Here’s the Information We Collect, is an interactive video installation tailored to respond selected privacy policy posted on major social media platforms. Audience members are invited to engage with the work by speaking into a microphone. LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor – the hypothetical single-cell organism from which all life on Earth descended) is a non-linear virtual environment where real-time biometric data from performers’ movements is streamed into the virtual environment to dynamically shape the visual and sonic elements of a virtual world.
LOCATION: New Waves in Art and Tech exhibition
Harvestworks Art and Technology Program Building 10a, Nolan Park Governors Island
All events are free.
Artist Talk Saturday May 25, 2024 at 2:45 pm
Open to the public from 11 am to 5 pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and by appointment.
Here’s the Information We Collect is a multi-channel interactive video installation tailored to respond to selected privacy policy on major social media platforms. The audience members are invited to engage with the work by speaking into a microphone. Their words will be processed by a pre-coded speech recognition program to match the key words to specific sonic elements performed by professional vocalists, creating a dynamic and evolving musical score in real-time. The project employs the privacy policy of a particular cyber enterprise as an entry point to explore the implications of our online data and the tension between privacy, surveillance, and the free flow of information in the digital age. It also calls attention to tech corporations’ collection and capitalization of user data behind the scenes as a form of digital colonialism.
This composition employed VOSK Offline Speech Recognition API to activate vocal performances. The musical notation was presented graphically, and the vocalists’ contributions were recorded individually before being integrated in real-time.
Credits:
Performers: Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble – Soprano: Charlotte Mundy, Mezzo-Soprano: Elisa Sutherland Countertenor: Jonathan May, Tenor: Tomás Cruz, Baritone: Jeffrey Gavett, Bass: Peter Stewart; Max/MSP Engineer for the 3-channel version: Matthew Ostrowski, Recording Engineer: Kevin Ramsay.
**This project was produced in part at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center through the Artist-In-Residence Program, and is sponsored in part by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC). The iteration on display is an online single-channel iteration commissioned by WebSoundArt.
LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor: the hypothetical single-cell organism from which all life on Earth descended) is a non-linear virtual environment with a non-anthropocentric approach. In the natural world, diverse forms of intelligence operate independently of human dominance. Non-human organisms construct intricate information networks, respond to their umwelt, form complex symbiotic relationships, and communicate through methods that eluded understanding and validation by modern science for centuries. This perspective challenges the notion of human superiority, positioning humans as just one element within the ecosystem rather than at the apex of a hierarchical structure.
The complete version of this project utilizes a brain-computer interface, Unreal Engine, Max MSP, and electronic circuits to explore the interconnection and collective agency between human and non-human intelligence. In this iteration, real-time biometric data from performers’ movements is streamed into the virtual environment to dynamically shape the visual and sonic elements of a virtual world.
Credits:
Supported by the En Foco Media Arts Fund and Coalesce BioArt Lab.
Artist Bio
Tansy Xiao is an artist, curator and writer based in New York. Xiao creates theatrical installations with non-linear narratives that often extend beyond the fourth wall. Her work explores the immense power and inherent inadequacy of language through the assemblage of stochastic audio and recontextualized objects. She finds solace in the unknown, ludicrousness in the authorities, and absurdity in the geopolitical demarcations that separate and differentiate people.
Xiao’s work has been shown at Queens Museum, New Media Caucus, Piksel Festival, Sound Scene at Hirshhorn Museum, Torrance Art Museum, NARS Foundation, HASTAC Conference, UKAI Projects, The American Society for Theatre Research, University of Porto, Osaka University of Art, Taipei Digital Arts Festival, WIP Arts and Technology Festival, New Adventures in Sound Art, Pelham Art Center, among others. She has received grants and support from NYSCA Electronic Media & Film | Wave Farm, Brooklyn Arts Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts and Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center.
About the New Waves in Art and Tech exhibition. Programmed for the Harvestworks Art and Technology Program on Governors Island this group show that opens the season with studies in human perception via artworks that explore privacy, brain-computer interfaces, climate and fungal networks, Artificial Intelligence and themes of air, flying and floating. Selected by the Harvestworks arts committee, the works use creative technology such as audio spatialization, stochastic audio, gesture and biotech interfaces and simple motorized devices.
