AVnight

Indefinite Couplet is a real-time generative audiovisual world, composed of abstract elements, that evolve into an aimless yet functional machine. Ali Phi’s real-time generative performance is inspired by the imaginative elements found in the texts of Polish science fiction author, Stanislav Lem and the recurring themes present in thewritings of 13th century Persian poet, Rumi. With additional references to quantum science, spirituality, and cosmology, “Indefinite Couplet” is a code-driven machine that depicts the fantasy world of the artist, achieved through his engagement with custom-designed and pre- programmed audiovisual software. The work evolves, live, through the artist’s interactions throughout the performance.

A poetic approach controls the output of this audiovisual artwork. The artist collaborates with materials drawn from images of nature documented by drones, open-source libraries containing images of other planets collected through decades of space exploration, visual programming created using artificial intelligence and generative adversarial networks, and big data conversion techniques. The performance’s design is further based on particles, scientific motifs, data processing, and the dynamic within ambient and electronic sound design. Most dominantly, the artwork’s aesthetic emerges from scientific visualizations of the 1980’s, the period when Lem’s work was most actively reimagined and adapted for motion pictures. Together, all these sources of inspiration combined with Lem’s unique worldview and Rumi’s
transcendental intuition shapes the artist’s vision, with a distance of 800 years at the intersection of art, science, technology, and mysticism.

During AVnight there will be the broadcast premiere of the performance realised at the ARSENAL Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto.
The project was created as part of the Krakow cultural program Krakow Culture.

Audiovisual live set by Balázs Zságer and visual artist Kati Katona. The duo deal with the condition of the modern world and global dilemmas regarding the impact of the pandemic on people and nature, referring to the symbiosis of the natural world with unnatural human creations, as well as to the contrast between the digital world and human emotions. The artists, considering the creative methods present in the Impressionist trend, try to convey the atmosphere of the passing time, which during the pandemic became somehow more perceptible.

Balázs Zságer, is the producer of the leading Hungarian electronic ensemble Žagar. In this project, he reveals his more experimental and atmospheric side – announcing a mixture of ambient soundscapes and pulsating synth textures based on analog modular systems and various fm synthesis structures. Kati Katona’s visual language is inspired by natural forms and patterns, emphasizing the unique algorithms and structures found in them.

The latest project of the Austrian artist MONOCOLOR, which was inspired by the intelligent ocean on the planet Solaris described in the novel by Stanisław Lem of the same title. The essence of the project is to create a fluid, ever-changing audiovisual experience that allows the audience to immerse themselves in sound and image. Both audio and video are generated in real time, existing between what is natural and what is synthesized. Loosely referring to Lem’s work, the project touches upon topics such as emergence, systems theory, identity and the relationship between machine and nature.

The project is presented in cooperation with the Austrian Cultural Forum in Warsaw.