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.
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.
"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.
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.
73 artists present the diverse Noise of Cologne on the now 3rd CD in this series. For me, this compilation seemed to be the perfect mix to release my shortest piece ever: 1_sample. It is one single „handcrafted“ sample of maximum value at 44.1 kHz rate, embedded into 2 seconds of silence, so most CD players should be able to play it back.
The duration of the piece is about 2.27 x 10-5 seconds, or 22.7 microseconds. I love to be surprised by the different sonic outcomes, whenever a system is trying to convert it into audible sound waves. Also it always reminds me, that the digital realm is a discrete world with somehow limited possibilities.
Hope, this little pop or click is telling you something, too.
Happy listening to alle the great contributions of the noisy Cologne crowd.
Noise of Cologne 3 (A-Musik NOC-3, release date: 16.03.2024)
1_sample: Tobias Hartmann
All Noise Of Cologne 3 contributions: 120 DEN / 7000 Eichen / Achim Mohné / Andreas O. Hirsch / Andreas Wagner / Andrés Quezada / Annie Bloch / Beate & Dietmar Bonnen / Bernd Härpfer / Bettina Wenzel / Bidisha Das / bleed Air / Bob Humid / C.C. Herman / chirp.crush / Claudia Robles-Angel / Clusterhead / COMBUSTION CONSTRUCTION / Croute / DANGOLOID / dennis aycicek / Echo Ho / Elisa Kühnl / Elisa Metz / Elisabeth Coudoux / EZB / Florian Zwißler / Frank Dommert / Friday Dunard / funfon / hans w. koch / Harald Sack Ziegler / Hye Young Sin / jeandado / Joel Jaffe / Julia Bünnagel / Justin / Kai Niggemann / Luís Antunes Pena / Marcus Schmickler / Martin Schmitz / Martin Weinreich / Menelaos Tomasides / Merzouga / Michael Peters / Mik Quantius / Miyake / MME dUO / Monoteur / Nathalie Brum / Neozaïre / Nils Quak / Numinos / Pedro A. Ramírez / Peter Simon / PVNCTVM / Ralf Schreiber / Roland Schappert / Roman Jungblut / Schlammpeitziger / Sebastian von der Heide / Shuoxin Tan Siegfried Koepf / Simon Rummel / Stefan Haagen / TBZ / That Night / Therapeutische Hörgruppe / Titanoboa / Tobias Hartmann / Viola Klein / Volker Zander / Wolfram Wire
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.
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:
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.
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.
In Greek mythology, Atlas shoulders the firmament and has a firm grip on its elements. But what would the titan do if he could suddenly playfully control all the lights in the sky and even the sounding spheres of the universe? you:ATLAS is a reactive audio-visual installation inspired by this thought. For a while, a person can take on the role of the titan and get hold of a visual and acoustic sphere that surrounds all visitors. With their movements and gestures they directly shape and form the virtual firmament of light, interactive projections and reactive spatial sound.
Comissioned by DARK Festival 2021 for Auferstehungskirche Arnsberg.
The artist collective “Westring 22” transformed the building at Westring 22 in Bochum into an experiential, multimedia, interactive, audiovisual, and evolving installation called TRANSFORMATION in the summer of 2020.
Transformation – Westring22 emphasises and thematises the transition of the building at Westring 22 from one phase of its existence to the next. Like the city of Bochum, the building itself is in a state of flux. This change, however, is not meant to go unnoticed, but to be illuminated and clarified. The participatory audio-visual installation Transformation – Westring22 allows visitors to become part of this transformation.
Credits
Project management, concept, and interactive visualization: Max Schweder
ALL YOUR BASE is an audio-visual installation, a mobile tactical tool for creating reactive and interactive audio-visual art in public places and urban spaces. Everything needed for interactive audio-visual art made mobile.
Developed and premiered during CityLeaks Urban Art Festival 2021.
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.
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.
I Am Sitting in a Room - Resampled I & II are digital versions of Alvin Lucier's piece I Am Sitting in a Room. They feature the Elektron Octatrack Mk 1 resampling itself internally for one hour in two different setups. Headphones recommended.
Credits
Concept and Development: Tobias Hartmann
Original Piece: I am sitting in a room by Alvin Lucier.
Instrument: Octatrack Mk1 with latest OS form mid 2020
Music video featuring a live audio-reactive laser choreography.
In 2018 we finished the development of CYLvision, our first attempt to develop our very own and unique system for creating sound-reactive visuals. For several years, CYLvision brought colorful (sometimes a little different then expected…) realtime-visuals to all our CYLVESTER concerts.
Eggs, Rocks, Human Beings is a crossmedia documentary project exploring the stories of young Inuit coming of age in the contemporary Canadian Arctic. The filmmakers aim was to combine the immersive potential of VR180 with classic 2D documentary filmmaking, while collaborating with the local Inuit community of Arviat in Nunavut, to tell stories that matter to them as well. They also conducted a 6-week workshop program, training local high schoolers in VR180 filmmaking, and coproducing their very own VR180 horror short.
Presented by the KONRAD FISCHER GALLERIE, I recorded and mastered On Kawara's One Million Years Future 150, Future 151, Past 150 and Past 151. In addition, I have joined the contribution of many other artists by speaking the years myself, from 108101 A.D. to 108800 A.D.
Limited edition of 250 numbered 4-CD sets.
Credits
One Million Years by On Kawara
Presented by: Konrad Fischer Galerie
Male Voice: Tobias Hartmannn, Levin Krasel (on Future 151)
Female Voices: Charlotte Triebus, Hye Young Sin (on Future 151)
Mastered: Tobias Hartmann
Photography: Tobias Hartmann
An audio work produced in association with the exhibition
50 Years of KONRAD FISCHER GALERIE, 1967 – 2017, Düsseldorf/Berlin.
In collaboration with: Academy of Media Arts Cologne.
clip launch is a 4 channel electronic composition for live sampler, premiered at ad hoc: Konzert des Studio für Elektronische Musik an der Kunsthochschule für Medien, Köln.
Ensemble e[K]lektrik: Tobias Hartmann, Sergej Maingardt, Ferdinand Graetz
Interactive audio-visual installation in collaboration with Remmy Canedo.
AnAlog AV Art fAbrik is an interacitve installation and was rewarded with the 1st Price of the International LANXESS Composition Competition of the Acht Brücken Festival 2014. The installation was on display at Philharmonie Köln.
AnAlog AV Art fAbrik is an all analogue audio/visual art production place where the audience has to work at different machines to create art:
riding the bike to produce electricity and run video signals
playing with tape heads on a huge magnetic tape to create music
working with DIY video mixers to manipulate the signal routing of 5 video channels
Credits
Concept and Idea: Remmy Canedo, Tobias Hartmann
Building: Remmy Canedo, Tobias Hartmann
DIY analog audio-visual-devices: Remmy Canedo, Tobias Hartmann