Strings of Thought #2
Arte Institute suggests “Strings of Thought #2” at Harvestworks, May 23 at 7 pm.
Strings of Thought #2 is an hybrid art piece of music, performance and installation, that depicts the process of human mental activity and its decomposition into the simpler synaptic events of the brain.
The audience enters a room to find a woman sitting on a chair. From her hair several strings protrude, which in turn are attached to piezoelectric sensors. The plucking of the strings generates voltage spikes on the sensor array that sends these electrical pulses to the computer, while a program written in Supercollider reinterprets this data and shapes it into sonic structures. This process very clearly resembles its biological counterpart, which happens at the neural level.
The result is a peek into the soul of this lady character, as the audience is invited to play the instrument and create a soundscape composed of music and also the inner voices of this woman’s reasoning.
Through the digital aesthetic the artists Ivan Franco and Lígia Teixeira explore the electronic recreation of the process of neural transmission in the brain and how this biological process evolves into the complexity of consciousness.
CREDITS:
Artistic Direction, Performance: Ivan Franco and Lígia Teixeira
Concept: Lígia Teixeira
Programming, Electronics: Ivan Franco
Original text: Liza Wade Green
A MILLIWAYS production. In partnership with Harvestworks.