Digital Design Weekend

Digital Design Weekend took place on September 24th and 25th in the V&A Museum gathering dozens of artists, designers, scientists and engineers to showcase current projects and examine the future of technology, design and art.

The event is in many ways reminiscent of a school science fair. Loud, full and brimming with excitement, it's a great way to immerse yourself in digital culture for a day. Those presenting are happy to share their passion projects with the public, be them peers or just curious passer-byes. The range of subjects is impressive: biological experiments, sensorial-centric objects, educational systems, robotic workshops. Out of all of this, two music related project caught my attention.

Duty and Untitled for Cyborg String Quartet

Cross-disciplinary Australian artist Michaela Davis uses music performance to explore themes of psychological and physical agency in creative processes and performance.

In the first presentation, named Untitled for Cyborg String Quartet, two out of the four performers were attached to electric muscle stimulation (EMS) devices. Triggered by a MIDI file composed by Michaela and conducted by a computer these devices deliver electric impulses to the performers muscles, creating involuntary movements at changing velocities. The product of this human-machine interaction is a distinct piece of music that combines the musician will and external forces out of their control.

The second piece, Duty, is a fourteen handbell composition performed by seven people attached to EMS devices that produce coordinated involuntary movements previously orchestrated by Michaela. They become instruments for the artist moving beyond their own will to complete the musical piece.

It’s a powerful performance that raises questions of free will, control, creativity, such as what it means to be an artist and a performer. Is it possible to enhance our abilities with custom made technologies and push the boundaries of what we are physically able to create? What are the personal and social repercussion of automation? 

One could dispute a dark scenario of EMS and other similar technologies applied to achieve perfect technical performances, eliminating human error of the equation. It would also eliminate interpretation and personal input fundamental for the emotional depth of an art piece. Would exact repetition be more important than artistic expression?

In a less extremist view we could argue for a symbiotic approach: using technology to improve your practise rather than losing control to it completely. As Micheala points out about her experiments the performers can reach unnaturally fast movements they otherwise wouldn't be able to. It open possibilities beyond their usual scope.

Computers and synthesizers are digital means that have been used for decades to broaden possibilities for performers in creative and authorial ways. They too, when introduced as futuristic tech, were speculated to be part of a lacklustre future were human expression could be overpowered by mechanical automation. Instead they were assimilated as tools for extending the craft beyond its current limit. Michaela experiments makes us wonder what are the next boundaries and how they can add even more layers to an artist performance.

Viktoria Modesta, who was also at the Digital Design Weekend for a talk, broaches the topic, questioning the use tech for tech sake when asked about her approach to design. For the pop artist there should be a meaning, a story to be told so it can evolve to something more substantial. To find a narrative to body hacking is to amplify your experience. It becomes a canvas for your will, helping blur the line between medical aid, design products and artistic performance.

8-bit Mixtape

image from Lifepatch archieve

Created by Indonesian artist Andreas Siagian, the 8-Bit Mixtape is a open source synthesizer that can play a single line of code through it’s tiny arduino chip. It was build as a way of performing eletronic music live in a more interesting way then just hitting computer keys. The system is limited, but can produce interesting effects with just a line of code and few controllers.

The project started as a geeking session at Lifepatch, cross-disciplinary community in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It has grown since to an affordable custom made platform for musicians, sound geeks and enthusiasts. Workshops are offered were you can quickly assemble your own 8-bit Mixtape and learn the basics of coding with arduino. The project also encourages alternative learning and global sharing through platforms like wiki and git hub, where you can collaborate, improve your skills and experiment.

This is a very contemporary take on music (and other medias as well) as an open source process. Japanese producer Toyomu, for example, was able to make his own version of Life of Pablo, Kaney West last album, out of online content without ever hearing the original.

Life of Pablo was initially released via streaming platform Tidal, with no physical version of it. Most of the major streaming players have yet to launch in Japan, making it impossible for the japaneses audience to access the album as it was coming out.

Toyomu decided to create his own imaginary version by using the samples credits found on WhoSampled and the lyrics from Genius, voiced by Google Translator. The result is not the original source album, but something new and weirdly interesting. It’s a new thing on itself, a collaborative creation that is made possible by the easy access to content online.

We can extrapolate this examples from music to other areas like fashion and design. What possibilities are there for open source platforms that help us shape and share your own shoes, garments, objects? 

On going projects like Kniterate are trying to push the possibility of homemade industrial looking garments. Groups like The Machine Room offer collaborative space to develop your ideas and access to the tools to make it. Burda Style revisits the idea behind the old pattern cutting magazines and encourages their community to exchange ideas and projects as they sew their own clothing at home. 

A mix of traditional crafts and technological resources could lead us into a plausible scenario of artifacts downloaded from our favourite brand or open source collective, tinkered with in the digital realm to fit our needs and finally materialised with the help of domestic printers or shared workshop facilities.