As part of the interfaces activity "Cross Genre Residencies" the ZKM | Hertz-Lab launched an open call for sound artists and composers to submit project proposals for a one-month residency. Based on sound art or electroacoustic composition, these will deal with emotions in human-machine interaction and link themselves interdisciplinary with Emotional Artificial Intelligence, Affective Computing or neuroscience. Four selected artists will realize their projects from August to December 2019 at the ZKM | Hertz-Lab and present them in spring 2020.

Read more about the open call for Emotional AI HERE.

Selected artists in residency:

Damian T. Dziwis
For "The Conductor's Philosophy III - Affective Presence" the Polish composer, live coder and engineer Damian T. Dziwis is developing a generative artificial intelligence that is controlled by a conductor as an emotional human-computer interface. For this purpose, (arm) movements, but also facial expressions and brain waves of a performer are digitized by means of sensors and fed into the computer.

Chris Wood
The American composer and performer Chris Wood further develops "matte_screen", his virtual self for technologically rooted emotional traumas, by dedicating himself to the emotion theory "Sentics" of the cyberneticist Manfred Clynes. Rubber bands attached to the performer are used as gestural controllers for a learning algorithm that generates an immersive soundscape with therapeutic effects.

Laura Ige
The pianist and artist Laura Ige from Buenos Aires will compose a soundtrack for her affective Tinder-bot "Hi, Im $NAME". The program acts autonomously on the net with several dating profiles to investigate the role of women in the net-based affective industry, here as disguises for a seductive malware algorithm.

Andrius Arutiunian
In "Portraits and Poets" the Armenian-Lithuanian composer and sound artist Andrius Arutiunian examines the authenticity of statements by well-known contemporary thinkers by analyzing them with a facial recognition algorithm that emotionally evaluates mimic micro-movements - such as artificial intelligence, which is used as a "lie detector" at EU external borders. Every emotional movement of a thinker that deviates from the norm ultimately generates a sound.