Autonomy of Synthesis - Festival of Automated Orchestras

On October 13th, an international festival of automated orchestras will take place in the Assembly Hall.

Any system created by humans is an imitation of natural systems - organisms, their organization in habitats (such as interacting smaller structures like societies), as well as other more extensive and complex processes. We often perceive processes within mechanisms as autonomous decisions of the systems themselves, and the more complex the system, the more it seems to us that a new form of intelligence is emerging somewhere within them. We live in the era of 'cybernetics 2' - where machines were previously given an action algorithm, in 'cybernetics 2' the task is to create algorithms that generate new programs - 'autonomies'.

In 1967, the English engineer and composer Peter Zinovieff presented the world's first digital computer capable of composing and performing music in real time to the public. In the renowned Queen Elizabeth Hall, the concert Partita For Unattended Computer was performed - the first autonomous performance by a cybernetic composer in history. It is worth noting that the computer controlled the sound generation process, but did not create the sounds itself - this role was given to the integrated analog-digital synthesizer unit, which allowed for an interesting sound and relieved the computational power of the modest by our standards 'brain'.

The Autonomy of Synthesis project is both a tribute to Partita For Unattended Computer and a new approach to the idea of self-organizing structures in music, but using modern technologies and methods in the construction and programming of musical systems.

The concert consists of three parts. The first will feature an audio-visual composition generated in real-time by an ensemble of mobile computers connected wirelessly (Victor Chernenko, Oleg Makarov, Sergei Kasich Moscow); in the second part, an autonomous modular synthesizer system of author's construction, which will have the right to choose actions, will perform (::vtol:: aka Dmitry Morozov (Moscow)); and in the concluding third part, a fully robotic orchestra of acoustic percussion instruments - Gamelatron, under the control of a computer sequencer and Taylor Kafner (New York), will perform. The exact duration of the performances is unknown and is left to the discretion of the mechanisms.

Gamelatron (USA) - the world's first fully robotic Indonesian Gamelan orchestra. Gamelatron is a product of collaboration between the League of Electronic Musical Robots (LEMUR) and New York musician A. Taylor Kuffner (also performing under the name Zemi17), at the intersection of traditional music and modern computer technologies. Gamelatron is a traditional Indonesian orchestra augmented by 117 individual robots controlled by a computer. Thanks to this, an orchestra that usually requires 12-15 musicians can be controlled by just one person, or even play autonomously, like a player piano, performing pre-written music. Gamelatron performs both traditional music from the island of Bali (which significantly influenced the birth of minimalism in its time), as well as ultra-modern electronics and even techno.
http://gamelatron.com/

::vtol:: - the project of Dmitry Morozov - a Moscow musician, artist, and creator of oddly sounding mechanisms. As part of his ::vtol:: project since 2007, he has been creating interactive audio-visual installations, experimental electronic music, and non-standard electronic musical instruments. The main engineering and creative principle of creating devices and musical works is circuit bending - a conscious deviation of microchips and devices to extreme and non-standard operating modes, achieved by making chaotic changes to electrical circuits. Several author devices are produced in small series: in particular, the Robo synth became the first synthesizer produced in Russia since the collapse of the USSR. Many devices were custom-made for well-known Russian and foreign sound artists. In addition to making DIY synthesizers and performing with performances, as part of the ::vtol:: project, Dmitry Morozov has created a series of interactive sound installations that transfer engineering and sound research into the field of contemporary scientific and media art. Over the past few years, the artist has participated in several international electronic music and contemporary art festivals - 'Shum i Yarost', MIGZ, Abracadabra, 'Poetronica', 'Art-Zavod', Bent Festival 2010, 'Prepared Environments', etc.
http://vtol.tk/

Oleg Makarov - composer, performer, developer of hardware-software interactive systems and instruments. Author of music of various styles and directions. Regularly performs as author and performer of compositional-improvisational electroacoustic music. Develops a new structure and corresponding program patch for each performance.
http://www.olegmakarov.ru

Sergei Kasich - (aka kasich) - electronic musician, performer, author of interactive installations. Initiator and member of the first Russian-language community dedicated to live performance and modern D.I.Y. in technological arts (LoveLiveElectronic). Producer and curator of several Russian festivals of experimental electronic music and media art. Permanent resident of the Theremin Center electronic music studio at the Moscow State Conservatory named after P. I. Tchaikovsky.
http://www.myspace.com/noisegodsvoice

Victor Chernenko - composer, performer, programmer. Engaged in experimental electronic music, uses own developments made in the Max/MSP and Pure Date programming environments. Performs with his project Acousmatist, and is also a member of Moscow Laptop Orchestra. Conducted a series of seminars on the use of visual programming environments for musicians at the Theremin Center of the Moscow Conservatory. Publishes articles on the history and aesthetics of electronic music. Collaborates with the LoveLiveElectronic art movement.
http://www.viti.net.ru/

LoveLiveElectronic - an interactive forum-festival dedicated to live performance and D.I.Y. approach in experimental electronic music and technological arts. The forum regularly hosts conceptual events in various locations, as well as seminars on music programming and electronics. Participants of the forum are united by the desire for maximum creative and technological freedom in the field of media and performance creation. It can be said that LoveLiveElectronic (LoLiEl) is a kind of symbiosis of punk aesthetics, hacking, and academic electroacoustics, sprouted on a dense conceptual basis of neo-futurism and a 'return to the roots' of multimedia art in Russia.
http://www.loliel.tk/

Ticket Price: 250 rubles
Assembly Hall, Fabrika Project
Start: 20:00'