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Muse oder Monster – Prompting for Paradise

AI chat bot

How are we dealing with AI? Are we inspired, overwhelmed, worried? For the Kulturkonferenz Ruhr 2024, Max Schweder and I created interconnected interactive digital artworks: We developed an AI chat assistant to allow visitors to reflect on AI with the AI assistant itself. Based on the conversation, the AI assistant firstly evaluates how AI is situated between the extremes of a supportive and inspiring muse and a destructive and evil monster. Secondly, the AI assistant also evaluates the user's own behaviour towards the assistant. Using their smartphones, conference participants become part of an artistic process: by interacting with the AI assistant, they generate visuals for the final performance in real time. The resulting AI-generated images are prompted by a second dedicated assistant and visually interpret the entire conversation the user had with the assistant. A sound-responsive digital art performance at the end of the conference, created and performed by Max Schweder, presents the content generated by visitors and AI assistants alike in the form of a live mashup.

A production by Save the World in collaboration with Max Schweder and Tobias Hartmann, the duo CYLVESTER for interactive digital art.

Press Release RVR Ruhr 19.09.24

Kulturkonferenz Ruhr 2024 – 19.09.24 Lichtburg Essen

Credits

AI Chatbot Development: Tobias Hartmann

Music and Sound: CYLVESTER (Tobias Hartmann, Max Schweder)

Visual Art and Interactive Performance: Max Schweder

Idea and Concept: Max Schweder, Tobias Hartmann, Nicola Bramkamp

Dramaturgy: Nicola Bramkamp (Save the World)

Scenography: Anna Tenti

Research Question Impulses: Anna Tenti

Custom Controller for Uncertain Tides

Uncertain Tides Controller

For one exhibition room of Uncertain Tides I designed and built a custom controller (in collaboration with Max Schweder and Alexander Rechberg). It allows visitors to the exhibition to simulate the increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. The higher the amount of CO2 in ppm set by the user, the more drastic and uncertain is the climate change scenario displayed on the eight screens of the installation.

opening 14.06.24 Antwerp (NL)

Credits

Concept: Tobias Hartmann and Max Schweder (CYLVESTER)

Controller design and building: Tobias Hartmann

ESP32 Hardware and Code: Alexander Rechberg

LED Visuals: Max Schweder

Video Installation Setup (Sofware/Hardware): Max Schweder

Laser Cutting and 3D Printing Supported by Friedrich Böll.

Sound Installation for Mutter*sein – eine vielstimmige Sammlung

Muttersein_C_Jelena_Ilic

For the project Mutter*sein - eine vielstimmige Sammlung by Eva-Maria Baumeister and team I designed and built an 8-channel Ambisonic sound system. A cubic loudspeaker layout allows visitors to be surrounded by voices and interviews coming from different directions as they walk through the exhibition.

In addition to this sonic layer, I developed two 8-channel interactive sound installations. These installations were built into the shelves on which individual objects were displayed. Visitors were invited to pick up certain objects, which started an interview recording related to that object beeing played back to the visitor until they put the object back in it's place on the shelf.

06.03.25 – 09.03.25 @ Freies Werkstatt Theater Köln

06.06.24 – 28.07.24 @ Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum Köln

12.05.24 – 15.05.24 @ Freies Werkstatt Theater Köln

Press

"Muttersein" ist eine entgrenzende Erfahrung: körperlich und emotional. Unsichtbare Care-Arbeit, Denken und Fühlen im Tausch für geringe gesellschaftliche Anerkennung. Welche Geschichten erleben Frauen im Hinblick auf das Muttersein und die damit verbundenen Projektionen? Muttersein versammelt die vielstimmigen Erfahrungen von Frauen und gibt ihren Geschichten und diversen Realitäten Raum.

Es entsteht eine Sammlung von Dingen und Erzählungen, die das Alltägliche wichtig nimmt: Einkaufszettel, Stundenpläne, Tagesabläufe, Familienfotos, Alltägliches und Außergewöhnliches - das Banale, das Erschöpfende, das Glücklich-Machende und das Sinnvolle der Fürsorgearbeit. Eröffnet wird die Ausstellung im Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum (RJM) von einem Chor, der das Muttersein in unserer Gesellschaft betrachtet, kommentiert und selbst zu einer Sammlung von Zuschreibungen, Beobachtungen und Erlebtem wird – mal zärtlich, mal böse und mit notwendigem Witz.

Das Team um Eva-Maria Baumeister kreierte eine audiovisuelle Ausstellung, die akustisch, haptisch und visuell Geschichten von Mutter*schaft erzählt. Die Installation aus Interviewausschnitten, Alltagsgegenständen und einer raumgreifenden Textilskulptur ist individuell erkundbar und lädt ein, in den Erzählungen zu verweilen und sich mit diesen zu verbünden. Dafür schallen O-Töne im Raum und aus einigen ausgestellten Objekten: So wird beispielsweise aus einem Knäuel aus Gummibändern erzählt, wie die Mutter den Familienalltag ebenso zusammenhält, wie das Gummiband die Brotdosen ihrer Kinder.

Robert Baumanns (Full Article: Stadt Köln - Amt für Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit)

Credits

SOUNDDESIGN (Ambisonic Sound Installation & Interactive Multichannel Sound Installation): Tobias Hartmann, production by CYLVESTER.

CHOR: Monika Immekus, Rosanna Derenbach, Anthea Heyner, Jana Hiß, Selen Beyza Inam, Jane Dunker, Kira Bogdashkina, Malina Schäfler, Annika Spiegelberg, Janine Schnabel, Paula Pavel, Dr. Annika Fernández Gonzalo, Amrei Aßent, Ines Langel, Katharina Busch, Lisa Huhn, Anna Grossberger

REGIE / KONZEPTION: Eva-Maria Baumeister

DRAMATURGIE / KONZEPTION / TEXT: Sibylle Dudek

AUSSTATTUNG: Theresa Mielich

CHORLEITUNG: Julia Klomfass

THEATERPÄDAGOGIK: Lenn Brokinkel

PROJEKTASSISTENZ: Maike Gräf

Eine Koproduktion des freien Werkstatt Theaters, des Sommerblut Kulturfestivals, des Rautenstrauch-Joest Museums und der Studiobühne Köln.

Gefördert vom Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, durch das Kulturamt der Stadt Köln und den Fonds Darstellende Künste/Produktionsförderung. Mit Unterstützung des Frauenkulturbüros NRW und ON – Neue Musik Köln.

Title Foto: Jelena Ilic

an soot

Image title

an soot is 100% AI generated music. This artistic research project aims to investigate the development and possibilities of creating audio by utilizing so called artificial neuronal networks, customized code and dedicated scripts and processes. Enjoy listening to the collection of an soot music via a dedicated spatial audio WebApp or download the tracks via Bandcamp.

ansoot.hartmanntobias.de - Spatial Audio WebApp

audio.hartmanntobias.de/#audio-an-soot

ansoot.bandcamp.com

github.com/tob-har/audiocraft-cablesGUI

Credits

Concept and Development: Tobias Hartmann

Spatial WebAudio Development: Tobias Hartmann

The customized code for generating audio is based on the Facebook Audiocraft fork by GrandaddyShmax

Model: MusicGen Large Version 2.0.1 with the default decoder (Model Card)

Bandcamp uploader code and scripting based on the project github.com/ggorlen/bandcamp-uploader by ggorlen

an soot WebApp made with cables.gl

Spatial Audio for cables.gl

Uncertain Tides Controller

For cables.gl, a versatile, highly accessible and free online and offline visual programming tool, I developed Spatial Audio (or 3D Audio) Operators. These are ready-to-use code snippets written in JavaScript that allow users to work with spatial audio in web or offline projects without coding!

To get started, create a cables account and join the Spatial Audio Team linked below to use the operators:

cables.gl/team/spatialaudio

Credits

Spatial Audio OPs: Tobias Hartmann

cables.gl: undev.studio

Have a Great Day – ChatGPT talking to ChatGPT

Have a Great Day is a series of conversations between ChatGPT 4 and ChatGPT 4 using the same account on two different devices: Have a great day: Hello was initiated by speaking the singel word »Hello«. The version Have a Great Day: Perseverance was started by the phrase: »Please start talking about something«. And the third recording - Have a Great Day: Conversation with you - was initiated by the given sentence: »Have an ongoing conversation with another AI«.

Have a Great Day: Hello was featured during the panel talk Automatensprache versus menschliche Sprache: Was macht uns aus? by Claudia Hamm and Monika Rink at Leipziger Buchmesse 2024 (Halle 4, Stand C403) and was presented by Prof. Dr. Florian Hollerweger in his talk Code as Music – Music as Code at GfM Symposium 2024.

Credits

Concept and Development: Tobias Hartmann

Language Model: GPT4

App: ChatGPT iOS App

Sprung in die Zeit

SprungInDieZeit

Together with Max Schweder I deveolped the interactive WebApp with interactive spatial audio for Sprung in die Zeit – an intermedia art experience by artist Elias Wessel, composer Natalia Kiës and their collaborators. They describe it as »the intersection of art, music and technology, embodied in 42 abstract photographs and corresponding sound compositions«. The work traces an interest in complex medial structures to aesthetic concepts developed by Elias Wessel and Natalia Kiës in close collaboration between 2014 and 2022.

experience.sprungindiezeit.com

sprungindiezeit.com

Credits

Concept and Development: Max Schweder & Tobias Hartmann (CYLVESTER)

Reactive Spatial Audio Development: Tobias Hartmann

Full list of credits: sprungindiezeit.com

made with cables.gl

SHAME - European Stories

For SHAME - European Stories (by Justice Initiative EU and Umsteuern! Robin Sisterhood e.V.) I developed a web application that allows project members to do interactive projection mapping to show portraits of the SHAME exhibition series. This approach to interactive digital art decouples the mapping performance from the developing artist, making it more community-oriented and sustainable by empowering project members and affiliates to perform autonomously. The premiere at the Platz der Kinderrechte and the Brüsseler Platz in Cologne was powered by ALL YOUR BASE.

justice-initiative.eu/exhibition

justice-initiative.eu

um-steuern.org

allyourbase.art

Credits

Concept and Development: Tobias Hartmann

Technical Support: Dennis Aycicek

Video: Fabian Klein

allyourbase.art

made with cables.gl

One Sample OSC

One Sample OSC is a audio plugin (VST3 and AU) as well as a Pure Data (Vanilla) abstraction, available in two different versions. One Sample OSC 1 and One Sample OSC 2 are two different approaches to the same concept:

Processing a stereo audio input signal at one sample accuracy. The input audio signal is read out sample by sample. It is possible to manipulate the speed or timing with which these samples are written into the wavetables of two oscillators for instant playback at a given frequency.

The unusual and imprecise timing caused by this type of signal processing results in a wide variety of sounds. Due to the sample-accurate processing, the output signal is always related to (and dependent on) the audio input signal. Feel free to experiment with different settings, and don't forget to explore extremely small and large values.

github.com/tob-har/one_sample_osc/releases

github.com/tob-har/one_sample_osc

Credits

Concept and Development: Tobias Hartmann

Pure Data Code: Tobias Hartmann

VST/AU wrapper: github.com/pierreguillot/Camomile

Delayay Audio Plugin

Delaylay is a wonderfully weird free and open source delay audio plugin (VST3 and AU). It has a lot of different delay modes: From Karplus-Strong-style synthesis to DAW tempo-synced delay lines, all mapped to a single knob.

Delaylay works in four different modes, from simple stereo to spread, detuned, down-pitched and half-time stereo delay with ping-pong effect. Delaylay interpolates smoothly between different delay times, depending on the last delay time set.

github.com/tob-har/Delaylay/releases

github.com/tob-har/Delaylay

Credits

Concept and Development: Tobias Hartmann

Pure Data Code: Tobias Hartmann

VST/AU wrapper: github.com/pierreguillot/Camomile