I want to be new again

I want to be new again

I WANT TO BE NEW AGAIN

In the non-fiction book The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence Raymond Kurzweil predicted that with advanced artificial intelligence, machines could attain a level of consciousness or self-awareness matching human spirituality — a deep entanglement that will transform us into "Spiritual Machines." Human–artificial intelligence interaction involves embodied action, perception, interaction, and internalization of the algorithms in our mind. What are our embodied cognitive processes like when we influence and interact with algorithms? Where our flesh transforms into biometric data, and affective turbulence of life is transformed into a poetic and symbolic language of sacred quantification.

IWTBNA is a screendance projection environment that explores the spiritual and sacred ritualistic acts with algorithms, crafting possible poetic meanings of praying through sensorial embodied movement. Inspired by Mircea Eliade's concept of Hierophany, this project explores the tension and dichotomy of the sacred and the profane in our current digital culture. Using a musical software called "Sonic Moves" in collaboration with the digital media artist Marc-Andre, utilizing motion tracking technology, performance, identity, and bodies to create dance and performance works, I have designed a dynamic sound liturgical compositions. Through gestural and movement tracking, I*explore how its spiritual rendering affects an embodied phenomenon that can be considered as an embodied hierophany.*We become cyborgs between machine and organism, ambiguous creatures of social reality and fiction seeking connection and spirituality. How aware do we become of this entanglement? The proliferation of artificial intelligence gives rise to questions on how we interact with AI and how algorithms embody our movement.

This research-creation project has grown out of collaborative performative research with movement practitioners and inquiries into new forms of interactive performance that create dynamic sound compositions that are activated by body movement. The goal is to find out what the potential of new technologies and gesture-based practices in sound art are and to open up new ways for creative expression.

The performative work utilizes motion capture technology to track the performer's posture and position in front of a mobile camera, modifying the interpretation of the composition accordingly. The composition comprises a collection of experimental sound and voice recordings that react in real-time to the body's gestures, morphing the performer into a bodily conductor and generating a unique language of expression that stands apart from visual elements. Through tracing the body's skeleton with a mobile phone, the project establishes a direct and instantaneous connection between movement and sound, facilitating an immersive and responsive experience.

This research-creation project has evolved through performative research that inquires into interactive elements in performance and the potential of emerging technologies and gesture-based practices in choreography and sound art.

After a year of engaging in performative research and dancing to the dynamic compositions in my studio, I began collaborating with other movement practitioners.

The project and its performance recordings have subsequently been reimagined into a screendance projection, video work, an AR audiovisual interactive environment, an MR installation, and a live performance.

Nava Messas Waxman

Performance & Research.

Interaction & Sound design.

Marc-André Weibezahn

Programming & research

SONIC MOVES

Acknowledgment : Naishi Wang | Lo Bil | Kate Nankervis | Jeremy Forsyth | Cinzia Cavalieri