Almut Schilling will hold a lecture at the Research Day 2021, titled “Auditorium of Rotting Sounds: Maintaining Digital Decay”
At the beginning of the artistic research project we manifested that data degrade inevitable and we do perceive decay as transformation. With the establishment of the Auditorium of Rotting Sounds an extraordinary space, dedicated to site specific artworks, was created, to let the sound objects rot. But how to control the temporal transformation of digital data, which basically are inherent dynamic systems? How to classify determinants and the symptoms of decay and its effects? And how to understand and perceive those created aesthetics? Considering the difference between things (physical entities defined by its material properties) and objects (conceptual entities generated and perceived by semantically thinking) it is fundamental to ensure a certain legibility within the flow of time, which means to prevent that those entities are drifting too far apart. Consequently the maintenance, the controlled ›aging‹, appeared to reflect the individual artwork conceptually and its growing patina.
11.11.2021, 10:00–17:45 Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Schillerplatz 3, 1010 Wien, Sitzungssaal
Here you can find the corresponding paper as pdf. There’s also a video of the presentation. If you’re curious to use it yourself, feel free to give it a try!
LFSR implementationbitDAC, treat individual bit ranges of an integer as floating point valuesunrolling of 1bit operationsbitRot implementation
Thomas Grill gibt mit Noise Shaping einen Einblick in das Forschungsprojekt rotting sounds, das sich mit der Vergänglichkeit von digitalem Klang im sozialen, technologischen und zeitlichen Kontext beschäftigt. Ein zentraler Forschungsgegenstand ist die Repräsentation von Klang als 1-bit-Datenstrom, der die Brücke zwischen digitalen und analogen Signalen schlägt. Der Begriff Noise Shaping steht dabei für den voluminösen Rauschhintergrund, der als Träger der darin verborgenen Klänge verwendet wird. Aloïs Yang and Andreas Trobollowitsch spannen mechanisch erzeugte Klänge in ein komplexes digitales Feedback-System ein; found objects kommen ebenso zum Einsatz wie natürliche Substanzen und performative Raumvermessungen. Und Rojin Sharafi, die ursprünglich aus dem Iran kommt und seit einigen Jahren in Österreich lebt, widmet sich in ihrem Stück der „kulturellen Hegemonie, kulturellen Hybridität und dem kulturellen Überleben“, jenen Stimmen also, die im Kampf um die kulturelle Vorherrschaft gezielt unterdrückt werden. Für ein immersives Klangerlebnis bei Hidden Dome sorgt die 50-Kanal Ambisonics Audioanlage des Dom im Berg, für die die drei Auftragswerke konzipiert wurden.
October 8, 19:30pm Dom im Berg, Schloßbergplatz, A-8010 Graz
This performance involves three interactants, two predominantly working in the audio domain (Thomas Grill and Till Bovermann) and one focusing on a visual counterpart (Kathrin Hunze). We generate and exchange streams of 1-bit audio, a signal representation with properties of both the digital and analog domain that we have already been investigating in the artistic research project “Rotting sounds – Embracing the temporal deterioration of digital audio” (FWF PEEK AR445-G24). With simple switchboard matrix devices, we channel such bit streams between the individual performers and through simple processing modules, like delays, logical operators, etc., generating feedback and interferences on the way. These phenomena are made audible and are also mirrored by a visual representation of particle streams, forming directed jets and point cloud aggregations.
11. September 2020 – 20:10 – 20:35 Hauptplatz 6, Glashörsaal D (H6.DG.04) 4020 Linz, Austria
For an upcoming performance at the Ars Electronica Festival 2020 SOUND CAMPUS, we are testing hardware to interconnect 1-bit audio streams.
For that purpose, we are using an STM32F4 Discovery Board to generate 1-bit audio streams, sent through a Future Sound Systems MTX9 point pin matrix (Figure 1) as often found in modular synthesis systems.
The software used on the STM board to efficiently generate 1-bit audio streams using DMA transfer over an SPI interface is an offspring of our DADA hardware development efforts.
Figure 1: Testing Future Sound Systems MTX9 with high-bandwidth audio signals
The FSS MTX9 can be used as passive hardware (only 1-to-1 connections), or using the MTX9A buffer board to sum over input busses.
In passive mode (Figure 2), the bandwidth is sufficient to come close to 1 MHz bit rate which allows 32-fold oversampling at usable PCM audio rates.
Figure 2: Oscilloscope screenshot of MTX9 output (purple) against 1-bit audio input (turquoise) at around 500 kHz bit rate
For active mode (using the buffer board MTX9A, Figure 3), the hardware introduces low-pass filtering, reducing the audio bandwidth to around 100 kHz. This is good enough for high quality analog audio, but not for 1-bit digital audio at high bit rates.
Figure 3: Oscilloscope screenshot of MTX9A output (purple) against 1-bit audio input (turquoise) at around 100 kHz bit rate
Clearly, it must be noted that the summing function over inputs is not strictly meaningful for 1-bit signals, where some kind of post-processing needs to bit applied to return to single bits.
The audio-laser installation dust a bit by Klaus Filip is the first of our installations, which – over the duration of more than a year – has eroded to a state which would be commonly described as “broken”, at least from the standpoint of the original concept. The audio signal is not modulated onto the laser any more, as intended – what is heard is purely collected, amplified noise.
At this point, we will not attempt to repair it because it is already scheduled to upgrade the installation to a fully digital version on the basis of our custom 1-bit audio hardware DADA. We expect this to happen at the end of June 2020.
In the last year, the installation has been restarted a couple of times because the carefully calibrated laser beam tends to wander out of focus by the time. This is most probably due to temperature changes and/or vibrations, causing the mirrors to lose their precise adjustment.
We have prepared timelapse recordings of the sonic developments of the several installation runs – every time several weeks of collecting “dust”. One minute of a time lapse corresponds to a day of operation. Technically, the recordings are concatenated (and cross-faded) 1-minute snapshots taken every 12 hours. The naming of the recordings corresponds to their starting date. Enjoy!
We had a great outside location in the Garden of the Sommerrefektorium, even if the weather was partly rainy. The installation could withstand the humid weather.
