Sound is inherently tied to space, it traverses. Once you start considering the possibility of a spaceless sound, you are delving into a realm of abstraction. Two types of re-encodings of sound that might be considered aspatial are the conversion of “vibrations moving through the air” to a digital signal and our memory of sonic events.

What does it mean to speak of “aural culture?”  What does listening offer, as a tool or technique for understanding our world, that visual perception cannot?  The sounds that fill our lives are dense with information about the interwoven cultures to which we belong, and approaches to their investigation can take similarly varied routes.  For Linda-Ruth Salter, language is a primary element of culture.  Expressed aloud it is a richly coded meaning system, but it can also speak volumes when forced into silence. 

Western thought has long assumed a special relationship between vision and knowledge: Seeing is believing.  But what about the traffic between sonic experience and ideas?  How do inherited beliefs about sound, its effects, and its meanings inflect our sonic encounters?  And what about sound’s role in shaping the way we understand our world?  Sunday’s first panel brought together artists and scholars whose work takes up sound-knowledge questions in various ways, exploring intersections of thought, perception, and technology (no less than science, philosophy, and politics) in acoustic space. 

Dames Making Games (DMG) founder Izzie Colpitts-Campbell speaks with us about her art and design practice and how her role as a community organizer influenced her contributions to the DEL. In this conversation we discuss her new DMG project Damage Labs, similarities between game design and community organizing, and how artist solidarity can be provoked digitally.

Artengine’s Artistic Director Ryan Stec in conversation with Digital Economies Lab (DEL) participant, strategist, designer, artist and independent creative director, Julie Gendron, where they discuss Gendron’s work on the Offer Need Machine (ONM). Within this discussion Gendron addresses quantifying value by breaking down the mechanics of trust, recreating the ephemerality of chance interaction, and rating and evaluating with care.

In this conversation Tim Maughan chats with us about digital infrastructure, the role of organized labour in the creative landscape, and the DEL project Artwork_Local404. Join us, as we discuss technology and capitalism, the benefits of organizing, and what form collective action might take. Maughan also talks about how we need to rethink many of the platforms of tools of the digital world as public infrastructure: this may change how we understand what the government could do with them.

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) made their way into the popular imagination and have been a lightning rod topic in the realm of culture throughout this year. As part of our Digital Economies Lab, we invited Famous New Media Artist Jeremy Bailey to help us consider this current moment and put it in a larger context of art, culture and technology. Check out the conversation as well as links and notes to help orient you or expand your considerations of this NFT moment.

Tracey Lauriault provides a dynamic introduction to the relationship between data and the city at the Future Cities Forum. This talk delves into the social and technological infrastructure and frames a new more open and democratic version of a data centered city.

Allison Parrish, a programmer, poet, and educator at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, discusses her latest project on computer-generated poetry. Her book, “Articulations,” explores poetic similarity using a corpus from Project Gutenberg and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary to model phonetic resemblances. Parrish’s work involves constructing poetry by linking lines that sound alike, creating a unique phonetic cohesion. She emphasizes that her approach to poetry involves using computational tools not just to mimic human creation but to extend artistic capabilities and explore new forms of expression. Parish critiques the notion of AI replacing human creativity, arguing instead for a view of AI as an enhancement that brings new dimensions to poetic exploration. She highlights the influence of randomness and procedural generation in art, referencing historical and contemporary examples to underline that art made with computational methods still reflects the artist’s intent and personality.

Kristen Carlson, an assistant professor at Illinois State University, merges computation with embodied creative processes across choreography and media performance. Her diverse background includes movement, technical theory, theater, interaction design, and programming. She is notably published in fields like cognitive science, computing, and electronic arts. During her talk, Carlson emphasized the integration of procedural coding in reconsidering compositional processes in choreography. (…)

Ben Bogart explores the concept of “machine subjectivity” within the realm of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Bogart delves into the intricate relationship between human cognitive processes and autonomous machines. They challenge the conventional view of machine learning as merely objective statistical models, proposing instead that these systems can be seen as subjective entities capable of autonomous learning and decision-making. Bogart discusses how machines, through unsupervised learning algorithms, categorize and interpret data, (…)

Suzanne Kite, an Oglala Lakota performance artist, visual artist, and composer based in Montreal, weaves an intricate narrative that bridges her indigenous heritage with contemporary technology. Educated with a BFA in Music Composition from Bard College and currently a Ph.D. candidate at Concordia University, Kite’s work explores the intersection of art, technology, and cultural identity. Her projects often incorporate immersive video and sound installations, using technology such as body interfaces made from carbon fiber to create music and visual art that respond to the movements of the human body. Kite has launched Unheard Records, an experimental electronic imprint, marking her entry into music production. (…)

Jackson 2Bears, a Mohawk multimedia artist, shared insights during an artist talk after participating in a panel discussion. Currently based in Lethbridge, Alberta, where he teaches at the University of Lethbridge, Two Bears is known for blending his artistic practice with deep cultural and theoretical explorations. His talk delved into the integration of Indigenous perspectives within contemporary technology and art. (…)

Sofian Audry, an assistant professor of new media at the University of Maine, delivered a thought-provoking presentation on the intersection of art and technology. With a robust background in computer science, Sofian explored the philosophical and practical aspects of machine learning and artificial intelligence within the realm of contemporary art. They delved into how these technologies could be leveraged to question and expand our understanding of human nature and autonomy. Sofian’s work primarily focuses on subverting traditional applications of AI and computer science to uncover insights about human imperfections and societal constructs. (…)