ArtReview Series at Casa dei Tre Oci: Art in the Age of the Planetary

Talk: Shubigi Rao and Wu Tsang on Art in the Age of the Planetary

This discussion between artists Shubigi Rao and Wu Tsang, both exhibiting new works at the 59th Venice Biennale, is the first in a new programme of events in which ArtReview is partnering with the Berggruen Institute to explore the intersections of philosophy, science and culture. The event series celebrates the Institutes new European center for activity Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice as a gathering place for artists, curators, and thinkers. The conversation was chaired by ArtReview editor-in-chief Mark Rappolt.

Venue: Casa dei Tre Oci, Venice
Date: 22 April
Moderator: Mark Rappolt, Editor-in-Chief ArtReview & ArtReview Asia
Speakers: Shubigi Rao, Wu Tsang

Please click here to watch, read, and listen to the event in ArtReview.

Talk: Sterling Ruby, Ester Coen and Mario Codognato on Art in the Age of the Planetary

This discussion between artist Sterling Ruby, art historian Ester Coen, and Berggruen Arts Artistic Director Mario Codognato is the second in a programme of events for ArtReview’s partnership with the Berggruen Institute. The conversation is chaired by ArtReview editor-in-chief Mark Rappolt, with an introduction by Nicolas Berggruen.

Venue: Casa dei Tre Oci, Venice
Date: Thursday 9 June 2022
Speakers: Sterling Ruby, Ester Coen, and Mario Codognato
Moderator: Mark Rappolt, Editor-in-Chief ArtReview

Please click here to watch, read, and listen to the event in ArtReview.

composed by Arswain
machine learning consultation by Anna Tskhovrebov
commissioned by the Berggruen Institute
premiered at the Bradbury Building
downtown Los Angeles
april 22, 2022

Human perception of what sounds “beautiful” is necessarily biased and exclusive. If we are to truly expand our hearing apparatus, and thus our notion of beauty, we must not only shed preconceived sonic associations but also invite creative participation from beings non-human and non-living. We must also begin to cede creative control away from ourselves and toward such beings by encouraging them to exercise their own standards of beauty and collaborate with each other.

Movement I: Alarm Call
‘Alarm Call’ is a long-form composition and sound collage that juxtaposes, combines, and manipulates alarm calls from various human, non-human, and non-living beings. Evolutionary biologists understand the alarm call to be an altruistic behavior between species, who, by warning others of danger, place themselves by instinct in a broader system of belonging. The piece poses the question: how might we hear better to broaden and enhance our sense of belonging in the universe? Might we behave more altruistically if we better heed the calls of – and call out to – non-human beings?

Using granular synthesis, biofeedback, and algorithmic modulation, I fold the human alarm call – the siren – into non-human alarm calls, generating novel “inter-being” sonic collaborations with increasing sophistication and complexity. 

Movement II: A.I.-Truism
A synthesizer piece co-written with an AI in the style of Vangelis’s Blade Runner score, to pay homage to the space of the Bradbury Building.

Movement III: Alarmism
A machine learning model “learns” A.I.Truism and recreates Alarm Call, generating an original fusion of the two.

Movement IV: A.I. Call
A machine learning model “learns” Alarm Call and recreates A.I.Truism, generating an original fusion of the two.

RAVE (IRCAM 2021) https://github.com/acids-ircam/RAVE