Fields of Feedback
Design and Programming: Robin Renwick
Performers: Hadi Bastani, Aidan Deery, Sandor
Mehes, and Robin Renwick
Performed at Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) Sonic Lab, Queen’s University Belfast, 27th of July, 2016
Abstract
Fields of Feedback is a live, improvised group performance involving three laptop performers, and one moderator. The performance topology is a direct reflection of specific type of machine learning algorithm, called a Hopfield Network. Within the performance each laptop is designated a unique input stream - a remotely located live microphone, sourced from the Locus Sonus soundmap. Each performer’s output is sent to a local feedback moderation platform, which connects the output of each performer’s workstation to the input of every other performer - creating a complex and manipulable feedback network. The feedback platform is controlled by a fourth performer, who acts as a moderator.
The performance is a delicate balancing act between individual and collective creativity, between artistic individuality and systemic governance. Directed relational pathways between performers enforce aural communicational channels to emerge, as performers are urged to understand their individual actions, inspirations and modulations within a collaborative networked context; actions are interdependent, as performers’ artistic outputs intercede and intra-act on every others’.