Satie Variations (Offspring)

Robin Meier: Algorithmic composition for “Offspring” by Pierre Huyghe (Sensor based, self-generative system for sound and light machine)
Computer, Software
Rome and Paris 2019
Commissioned by Pierre Huyghe Studio
Photo credit: Anne Stenne

Satie Variations is a generative composition commissioned by Pierre Huyghe for a new version of his Untitled (Light Show). The composition is a custom algorithm based on a recurrent neural network (Performance RNN, Max, Bach library, etc.) and is trained to play infinite variations of Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies 1 & 3.

Searching, inventing, erring and hesitating, the machine renders a broken memory of one of Satie’s most iconic works, while the sound is modulated by the physical proximity of visitors and by climatic changes of the atmosphere outside.