Closing DTzM
with Esmeralda Conde Ruiz
This live companion piece to 24/7’s subterranean installation draws upon the themes explored during Esmeralda Conde Ruiz’s residency at the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden in 2022. The event features a range of vocal performances, which react to the site-specific environment created within the Great Hall at HELLERAU.
Utilising this additional space within HELLERAU calls to question the public face of data storage, what do we know about our data and what is hidden from us? What can we see clearly and what exists in spaces not usually visible? This event continues a conversation, about what is private and what is public within our digital worlds. By presenting within the Great Hall Conde Ruiz continues her play upon the architecture of HELLERAU’s spaces and their acoustical differences. As the finale to 24/7, this live performance brings 24/7 above ground and attempts to make visible the hidden side of our human data storage.
Admission from 4:15 pm
From 17:15 the installation of the same name in the orchestra pit can be visited.
From April to October 2022 and from March to May 2023, the composer, conductor and artist Esmeralda Conde Ruiz (*1980/Spain, lives in London) will be a guest at the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden. Here she is working on an artistic research project on the topic of “Artificial Intelligence as a Factor and Consequence of Social and Cultural Change” together with the scholarship holders of the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden, scientists from TU Dresden (TUD) and other partners such as the Dresden University of Fine Arts, HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts and the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra.
During her stay at the TUD, she will deepen her research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and polyphonic singing with the help of scientists from the departments of musicology and acoustics and language technology. In the acoustics rooms of the Institute of Acoustics and Speech Technology, for example, Conde Ruiz is investigating specific sounds, especially machine noises, which she recorded in the server rooms of the TUD. The sound of server farms forms a central starting point for her artistic research on AI, as these represent the technical infrastructure for artificial intelligence applications. Based on her experiences as a composer and conductor, she traces the following questions, among others, in her project:
“When composing, can we use artificial intelligence not only – as is often the case – as a tool, but rather as an instrument? How can a human being influence AI in this case? Can AI find or develop its own voice and thus an individual sound?”
First insights into Esmeralda Conde Ruiz’s exploration of the sound of AI will be offered by various public event formats starting in summer 2022: At the conference “Digital is better?! – Camp für Digitale Kultur” conference at the Komplexlabor Digitale Kultur at Merseburg University of Applied Sciences, she was present with an experimental performance: the “Larynx Nights”. On 29 September 2022 – to mark the end of her residency – she will present a new work at a symposium at the SLUB – Saxon State and University Library together with her cooperation partners, including Prof. Carsten Nicolai, Dresden University of Fine Arts, Prof. Orit Halpern, Professorship for Digital Cultures, Jun. Prof. Dr. Miriam Akkermann, Junior Professorship for Empirical Musicology, Carsten Tiede, Centre for Information Services and High Performance Computing, Dept. Operative Processes and Systems (OPS), all TU Dresden, the state of their artistic research.
Thanks to project partners: Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden, Prof. Dr. Orit Halpern, Chair of Digital Cultures and Societal Change, TUD; Jun.-Prof. Miriam Akkermann, Chair of Empirical Musicology, TUD; Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ercan Altinsoy, Chair of Acoustics and Haptics, TUD; Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden, Dr Matthew McGinity
A project of:
