A visit from our Spirits in Complexity collaborators from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria. We have planned the following events:

Concert

In this informal concert at the lovely 12 Tonar record store and pub, work from the two projects “Spirits in Complexity” and “Intelligent Instruments” will be performed. Expect some hauntology, some ghosts, some latent dimensions, some AI spirits! The Spirits in Complexity team will be performing their “Black Box Music” piece.

Performers: Thomas Grill, Angélica Castelló, Marco Döttlinger, Patrik Lechner, Nicola Privato, Victor Shepardson.

When: August 20th, 5pm.
Where: 12 Tónar. Map here

Symposium / Open Lab

The artistic research project “Spirits in Complexity – Making kin with experimental music systems” conducted at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria, explores the functional and affective relationships of humans and technological objects in the context of experimental music-making. The titular term “spirits” is used in a more or less metaphorical sense to refer to an opaque complexity that characterizes human and non-human interaction in the artistic-creative context. One of the experimental setups devised by the team is what they call ‘Black Box Music’. It is a concept of musical improvisation involving black box electronic music systems that have each been created/selected by one team member, but were played by another team member, unaware of the inner workings. The technologies involved as non-human partners included analog and digital systems alike.

In this symposium we will get presentations from the Vienna team as well as from members of the Intelligent Instruments Lab.

When: August 22, 3pm.
Where: Veröld - Hús Vigdísar. Room 104. Map here

Spirits in Complexity Team:

Thomas Grill works as a composer and performer of electroacoustic music, as a media artist, technologist and researcher of sound. His artistic work encompasses most varied fields of audible and trans-media art, focusing on loudspeaker-based music, electroacoustic improvisation, as well as installations and interventions. He earned a doctorate in composition and music theory at the University for Music and Performing Arts, Graz. Post-Doc research followed at the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (OFAI) in the domain of machine listening and learning. Since 2018, he has been leading three multi-year artistic research projects.

He is currently heading the Certificate Program in Electroacoustic and Experimental Music (ELAK) and co-heading the Artistic Research Center at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Grill has been awarded with a Honorary Mention of the Prix Ars Electronica, with the Theodor-Körner prize, the Award of Excellence of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, and various work stipends such as the Austria State Scholarship for Composition 2024.

Angélica Castelló is a Mexican-Austrian composer, recorder player, improviser, sound artist, and magnetophonic tape weaver—an act that, in metaphor and in praxis, encompasses her practice at large. Her works intertwine bits and pieces of life into electroacoustic spells—memories, death, solace, trauma, resilience, fragility, the oneiric, the subconscious—evoking the beauty and challenge of being alive. Her fascination with so-called obsolete machines—tapes, cassettes, radios, magnetophones—unfolds with the exploration of digital realms: lo-fi and hi-fi textures, synthetic and recorded sounds, field recordings, and the use of her Paetzold recorders as well as of her own voice—recording as an act of braiding memory (lat. recordare).

Castelló studied music in Mexico City, Montreal, Amsterdam, Linz and Vienna, where she has been based since 1999. He holds a master’s degree in composition. Since 2019, Castelló has been a member of Mexico’s Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte. She is also a three-time recipient of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts and Culture State Scholarship (2011, 2016, 2021) and was honored with the Outstanding Artist Award from the Austrian State in 2014.

Marco Döttlinger is an Austrian composer, sound- and installation artist. He studied composition, computer music and music theory in Salzburg, Paris and Basel. He is a member of NAMES – New Art and Music Ensemble Salzburg. Lecturer at SEM – Studio for Electronic Music at Mozarteum University Salzburg and curator of concert series Sweet Spot and limina – Contemporary Music Festival Salzburg. His instrumental compositions, electro-acoustic works and sound installations are primarily concerned with micro-temporal shifts on the boundary between flow and stasis. Often in the context of generative and algorithmic procedures in the arts. He received different prizes and scholarships, e.g. composition grant of the state of Austria, grant of the country of Salzburg. His works have been shown by renowned ensembles and musicians at festivals in Austria and abroad.

Patrik Lechner, born in Vienna in 1986, has been working in the fields of experimental music and real-time video art since the early 2000s. Publications in the areas of digital audio effects, multimedia programming in general, audio analysis, AI, industry 4.0. Activities as a lecturer eg. at the Music University of Vienna, the University of Applied Arts, UAS Salzburg and UAS St.Pölten. Previous performances of audio/visual performances e.g. in: Austria (e.g. Musik Protokoll, Impuls Tanz Festival), Belgium (BAM Festival), Italy, Bulgaria, Germany (ZKM), Canada, Dubai, Japan, Mexico (MUTEK), Shanghai 2010 (Expo 2010). Lechner received an honorable mention at the PRIX ars electronica 2019 in the Sound Art category.

Miriam Jochmann (1998, AT) is a Vienna-based sound artist whose works include electroacoustic compositions, improvisations with live electronics and multimedia installations. In her work, she explores sound as a practical intervention as well as a form of theoretical reflection, beginning with a deep sense of curiosity. She is drawn to the textures of the ordinary - small events, sounds, or gestures – and the stories they might hold or suggest. Her sound practice is based around improvisations with field recordings, voice, and other acoustic instruments, which are further transformed by experimental digital processes. Collaboration plays a central role in her performance practice, as she works closely with Ellen Preuss (double bass), and with Lan Sticker (drums). She is currently studying experimental and electroacoustic music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (ELAK, mdw).