Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:00am

MTI Residency | Music and Image in Performance

I've just started a artistic residency with the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre at De Montfort University. Over the coming months I will be working with a number of students helping them develop live visuals to go with their music. This should be an interesting project and I'm looking forward to seeing the direction it goes in.

As part of the residency I plan to develop my "polyp.tv" idea. This is something I've been thinking about since doing my MA. The core idea is to use live sampling of audio and video to "play" pre-composed tunes. The raw material will come from live television and radio broadcasts. Then I (or rather my computer) will scan the incoming signals looking for elements than can be used to play tunes that I, or others, have scored.

I've called it "polyp" because I envisage that it will operate a bit like a sea polyp - sitting in the ocean waiting for "food" to flow pass, which it then grabs and uses to maintain itself. If you've followed my "autopoiesis" work then the idea of creating self-constructing artworks that "feed" on their surroundings will be a familiar one.

polyp.tv, together with the student work developed during the residency will be showcased at an event in spring 2009.

Author: Sean Clark