Here’s the Information We Collect
Here’s the Information We Collect is an interactive video installation tailored to respond selected privacy policy posted on major social media platforms. Audience members are invited to engage with the work by speaking into a microphone.
Here’s the Information We Collect is a multi-channel interactive video installation tailored to respond to selected privacy policy on major social media platforms. The audience members are invited to engage with the work by speaking into a microphone. Their words will be processed by a pre-coded speech recognition program to match the key words to specific sonic elements performed by professional vocalists, creating a dynamic and evolving musical score in real-time. The project employs the privacy policy of a particular cyber enterprise as an entry point to explore the implications of our online data and the tension between privacy, surveillance, and the free flow of information in the digital age. It also calls attention to tech corporations’ collection and capitalization of user data behind the scenes as a form of digital colonialism.
This composition employed VOSK Offline Speech Recognition API to activate vocal performances. The musical notation was presented graphically, and the vocalists’ contributions were recorded individually before being integrated in real-time.
Credits
Performers: Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble – Soprano: Charlotte Mundy, Mezzo-Soprano: Elisa Sutherland Countertenor: Jonathan May, Tenor: Tomás Cruz, Baritone: Jeffrey Gavett, Bass: Peter Stewart; Max/MSP Engineer for the 3-channel version: Matthew Ostrowski, Recording Engineer: Kevin Ramsay.
**This project was produced in part at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center through the Artist-In-Residence Program, and is sponsored in part by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC). The iteration on display is an online single-channel iteration commissioned by WebSoundArt.
LUCA
LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor: the hypothetical single-cell organism from which all life on Earth descended) is a non-linear virtual environment with a non-anthropocentric approach. In the natural world, diverse forms of intelligence operate independently of human dominance. Non-human organisms construct intricate information networks, respond to their umwelt, form complex symbiotic relationships, and communicate through methods that eluded understanding and validation by modern science for centuries. This perspective challenges the notion of human superiority, positioning humans as just one element within the ecosystem rather than at the apex of a hierarchical structure.
The complete version of this project utilizes a brain-computer interface, Unreal Engine, Max MSP, and electronic circuits to explore the interconnection and collective agency between human and non-human intelligence. In this iteration, real-time biometric data from performers’ movements is streamed into the virtual environment to dynamically shape the visual and sonic elements of a virtual world.
Credits:
Supported by the En Foco Media Arts Fund and Coalesce BioArt Lab.
