compression study 2
commissioned by Joe Connor
The compression studies series approaches the YouTube platform as another performer in the ensemble, and uses YouTube’s algorithms and interface for both composition and performance. By recording musicians, uploading the recordings to YouTube, and using YouTube’s built-in time-stretching and compression algorithms to find new sounds to re-compose with, the works explore YouTube’s sonic materiality. In particular, the compression algorithms used by YouTube are designed primarily for spoken voice, presumably in response to the large volume of tutorials and video blogs on the platform, and so they react in unexpected ways when used with harmonic, musical sounds as source material. By subverting their intended use, the project reveals the non-neutrality of even the most simple and taken-for-granted algorithms, and asks us to question the algorithmic biases that shape our perceptions of the world.
The concept for this piece was created for a collaboration with Maya Livio on her film Thermopower.
Performances:
6.20.20 — Joe Connor, New Music Gathering, online due to COVID-19 (originally Portland, OR)
The compression studies series approaches the YouTube platform as another performer in the ensemble, and uses YouTube’s algorithms and interface for both composition and performance. By recording musicians, uploading the recordings to YouTube, and using YouTube’s built-in time-stretching and compression algorithms to find new sounds to re-compose with, the works explore YouTube’s sonic materiality. In particular, the compression algorithms used by YouTube are designed primarily for spoken voice, presumably in response to the large volume of tutorials and video blogs on the platform, and so they react in unexpected ways when used with harmonic, musical sounds as source material. By subverting their intended use, the project reveals the non-neutrality of even the most simple and taken-for-granted algorithms, and asks us to question the algorithmic biases that shape our perceptions of the world.
The concept for this piece was created for a collaboration with Maya Livio on her film Thermopower.
Performances:
6.20.20 — Joe Connor, New Music Gathering, online due to COVID-19 (originally Portland, OR)