Fantasie#1

Fantasie#1 is an audiovisual performance for radio telescope, artificial intelligence and self-playing organ.

Located outside of the venue, the radio telescope streams live all incoming data. The received electromagnetic waves are transferred to the audible frequency range. Electronic noises, hums and beeps fill the air. An algorithm transcribes the noise of the skies into midi tones, they are sent to an electronic apparatus operating the organ. During the play various selection and filtering processes (e.g. specific artificial intelligences) are applied in a determined order, serving as a basic score and dividing the piece into three chapters. The artists on stage have a set of parameters available to respond live to the incoming signals, using both the radio telescope and the AI as musical instruments. On the floating canvas above the stage, the sounds turn into abstract images, into a visual representation of what is heard.
Little by little, neural networks take control over the organ and seek in the non-worldly noises for known harmonies, for the smallest traces of human music. In the last chapter, ideas of melodies evolve as the artificial intelligence begins to fantasize about familiar tunes in these alien sounds.

Duration: 25-35 minutes

In collaboration with Christian Losert.
Thanks to Sebastian Müllauer for the telescope and Klaus Holzapfel for his Orgamat.

Created as part of the fellowship program #bebeethoven, a project by PODIUM Esslingen on the occasion of the Beethoven Anniversary 2020, funded by Kulturstiftung des Bundes.

Coproduced by ZKM | Hertz-Lab.