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Knowing Your Tools

Podcast

How can old technologies be reactivated? In her work at Klang Moor Schopfe 2023, the sound artist Ioana Vreme Moser lets the supposedly obsolete fluidics interact with current electronic components to develop a more sustainable future. Listen to her vision in this short podcast.

Directions: For each pair of sentences, circle the letter, a or b, that best expresses your viewpoint. Make a selection from each pair. Do not omit any items.

1. a) The body and the material things of the world are the key to any knowledge we can possess.
    b) Knowledge is only possible by means of the mind or psyche.

2. a) My life is largely controlled by luck and chance.
    b) I can determine the basic course of my life.

3. a) Nature is indifferent to human needs.
    b) Nature has some purpose, even if obscure.

4. a) I can understand the world to a sufficient extent.
    b) The world is basically baffling.

(Bernstein 2007)

List of References

Bernstein, Charles. 2007. Girly Man. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

This audio essay was created by the musician, writer, and Norient editor Philipp Rhensius aka Alienationist in autumn 2023 at Klang Moor Schopfe 2023. Each piece features conversations with (and sounds by) the artists and their installations, merged with Rhensius’ own compositions, field recordings, and poetry. To open a speculative realm, each piece is assigned to a poem.

Biography

Philipp Rhensius is an editor for Norient, writer, musician, sound artist, sociologist & musicologist, and curator from Berlin. His work investigates the connections between the micro- and macro-political and is driven by the idea that «feeling the chains» is the moment when emancipation begins. His music and sound art projects (Kl.ne, aphtc, Alienationst) merge sonic fiction with sardonic poetry and visceral sound. His texts are published in i.e. Taz, Spex, FAZ, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, WOZ and several book volumes. He runs the music label Arcane Patterns and hosts a monthly podcast on Noods Radio. Follow him on Instagram, his Website, or LinkedIn.

Biography

Ioana Vreme Moser (b. 1994) is a Romanian sound artist engaged with hardware electronics, speculative research, and tactile experimentation. In her practice, she uses rough electronic processes to obtain different materialities of sound. She places electronic components and control voltages in different situations of interaction with her body, organic materials, lost and found items, and environmental stimuli. From these collisions, synthesized sounds emerge to carry personal narrations and observations on the history of electronics, their production chains, wastelands, and entanglements in the natural world. Follow her on her Website.

Published on November 01, 2023

Last updated on March 11, 2024

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Screenshot from: «[Black MIDI] MIDITrail - Touhou 6: Last Brutal Sister Flandre Scarlet 1 Million», uploaded to YouTube.

Black MIDI as a High-Density Remix Skill

Blog Post

by Stefan Schultze

In this blog post, you’ll explore the intricacies of Black MIDI, focusing on how dense note structures can reveal hidden patterns and how «blackers»1 aim to find the «sweet spot» where melody remains discernible. You’ll also read about the technical skills required in this subgenre, such as optimizing computer hardware and software and distinguishing it from noise/MIDI art challenges.

There appears to be a critical threshold where the ear can still discern distinct pitches amidst the emergence of frequency or noise sounds. Given that the objective in Black MIDI is to accurately portray the melody, glitch sounds are generally undesirable in this technique. This threshold, which blackers strive to identify across various musical elements like repeated notes, clusters, and arpeggios, could be termed the «sweet spot». It is the ideal point to work with in order to use a high note density and still perceive the melody.

This distinguishes Black MIDI from, for example, noise/MIDI art challenges, where the emphasis lies more on creating visual patterns. While there is a connection to Black MIDI, this approach arguably diverges from its original conception as a remix technique aimed at capturing the melody and structure of a song.

Black MIDI could be seen as more of an arrangement technique. Within this technique, it becomes a skill to understand the limits of computer hardware, software, and different digital piano sounds. As a traditional arranger who writes for an orchestra needs to know about the specific characteristics of the instruments, the way they interact, as well as how to notate everything, the blacker needs to know how to tune the computer, how to optimize the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) by for example reducing the CPU (Central Processing Unit) load and finding programs that are not CPU intensive.

1. Composers producing blackened notations in the Black MIDI style.

This blog post is part of the Norient Online Special Hyperplexia, an expansion of the performance project of the same name by composer and pianist Stefan Schultze. The Special was funded by Bern Academy of the Arts HKB.

Biography

Stefan Schultze (*1979, Germany) is a composer and pianist and one of the most multifaceted and original musicians to come out of the German jazz scene. Schultze studied piano and composition in Cologne and New York. He occupies the interface between new music, improvisation, and jazz. His artistic projects cover a spectrum of compositions for small and large ensembles, from leading larger ensemble formations to initiating and producing projects on national and international stages. His compositions explore and translate music from a myriad of contexts, opening new sonic territories and transcending genres. Follow him on his website, Bandcamp, or Instagram.

Published on June 18, 2024

Last updated on June 24, 2024

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Remix

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Hyperplexia

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Cybernetic Improvisation

Audio Essay

by Philipp Rhensius,

MSHR

Improvising with machines. Listen to an audio essay featuring Brenna Murphy and Birch Cooper from the duo MSHR, in which they discuss their sound installation at Klangmoorschopfe 2023 based on a cybernetic feedback system.

Then it was the future, though what’s arrived
isn’t what we had in mind, all chrome
and cybernetics, when we set up exhibits
in the cafeteria for the judges
to review what we’d made of our hypotheses.
[…]
(Hawthorne 1994)

List of References

Hawthorne, Alison Deming. 1994. Science and Other Poems. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press.

Biography

MSHR is an art collective that builds and explores sculptural electronic systems. Their practice is a self-transforming entity with its outputs patched into its inputs, expressing its form through interactive installations, virtual environments and live improvisations. MSHR was established in 2011 in Portland, Oregon by Brenna Murphy and Birch Cooper. Their name is a modular acronym, designed to hold varied ideas over time. Follow them on their Website.

Published on October 09, 2023

Last updated on March 26, 2024

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Body

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Sonic Natureculture

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