Photo © 2010, Stephanie Hough.
Back, behind-the-scenes, I still have some articles in draft form that both detail the nuts’n’bolts decision-making processes in the construction of a machine improviser, and self-reflective critique such constructions, detailing the trade-offs and shortcomings of such an entity, and its design and implementation. I would like to get back to work on these at some point as they may provide as both cautionary tales and critical guides in future constructions of ‘creative’ automata and machine performances, and to anyone engaged in the critical (reverse-)engineering of such entities and their constructions. (There are so many stories, (self-)reflective and (self-)critical, of shortcoming and failures that get lost in our need to tell tales of technocultural heroics.)
Meanwhile, in this post I’d like to provide a selective index of documentation of io 0.0.1 beta++, its construction and performance, both of material published on this site and elsewhere.
Overview
\ constructor: Han-earl Park \ copyright 2008 buster & friends' C-ALTO Labs \ \ www.busterandfriends.com/io \ \ (Edinburgh, November 1996 - \ (London, August 1997 - \ (Den Haag, October 1997 - \ (Valencia, March 1999 - \ (Southampton, May 2000 - \ (Cork, April 2006 - \ \ (Cork, October 2008 - \ \ REV: 0.0.1 alpha (Southampton, October 2000) \ REV: 0.0.1 beta (Southampton, November 2000) \ REV: 0.0.1 alpha++ (Southampton, July 2004) \ REV: 0.0.1 beta++ (Cork, May 2010)
io 0.0.1 beta++ is an interactive, semiautonomous technological artifact that, in partnership with its human associates, performs a deliberately amplified staging of a socio-technical network—a network in which the primary protocol is improvisation. Together the cyborg ensemble explores the performance of identities, hybrids and relationships, and highlights the social agency of artifacts, and the social dimension of improvisation. Engineered by Han-earl Park, io 0.0.1 beta++ is a descendant, and significant re-construction, of his previous machine musicians, and it builds upon the work done with, and address some of the musical and practical problems of, these previous artifacts.
Standing as tall as a person, io 0.0.1 beta++ whimsically evokes a 1950s B-movie robot, constructed from ad-hoc components including plumbing, kitchenware and missile switches. It celebrates the material and corporeal; embracing the localized and embodied aspects of sociality, performance and improvisation.
Chronology
- 1996–1999: Coding of early experiments, tests, and software components:
- Edinburgh, 1996–1997
- London, 1997
- The Hague, 1997–1999
- March 1999: Construction of io begins in earnest, Valencia, California.
- April 2000: Debut performance of working prototype of io at the Roy O. Disney Concert Hall, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia.
- October 2000: REV: 0.0.1 alpha, Southampton, England.
- November 2000: REV: 0.0.1 beta, Southampton.
- December 2000: Recording of io 0.0.1 beta at De Illusie, The Hague, The Netherlands.
- July 2004: REV: 0.0.1 alpha++, Southampton.
- January 2008: With funding from the Arts Council of Ireland, major update and revision of io begins, Cork, Ireland.
- May 2010: REV: 0.0.1 beta++, Cork, Ireland.
- Recording session at Ó Riada Hall, UCC Department of Music.
- Debut performance at Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork with funding from Music Network and support from UCC Department of Music.
- August 2011: ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) released by SLAM Productions.
Documentation
Audio recordings
We watch and listen carefully because we know we’re seeing a kind of manifesto in action. What is an automaton? A sketch, a material characterization of the ideas the inventor and the inventor’s culture have about some aspect of life, and how it could be. io and its kind are alternate beings born of ideas, decisions and choices. It is because io stands alone, an automaton, that the performance recorded on this CD not only is music, but is about music.
Sara Roberts (from the liner notes)
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531). [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
track listing: Pioneer: Variance (11:52); Pioneer: Dance (13:13); Ground-Based Telemetry (1:42); Discovery: Intermodulation (9:08); Discovery: Decay (5:08); 4G (0:59); Laplace: Perturbation (10:21); Laplace: Instability (3:08); Return Trajectory (8:24). Total duration: 63:57.
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
Articles and publications
My article, ‘In Conversation with an Automaton: Identities and Agency in a Heterogeneous Social and Musical Network’ [local copy…], published in the Leonardo Electronic Almanac: ‘My Favorite Things: The Joy of the Gizmo’ (Volume 15, No. 11-12, November–December 2007) is still probably the best description of the motivations and choices behind the io enterprise.
Abstract
io 0.0.1 beta is an interactive, semi-autonomous technological artifact that, in partnership with its human associates, performs a deliberately amplified staging of a socio-technical network—a network in which primary protocol is improvisation. In this paper, I explore the performance of identities, hybrids and relationships, illustrating the space between myself (human partner and constructor) and io through imaginary conversations between us. Considering that io highlights, in particular, the social agency of artifacts, I find it fitting that my own notions about the nature of improvisation, the technical and the social have changed through my interactions with io.
In addition, this site has the following short pieces about the construction of io 0.0.1 beta++:
Han-earl Park, ‘frankenmusic(s),’ November 25, 2008:
Fifteen days ago, during the break between beta test sessions, Franziska Schroeder asked a pithy question that cut to the core of this enterprise: what do I hope to achieve? My answer surprised me even as it reminded me of Sara’s observation: my goal with io (and io++) is to encapsulate my take on improvisation—its mechanisms, its sociality, its significance. [Read the rest…]
Franziska Schroeder, ‘io + I met,’ November 24, 2008:
Who is io? What does she sound like? How would she react to me? Would she respond? Would she challenge me (musically, that is). In other words, would she adopt sensitively to changes, make creative contributions and develop musical ideas suggested by me? [Read the rest…]
Images
images © 2010 Stephanie Hough, and © 2010–2011 Han-earl Park [additional images (google gallery)…]
Source code
Download all source files (requires HMSL to run):
View individual source files linked below:
]]>\ additional midi stuff include? task-midi_plus myt:midi_plus \ device classes include? task-device myt:device include? task-midi_device myt:midi_device include? task-interpreter myt:interpreter include? task-ctrl_interpreter myt:ctrl_interpreter include? task-fan_out myt:fan_out \ input components include? task-parser myt:parser include? task-mono_parser myt:mono_parser include? task-mono_parser+ myt:mono_parser+ include? task-poly_parser myt:poly_parser include? task-guitar_parser myt:guitar_parser include? task-parser_list myt:parser_list include? task-pulse_tracker myt:pulse_tracker include? task-pulse_tracker+ myt:pulse_tracker+ include? task-banalyzer myt:banalyzer include? task-banalyzer+ myt:banalyzer+ \ output components include? task-gm_instrument myt:gm_instrument include? task-gm_drumkit myt:gm_drumkit include? task-gm_patch myt:gm_patch include? task-vl_sysex myt:vl_sysex include? task-vl_instrument myt:vl_instrument include? task-vl_patch myt:vl_patch \ "henri poincare" include? task-floatingpoint hsys:floatingpoint include? task-hp_util myt:hp_util include? task-hp_fputil myt:hp_fputil include? task-hp_particle myt:hp_particle include? task-hp_force myt:hp_force include? task-hp_space myt:hp_space include? task-hp_gravity myt:hp_gravity include? task-hp_fpgravity myt:hp_fpgravity include? task-hp_particle_player myt:hp_particle_player \ graphics include? task-graph_plus myt:graph_plus include? task-gr_view myt:gr_view include? task-screen+ myt:screen+ include? task-ctrl_numeric+ myt:ctrl_numeric+ \ io -- globals and configuration include? task-io_config io:io_config include? task-io_glob io:io_glob \ io -- modules include? task-io_interp_table io:modules:io_interp_table include? task-io_interp io:modules:io_interp include? task-io_player io:modules:io_player include? task-io_particle io:modules:io_particle include? task-io_space io:modules:io_space include? task-io_patches io:modules:io_patches include? task-io_pdur_dlog io:modules:io_pdur_dlog \ io -- main components io_test? .IF include? task-hp_screen myt:hp_screen include? task-hp_screen+ myt:hp_screen+ .THEN include? task-io_hp io:io_hp include? task-io_matrix io:io_matrix include? task-io_input io:io_input include? task-io_output io:io_output \ io - user interface include? task-io_ui io:io_ui include? task-io_screen io:io_screen io_file? .IF include? task-file_elmnts myt:file_elmnts include? task-file_elmnts_mac myt:file_elmnts_mac include? task-io_file_scene io:modules:io_file_scene include? task-io_file_glue io:modules:io_file_glue include? task-io_file io:modules:io_file .THEN io_turnkey? .IF include? task-dialog myt:dialog include? task-midi_menu myt:midi_menu include? task-io_menus io:modules:io_menus .THEN \ io - top level include? task-io_top io:io_top
Han-earl Park
Han-earl Park left Brooklyn at the end of 2013. The last few months in New York were marked by, among others, performances with Andrea Parkins, Anna Webber, Gerald Cleaver, and Evan Parker. In November, as a kind of leaving party, Kyoko Kitamura and Josh Sinton organized Gowanus Company.
Released by SLAM Productions, ‘Anomic Aphasia’ (SLAMCD 559) documents two of Park’s New York-based projects: the ensemble Eris 136199 with Catherine Sikora and Nick Didkovsky, and Metis 9, a playbook of improvisative tactics, devised in collaboration with Sikora and Josh Sinton. The album has been described as “beautiful noise” (KFJC 89.7 FM), “ein glorioser Bastard aus Noise und süßer Träumerei” (Bad Alchemy), and given “☆☆☆☆½” by All About Jazz.
Back in Europe, Park has been working with several musicians: performing with Dominic Lash and Corey Mwamba as part of the Tubers MiniFestival (Manchester); with Hilary Jeffery, Andrea Parkins and Simon Rose at Ma Thilda (Berlin); with Justin Yang and Caroline Pugh at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (Belfast); and others. He has also made trips back to New York to perform with Tom Rainey, with Mette Rasmussen, Michael Foster and Pascal Niggenkemper, as part of Eris 136199 (with Nick Didkovsky and Catherine Sikora), with Andrew Drury, and with Mike Pride and Catherine Sikora. The recording ‘A Little Brittle Music’ with Dominic Lash and Corey Mwamba, will be released in November.
In December, Park’s current working trio with Dominic Lash and Mark Sanders will be joined by Caroline Pugh for a Culture Ireland funded tour with performances in Birmingham, Bristol and London. He will also be back in Brooklyn later in December to perform with Ingrid Laubrock, and with Nick Didkovsky and Josh Sinton.
Bruce Coates
Bruce Coates has been busy performing in many situations including performing Improvisations and Piece for Bill Viola by Chris Cundy as part of the Cheltenham Improvisers Orchestra (Wilson Art Gallery, Cheltenham); with Paul Dunmall, Corey Mwamba, Seth Bennett, Walt Shaw and Mark Sanders, and with Alan Jenkins, Lorin Halsall and Walt Shaw, as part of the Subjects and Structures exhibition by Andrew Coates and Walt Shaw (Artsmith LIVE Gallery, Derby); and as part of Steve Troman’s Days of May Project with Ruth Angell, Sid Peacock (Cafe Ort, Birmingham).
Coates’ regular ensembles and projects include South Leicestershire Improvisers Ensemble, a monthly ensemble of shifting line-ups (Beerhouse, Market Harborough, and Quad Studios, Leicester); A, B and C (with Lee Allatson and Stewart Brackley); and CHA (with Christopher Hobbs and Virginia Anderson).
Coates also participated in Centrifuge’s Developing an Aesthetic symposium in 2015 (Crewe).
Both the performances as part of Walt Shaw’s Subjects and Structures exhibition, and A, B and C have a recording forthcoming.
Franziska Schroeder
Barely Cool (PFMCD090). Artwork by Arthur Lacerda. © 2015 pfMENTUM.
Just released by pfMENTUM: Franziska Schroeder’s CD, ‘Barely Cool’ (PFMCD090) with Marcos Campello and Renato Godoy. Recorded in Rio de Janeiro. The recording was made during Schroeder’s ethnographic research of free improvisation in Brazil.
Aiming to apply strategies of listening taken from network performance to the context of theater, Schroeder recently received an Arts and Humanities Research Council impact grant for ‘Distributed Listening—socially engaged art,’ a collaboration between the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen’s University, the Lyric Theatre (Belfast), Theatre company 42 Street (Manchester), The Science Festival Northern Ireland, and The Young Vic (London):
Enabling theatre practitioners and participating communities to engage in network music performance strategies/technologies (‘distributed listening’), normally only available in HE institutions.
The project team will develop a custom-designed app for mobile devices (smart phones) that allows young community participants to explore various listening strategies.
We have teamed up with two theatre companies, the Lyric Theatre, Belfast and 42nd Street, Manchester. 42nd Street is a young people’s mental health charity providing innovative services to young people with mental health problems. Both companies regularly work with community participants, practising ‘socially engaged arts’, a form of active citizenship, art that intends to effect social change, that is artist-led and participant focussed. The theatre companies have identified 20 young adults each who, during 8 weeks workshops will learn to use the new app in order to create a creative theatre piece based on the idea of ‘distributed listening’.
In addition, Schroeder has a new collaboration with concert harpist Tanya Houghton. They will premiere four new works for saxophone, harp and electronics at SARC, Belfast, 17 December, 2015.
]]>Expériences de résonnances et d’occupation de l’espace sonore. Très dramatique sans narration. Tout l’espace est occupé, toujours de manière surprenante, avec peu de sons, peu de matière (toutefois l’occupation peut se densifier sans rupture), travaillée finement, une dentelle de musique. Des allers et venues des sons comme de personnages sur ce qu’on peut vraiment appeler une scène musicale. Un travail de legato général, structurel, dans la rupture permanente des sons individuels. Un disque étonnant dans lequel les sons de l’automate sont reconnaissable sans être décalés. Les humains ne jouent pas comme s’ils étaient entre eux, le robot les influence, l’inverse est vrai. [Read the rest…]
[More info on the recording…] [All reviews…]
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) [details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
It was about four years ago that—totally by chance: I found the CD in my mailbox—I listened to guitarist Han-earl Park for the very first time. While at first I believed that the only featured musicians on the album besides Park were Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder, a closer examination revealed that, besides being the name of the album, the tag ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ was also the name of the fourth member of the line-up: a “musical automata” that was fully engaged in an improvising role, in deep dialogue with those three “humans”. Something that, though not totally unprecedented—I’ll only mention trombonist George Lewis and his software program called Voyager—involved a lot of interesting issues. I have to add that the work appeared interesting and stimulating anyway, a feeling of quality staying with the listener well after all those intellectual preoccupations had been thoroughly investigated. [Read the rest…] [In Italian…]
[More info on the recording…] [All reviews…]
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) [details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
Anomic Aphasia (SLAMCD 559) [details…]
personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (tenor and soprano saxophones), Nick Didkovsky (guitar), and Josh Sinton (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet).
© 2015 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2015 SLAM Productions.
I’m creating YouTube samplers of some of the more recent items in my discography, and I’ve started by uploading a trailer for ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) [more info on the recording…].
On the stage: two men, a woman, and an artifact, a freestanding mélange of industrial, military, and domestic hardware. The humans hold graceful, polished objects, but the domed assemblage stands alone. And while the woman and men make sound (vibrate the air) holding and fingering the graceful objects, the artifact, named io 0.0.1 beta++, makes sounds without being touched at all. io and the humans improvise together, listening to each other, responding to each other’s musical gestures.
Sara Roberts (from the liner notes)
Music by Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder.
Images © 2010 Han-earl Park, and © 2010 Stephanie Hough.
Video collage © 2014 Han-earl Park. ℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
Intellectually, if nothing else, the pair [Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park] are an intriguing match. Before his meeting with Barrett, in May 2010, Park recorded an album, io 0.0.1 beta++ (SLAM), with two human companions, both saxophonists, and the titular automaton, io 0.0.1 beta++, which Park constructed himself.
Park describes io 0.0.1 as: “not an instrument to be played but a non-human artificial musician (‘constructed from ad-hoc components including plumbing, kitchenware, speakers and missile switches’) that performs alongside its human counterparts.” Performing with an automaton, Park says: “demonstrates alternative modes of interfacing the musical and the technological, and illuminates the creative and improvisative processes in music.”
In his duo [‘Numbers’] with the abstracted electronics of Barrett, Park explores pretty similar sonic terrain…. [Read the rest…]
[More info on the recording…] [All reviews…]
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
personnel: Richard Barrett (electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar). [About this duo…]
© + ℗ 2012 Creative Sources Recordings.
io 0.0.1 beta++, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder (Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork, May 26, 2010). Photo © 2010 Stephanie Hough.
Seeking performance opportunities; particularly in Europe, 2014: the cyborg ensemble of interactive, semi-autonomous, technological artifact and machine musician and improviser io 0.0.1 beta++ with human musicians Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder.
See performance proposal for further information (availability, technical requirements, performers’ biographies, etc.).
overview
This quartet (or faux-quartet, if you prefer) performs demanding free improvisation calling on a range of extended techniques. Pieces of dismantled gestures, destabilizing timbres, and impressive synergy.
François Couture (Monsieur Délire)
An idea that would be pleasing to the Futurists of a century ago, a total hymn to modernity…. The completely improvised session requires a lot of attention from the listener, to be fully repaid by that which is a successful experiment.
Vittorio (MusicZoom)
We watch and listen carefully because we know we’re seeing a kind of manifesto in action. What is an automaton? A sketch, a material characterization of the ideas the inventor and the inventor’s culture have about some aspect of life, and how it could be. io and its kind are alternate beings born of ideas, decisions and choices. It is because io stands alone, an automaton, that the performance recorded on this CD not only is music, but is about music.
Sara Roberts (from the liner notes to SLAMCD 531)
An extraordinary meeting between human and machine improvisers. Featuring the machine musician io 0.0.1 beta++ with guitarist Han-earl Park and saxophonists Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder, the performance is part critique and part playful exploration, both a boundary-breaking demonstration of socio-musical technologies and an ironic sci-fi parody.
Constructed by Han-earl Park, io 0.0.1 beta++ is a modern-day musical automaton. It is not an instrument to be played but a non-human artificial musician that performs alongside its human counterparts. io 0.0.1 beta++ representing a personal-political investigation of technology, interaction, improvisation and musicality. It whimsically evokes a 1950s B-movie robot—seemingly jerry-rigged, constructed from ad-hoc components including plumbing, kitchenware, speakers and missile switches—celebrating the material and corporeal.
The performances with this artificial musician highlights society’s entanglement with technology, demonstrates alternative modes of interfacing the musical and the technological, and illuminates the creative and improvisative processes in music. The performance is a radical and playful engagement with powerful and problematic dreams (and nightmares) of the artificial; a dream as old as the anthropology of robots.
The construction of io 0.0.1 beta++ has been made possible by the generous support of the Arts Council of Ireland.
The CD ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) was released by SLAM Productions in August 2011.
further information
Web: www.io001b.com
Contact: www.io001b.com/contact
Images: www.io001b.com/images*
Audio: www.io001b.com/samples*
* Additional audio recordings and documentation available on request.
updates
11–08–12: this is a repost of a previous article: change of availability from 2013 to 2014.
]]>io 0.0.1 beta++ (SLAMCD 531) © 2011 Han-earl Park
Downtown Music Gallery is back up and running after Hurricane Sandy, and they need your support.
If io 0.0.1 beta++ could express a preference, I imagine it would state Downtown Music Gallery to be its favorite record store. io, however, cannot prefer, or express a preference for, anything… but you have my expression of preference!
[DMG review of ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531)…]
[Get the ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) from DMG…]
[CDs by Han-earl Park from DMG…] [Bruce Coates from DMG…] [Franziska Schroeder from DMG…]
I’ve updated the audio player used on this site, and I’m gradually migrating this site’s pages over to the new widget. You can find additional audio recordings (with new widget) on a couple of other pages.
I’d be grateful if you could give these a play, and let me know if you have any problems, comments, criticisms or questions. I especially welcome feedback from those visiting via alternative and/or unusual browsers, agents, operating systems and devices. Please email me or leave a comment below.
Bruce Coates (sopranino saxophone) and io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself). [Details…]
Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone), io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself) and Han-earl Park (guitar). [Details…]
[More audio clips from the CD…] [Additional audio recordings…]
Above audio clip courtesy of SLAM Productions. Music by Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder. Audio ℗ 2011 SLAM Productions. Please do not distribute the audio file. You are welcome, however, to distribute and share following pages: [clip 1…] [clip 2…].
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
updates
08–07–13: yet another change of audio player.
]]>
© 2012 The New York City Jazz Record (click to view PDF…)
This month, The New York City Jazz Record puts a spotlight on the record label SLAM Productions. [NYC Jazz Record (PDF)…] [More…]
If the musical automaton io 0.0.1 beta++ could feel gratitude, or express thanks, I imagine it would warmly thank George Haslam and his label for taking a gamble on a recording of real-time interactions between human and machine musicians, and including it in the SLAM catalog. Whether io could do, or feel, any of those things, George has my sincerest thanks for all his support over the years!
Available from SLAM Productions
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
This is fascinating and I hope to have a chance to hear and see you and io live. The interaction between io and the three other players is really supple, especially evident in track 4 [Discovery: Intermodulation], and I like very much the gritty complexity of io’s vocabulary, and the fine sense of shaping, timbrally and in terms of gesture, plus the contrast between its timbral character and that of the two saxs and your guitar.
It’s a true honor to have the feedback from a composer with such imagination and skill, and a veteran of exploring biological, technological and social relations. Thanks, Annea!
[More info on the recording…] [All reviews…]
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
io 0.0.1 beta++, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder (Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork, May 26, 2010). Photo © 2010 Stephanie Hough.
Seeking performance opportunities; particularly in Europe 2014: the cyborg ensemble of interactive, semi-autonomous, technological artifact and machine musician and improviser io 0.0.1 beta++ with human musicians Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder.
See performance proposal for further information (availability, technical requirements, performers’ biographies, etc.).
overview
This quartet (or faux-quartet, if you prefer) performs demanding free improvisation calling on a range of extended techniques. Pieces of dismantled gestures, destabilizing timbres, and impressive synergy.
François Couture (Monsieur Délire)
An idea that would be pleasing to the Futurists of a century ago, a total hymn to modernity…. The completely improvised session requires a lot of attention from the listener, to be fully repaid by that which is a successful experiment.
Vittorio (MusicZoom)
We watch and listen carefully because we know we’re seeing a kind of manifesto in action. What is an automaton? A sketch, a material characterization of the ideas the inventor and the inventor’s culture have about some aspect of life, and how it could be. io and its kind are alternate beings born of ideas, decisions and choices. It is because io stands alone, an automaton, that the performance recorded on this CD not only is music, but is about music.
Sara Roberts (from the liner notes to SLAMCD 531)
An extraordinary meeting between human and machine improvisers. Featuring the machine musician io 0.0.1 beta++ with guitarist Han-earl Park and saxophonists Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder, the performance is part critique and part playful exploration, both a boundary-breaking demonstration of socio-musical technologies and an ironic sci-fi parody.
Constructed by Han-earl Park, io 0.0.1 beta++ is a modern-day musical automaton. It is not an instrument to be played but a non-human artificial musician that performs alongside its human counterparts. io 0.0.1 beta++ representing a personal-political investigation of technology, interaction, improvisation and musicality. It whimsically evokes a 1950s B-movie robot—seemingly jerry-rigged, constructed from ad-hoc components including plumbing, kitchenware, speakers and missile switches—celebrating the material and corporeal.
The performances with this artificial musician highlights society’s entanglement with technology, demonstrates alternative modes of interfacing the musical and the technological, and illuminates the creative and improvisative processes in music. The performance is a radical and playful engagement with powerful and problematic dreams (and nightmares) of the artificial; a dream as old as the anthropology of robots.
The construction of io 0.0.1 beta++ has been made possible by the generous support of the Arts Council of Ireland.
The CD ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) was released by SLAM Productions in August 2011.
further information
Web: www.io001b.com
Contact: www.io001b.com/contact
Images: www.io001b.com/images*
Audio: www.io001b.com/samples*
* Additional audio recordings and documentation available on request.
updates
11–08–12: change of availability from 2013 to 2014. [More info…]
]]>