Paris Conservatory on Mai 6th 2010. This “Commande d’Etat” was produced by la Muse en Circuit.
Robert and Maria
April 16th, 2010 by
recording Robert Steijn and Maria Hassabi for their show in NYC at the Danspace Project at St-Marks Church in-the-Bowery.
Concert Brest
March 25th, 2010 by
Concert with Ensemble Sillages at Passerelle in Brest, France.
Anette Mengel: Ezan – Ländler (Cor et Electronique)
Luis Naon: Senderos (Saxophone et Electronique)
Gérard Grisey: Prologue (Alto et Electronique)
Martin Matalon: Traces III (Cor et Electronique)
Paris is Burning
March 25th, 2010 by
Trajal Harrell’s dance piece “20 Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church (s)” was performed in Paris at the Artdenthé festival tonight. During his performance Trajal uses my composition “For Alan Turing”
Prototype “Madras Madrid”
March 15th, 2010 by
Minneapolis, March 2010
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Prototype of a 4×4 speaker grid controlled by Ableton Live via Teensy++ and 16 relais. The distance between the speakers will be big enough for people to walk through. Speakers are hanging from ceiling.
Each speaker can be turned on and off independently and multiple audio channels can be assigned to groups of speakers. Using this peculiar spatialisation setup we play back sound compositions we made with recordings from India and Sri Lanka.
Truce at SIGGRAPH Asia, Yokohama
December 23rd, 2009 by
After four crazy days going back and forth between Yokohama and Tokyo SIGGRAPH Asia came to a successful end. Some japanese bloggers wrote about the event. You can check out a selection of entries here (Kanta Horio) here, and here.
SIGGRAPH kindly translated the description of Truce into english (here), japanese, spanish, french and russian .
(unfortunately they didn’t get the credits right: it should be Robin Meier and Ali Momeni).
Make sure you also check out the works of my friends and colleagues Alvaro Cassinelli, Daito Manabe, Rita Sa, Camille Scherrer, Jamie Allen and all the other artists at SIGGRAPH.
For me it’s on to new (recording) adventures in Sri Lanka and India now!
Japan declares Truce:
On Analytical vs. Schizophrenic Procedures for Computing Music
November 25th, 2009 by
I published a paper in the journal Contemporary Music Review (Volume 28, Issue 2) together with Frédéric Voisin on analytical vs. schizophrenic procedures for computing music. Amongst other things, the paper analyzes our work for Last Manoeuvres in the Dark.
You can access the article here (subscription required)
Abstract: The authors present a perspective on computer music, which is based on some particular definitions of music in relation to oral culture and cybernetics. They describe some experiments with different models of neural architectures which generate original music, and then suggest that if such neural systems are rich, effective and intuitive enough to produce ‘live’ music, the understanding of their behaviour may require the development of some ‘schizophrenic’ procedures, as well as analytical ones.
Keywords: Oral Cultures; Cybernetics; Automated Music Generation; Neural Networks; Multi-agent Systems; Music Information Retrieval
Problèmes philosophiques et esthétiques soulevés par les prothèses neurosensorielles
November 8th, 2009 by
Marcin Sobieszczanski published an article on philosophical and esthetical issues regarding neurophysiological prothesis. The article was published in the canadian review l’Archée.
In the second part of his article Sobieszczanski illustrates the ideas of his article with two of my works: Experiments in Fish / Machine Communication and Truce: Strategies for Post-Apocalyptic Computation
Une prothèse machinique fonctionnant et fonctionnelle dans ce système a atteint, elle aussi, le niveau de l’individuation au-delà duquel il est inutile d’avancer par la voie de l’ingénierie. Cette prothèse sera dotée de tous les mécanismes que l’évolution biologique a élaborés, y compris de celui qui lui permettra d’auto-évoluer elle-même. Elle sera donc dotée de l’équivalent technique du code génétique des cellules vivantes. Autrement dit, dès que quelque chose devient un « système informé » efficace au sens biologique, la frontière entre le vivant et l’artificiel s’efface.
l’Astre Echevelé
November 6th, 2009 by
Tonight Gérard Buquet’s piece l’Astre Echevelé for which I designed the electronics, is being premiered at l’Espace de Projection, Ircam Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Saxophone: Marcus Weiss, Sound Engineer: David Poissonnier
IRCAM, November 6, 20h
Publication dans Archée
October 16th, 2009 by
Archée, magazine pour le “cyberart et la cyberculture artistique” publie un article tiré de mon présentation au MAMAC de Nice.
L’artiste Robin Meier présente le principe de fonctionnement de l’œuvre Fish, qu’il a réalisée en 2007, et les enjeux théoriques qui l’accompagnent. Un poisson éléphant et deux poissons couteaux émettent des signaux électriques communicants qui sont recueillis par un dispositif de capteurs et traités par un ordinateur. Un réseau de neurones artificiels analyse ces signaux, « apprend » leur structure et leurs règles de génération, et finit par établir une communication avec les individus vivant dans l’aquarium puis modifie leurs comportements. Ainsi le public, par le biais de l’amplification et de la visualisation graphique des échanges entre le vivant et l’artificiel, prend conscience des nouvelles possibilités d’expérimenter l’intelligence de l’être biologique dont le noyau est constitué par l’aptitude à communiquer.
Festival Musica, Strasbourg
October 3rd, 2009 by
Ensemble Intercontemporain / Accentus - Axe 21 perform at Cité de la musique et de la danse in Strasbourg.
Conductor: Susanna Mälkki, Doublebass Clarinette: Alain Billard, Speaker: Fosco Perinti, Computer Music Design: Robin Meier, Sound Engineer: David Poissonnier Texts by Edoardo Sanguineti
DAI FUJIKURA: secret forest (2008) :: 17’
YANN ROBIN: Art of Metal III (2007) :: 25’
LUCIANO BERIO: Laborintus II (1965) :: 32’
“For Alan Turing” in NYC
October 1st, 2009 by
Trajal Harrell’s dance piece “Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church (S)” is being performed at the New Museum in New York today and tomorrow. Harrell’s five dances are set to the music of my composition for two artificial neural networks “For Alan Turing”
“What would have happened in 1963 if someone from the voguing ball scene in Harlem had come downtown to perform alongside the early postmoderns at Judson Church?”
Rather than illustrate a historical fiction, Harrell’s new work transplants this proposition into a contemporary context and debate about the seduction of the audience and the naiveté of the performer, and/or vice-versa. The (S) version, co-presented by the New Museum and Danspace Project in association with Crossing the Line 2009, is a solo performance by Trajal Harrell featuring work by visual artist Franklin Evans.
Lucerne Festival
September 13th, 2009 by
I spent two weeks at the Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland eating Rösti and going on crazy hikes with IRCAM and Ensemble Intercontemporain. During the day I ran two workshops (viola with Odile Auboin and trombone with Benny Sluchin). These workshops are part of a unique orchestral academy focused exclusively on the repertory of the 20th and 21st centuries. Pierre Boulez is the artistic director.
The sixth edition of the academy features, for the first time, electronic music giving students the opportunity to discover works by Pierre Boulez, Luca Francesconi, Daï Fujikura, Martin Matalon, Luis Náon, Kaija Saariaho and Marco Stroppa.
A short radio piece on the festival and the masterclasses. In Swissgerman!
SIGGRAPH 2009 Yokohama
August 21st, 2009 by
“Truce – Strategies for Post-Apocalyptic Computation” got accepted for the SIGGRAPH Art Gallery in Yokohama: December 16 – 19. See you in Japan…
Some of the most impressive breakthroughs in art and technology happen by considering the gaps and opportunities in the existing landscape – by adapting what we know to what might be. Now, as the world evolves with exponential speed, we need artists and scientists to show us the way.
The Art Gallery and Emerging Technologies exhibitions at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 share the theme of Adaptation. The Art Gallery features a diverse, international body of work, ranging from pieces driven by technology to works that critically comment on our technological society.
Concert in Helsinki
August 14th, 2009 by
Spent six days in Finland with IRCAM and Ensemble Intercontemporain preparing a concert at Finlandia Hall and going to sea in a rowingboat with an old friend. We performed pieces by Robin, Francesconi and Boulez under the direction of Susanna Mälkki and Pierre Boulez.
Honorary Mention for Truce at Ars Electronica
July 26th, 2009 by
Truce: Strategies for Post-Apocalyptic Computation just won a honorary mention in the electronic music (!) category at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz. Now, let’s bring out these cocktails!
Experiments in Mosquito / Machine Communication: Truce from khs frst on Vimeo.
Prisma Mexico
July 1st, 2009 by
I had the privilege to present my work and talk about art, biology, science and whatever just came up at the Prisma Forum in Oaxaca and later in Mexico City bringing together 300 artists from 40 countries. It was a great opportunity to meet people and to discover Mexico loco!
Trois Manifestes
June 9th, 2009 by
Premiere at Cité de la Musique of Trois Manifestes by Luis Fernando Rizo-Salom for ensemble (Ensemble Intercontemporain under the direction of Susanna Mälkki) and live electronics (Robin Meier)
Work commissioned by IRCAM-Centre Pompidou and Radio France for the 2009 Agora Festival
Fasciné par la confrontation, j’ai conçu une mise en scène fondée sur trois groupes instrumentaux disposés sur trois scènes différentes et défendant chacun ce qu’on pourrait appeler un « manifeste sonore ». Vous êtes invités à prendre parti ou tout simplement à être spectateurs. Conditionnée par la disposition des instruments dans la salle de concert, la forme de l’œuvre explore l’opposition extrême et l’exaltation dramatique entre les groupes, en passant de la gauche à la droite ou du centre vers l’extérieur, de l’agressivité à la douceur ou du son électronique au son acoustique.
Ces groupes sont reliés entre eux électroniquement par un système de petits haut-parleurs placés sous les fauteuils du public, ainsi que par l’exploration de différentes solutions purement instrumentales. Le son est ainsi ramené à proximité du public pour créer, entre autres, la sensation de flotter, comme si l’auditeur était suspendu sur la matière ou en apesanteur sur le son, l’énergie et les gestes instrumentaux des trois ensembles étant versés vers le public en cascades sonores.
Luis Fernando Rizo-Salom, note de programme de la création
Les Temps Tiraillés
January 21st, 2009 by
Today is the premiere of Les Temps Tiraillés by Myriam Gourfink and Georg Friedrich Haas at Centre Pompidou for which i designed the electronics.
This video documents the production periods leading up to the performance.
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produced by IRCAM and Centre Pompidou
Les temps tiraillés propose une création en temps réel : sur scène avec les interprètes, la chorégraphe écrit, via un dispositif d’écrans, la partition en fonction de la perception qu’elle a du déroulement de la pièce. Ainsi, les danseuses ont une idée sensible de ce qui doit se passer, mais ne savent pas formellement ce qu’elles vont danser.
Interprété par Clémence Coconnier, Céline Debyser, Carole Garriga, Déborah Lary, Julie Salgues, Cindy Van Acker, Véronique Weil.
Pascal Gallois (basson), Garth Knox (alto), Geneviève Strosser (alto).
Composition musicale : Georg Friedrich Haas (commande de l’Ircam – Centre Pompidou).
Réalisation informatique musicale Ircam : Robin Meier
Presentation of Experiments in Fish / Machine Communication (2007)
March 17th, 2008 by
A video of a conference I held at the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain MAMAC in Nice, February 2008:
Les compositions et installations de Robin Meier, artiste, sont influencées par son intérêt pour l’intelligence artificielle et l’électro acoustique. Au sein de nos conférences il exposera son œuvre « Fish » qui tente d’établir une communication entre des poissons et un ordinateur portant sur l’interaction et l’apprentissage entre le vivant et l’artificiel.
Des signaux électriques émis par un poisson éléphant et deux poissons couteaux sont appris par un système de neurones artificiels qui génère des réponses et les resynthétise en temps réel dans l’eau. La production sonore des poissons ainsi que celle des neurones artificiels est retransmise à travers les haut-parleurs fixés sur la structure métallique accueillant les aquariums. La communication réussie, le comportement des poissons peut être altéré à travers des “ordres” générés par la machine. Ainsi, n’importe quel changement comportemental qu’il soit moteur, électrique ou autre, peut se percevoir directement : changement de hauteur ou changements rythmiques dans les signaux des poissons. La machine interagit sur le poisson qui doit s’adapter à son environnement changeant, une fois le signal décodé.
Pour l’artiste, « Fish se réalise dans le vivant, dans le changement comportemental des poissons ». Ainsi, il « utilise des réseaux de neurones artificiels non pas comme acteur, créant un matériau artistique, mais comme régulateur, ou pont, entre le vivant et l’artificiel ». Aux questions que soulèvent son œuvre, Robin Meier répond :
« Entre le souci de l’explicité dans les sciences et la part inévitablement implicite de la création dans l’art, l’aspect “exotique”, qui apparaît en croisant les deux, devient moteur. L’étrangeté – la science qui à première vue, semble si différente et éloignée de l’art – devient un défi, obligeant l’artiste à créer un contexte nouveau et original afin qu’elle puisse faire sens. Ce changement de contexte met en perspective l’objet scientifique étudié et remet en question la discipline artistique. Cette recontextualisation a des conséquences dans les deux domaines concernés : d’une part l’approche artistique permet un nouveau regard grâce à ses libertés méthodologiques et contraintes personnelles, émotionnelles, sociales…, d’autre part les sciences créent pour l’art des nouveaux outils, grâce à leurs propres méthodes et avancements. En même temps, la mise en oeuvre des objets scientifiques dans un contexte artistique peut changer radicalement notre interaction avec ces objets. La pratique artistique, plus libre et peut-être plus intuitive, nous permet de conduire une expérimentation et vérification ludiques des outils formalisés de la science. »
Océan
January 12th, 2008 by
Océan is a piece for Soprano, grand ensemble and live electronics by Philipp Maintz. It’s being premiered at Centre Pompidou by Marisol Montalvo: soprano Robin Meier: electronics and Ensemble Intercontemporain under the direction of Beat Furrer on January 12 2008.
This video written and directed by Nicolas Donin and Lionel Escama documents the production leading to this performance:
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an IRCAM / Centre Pompidou Production
Voir un compositeur au travail, saisir quelques instantanés de la fabrication d’une œuvre, éclairer ses sources et ses enjeux en entrant dans les coulisses de la création. Pour ce n° 3, la caméra a suivi les étapes essentielles du travail du compositeur Philipp Maintz, en collaboration avec Robin Meier, réalisateur en informatique musicale.
Quels sont les courants souterrains de cet océan qu’a traversé Maintz au fil des derniers mois ? Inspirée par les Chants de Maldoror de Lautréamont, et première étape d’un projet d’opéra, la nouvelle œuvre du jeune compositeur berlinois vibre d’oscillations instrumentales réverbérées par le dispositif électronique, émergeant progressivement autour de la soprano américaine Marisol Montalvo
