Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges

In our effort to observe and analyse the semantics and extensions of sound art today, we focus on two specific body related works which have different identities (one comes from the vocal improvisation background and the other is a fully trained performance). The applied method is to analyse and collocate two works within the embodiment/disembodiment and sound art theme: “AIBO”, a collaborative project between Ellen Pearlman and GoPro Social, as well as “Ultrachunk”, a collaborative project between performer / composer Jennifer Walshe and artist / researcher Memo Akten. Through a brief online communication with the artists on the significance of disembodiment, interactivity, memory and immersion, we are lead to a speculative approach regarding the function and nature of sound in human body-AI generated artwork.
Furthermore, the synchronicity in between audio and video is of major importance in the execution of the performances in both “Ultrachunk” and “AIBO”. Sound is fundamentally incompatible with the image or moving images; its penetrating and intrusive nature could be problematic in the artworld. In opposition to the image, sound has a particular non-static and temporal relation to space. Consequently, it is the body that acts as the receiver and transmitter of a synchronized audiovisual blend in both of the works and this is the reason that sound functions as an expressive material in complete harmony with the other visually related elements of the pieces.