THE TRANSFORMERS
by Natasha Barett
23.08 at 19:30
JAKOB CULTURE CHURCH
The Transformer” is an audio-visual performance instrument created by Natasha Barrett using the latest in computer vision, audio analysis and AI. “The Transformer” begins by listening and seeing in ways similar to our own senses. Then, instead of normal live electronics processing, it creates its own real-time sound and video as a controlled hallucination modelled on perceptual features derived from the entirety of the incoming signals. The Transformer is programmed in MaxMSP and Jitter, including
sonification, the FluComa machine learning toolset and 3D-graphics. This is the first full prototype: «The Transformer #1», and this version has been trained on the voice and movement of Silje Aker Johnsen. The concert is an interactive composition and improvisation.
The work is supported by the Fond for Lyd og Bilde and the The Composers’ Remuneration Fund (Komponistenes Vederlagsfonds). Produced in collaboration with Electric Audio Unit (EAU).
Meet The Artists
Natasha Barrett is a composer using new technologies and experimental approaches to sound in a broad range of contemporary music, including concert works, public space sound-art installations and multi-media interactive music. She is internationally renowned for her electroacoustic music and use of 3D sound technology in composition, and has produced music and publications in this field. Her work is commissioned and performed throughout the world and has received over 20 international awards including the Nordic Council Music Prize. She also collaborates with performers, visual artists, architects and scientists. Highlights include 3D audio-visual movies with the USA-based OpenEndedGroup commissioned by IRCAM (FR), EMPAC (USA) and the Ultima Festival (NO), sound-architectural installations with OCEAN Design Research Network (NO), musical applications of geoscience with the University of Oslo, and live electronics collaborations with vocal ensemble Nordic Voices (NO) and organist Nils Henrik Asheim (NO). Current projects include works for Cikada String Quartet (NO) and Ensemble Itinéraire (FR). She is also active in performance, education and research.
Electric Audio Unit (EAU) is a Norwegian performance ensemble specialising in electroacoustic music and immersive spatial audio. EAU performs works from around the world, commissions new composers and gives workshops and masterclasses.
Silje Aker Johnsen is a soprano and dancer. She holds a PhD in Artistic Research from the Opera Academy, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, with the project «A search for an extended physical interpretation of contemporary vocal music and of opera». She is also educated at the Grieg Academy, Bergen, Universität der Künste, Berlin and the Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo. Silje made her debut with the Berliner Kammeroper in 2006.
She has guested the Norwegian National Opera in “Ballerina” by Synne Skouen, with “Her” by Erik Dæhlin and Silje Aker Johnsen and in several other works. She has worked as a dancer in the Polish Dance Theatre, where she amongst other pieces danced in Minus 2 by Ohad Naharin. She is a member of Ensemble Neon, who won Spellemannspris for their debut album in 2016. Silje was awarded Performer of the Year 2013 by The Norwegian Society of Composers.