Table of Contents

Just outside - Thursday, May 02, 2013

BOT - Compositions Continuums des Machines (fibrr)

If I understand correctly–something always in doubt–BOT is a program more or less designed by/under control of Julien Ottavi which takes as input multiple sources ranging from mics planted at various locations in and around Nantes to specific inputs from individuals then, using its own internal algorithms, transforms them into an output at its own discretion. I don't know whether the program undergoes any kind of “evolutionary” enhancements, if it learns from previous work (or reactions to same) or whether it simply sits there, processing and regurgitating, 48 minutes of which, sampled from September 2012 through January 2013 is offered here.

I doubtless would have taken this for an intentionally processed field recording if I didn't know otherwise, the shards of recognizable sounds (birds, insects, sirens, etc.) sliced and diced with electronics and, presumably, sounds rendered into shapes at a great remove from their source. And it would be a pretty good one. Everything's thick, sinewy and variegated, everything flows. There are the occasional semi-cliched electronic squiggles and the sounds themselves aren't especially unusual, but the stew is tasty. Is this partially because of a lack of human (routine) choices being made in the work's construction? I'm tempted to think so but again, I'm not clear on exactly how much, if any, flesh and blood interaction there is. Better to just relax and enjoy and BOT, whether neuronal or circuitry, does a pretty decent job of it.

http://olewnick.blogspot.fr/2013/05/bot-compositions-continuums-des.html

The Sound Projector Radio Show - Friday 3rd May 2013

Vital weekly 880

BOT - COMPOSITIONS CONTINUUMS DES MACHINES (CD by Fibrr)

The concept of Bot is not entirely clear to me: “BOT make up a virtual community with a view to assemble a collection of entities in one location in order to diffuse their production to many more places. They stand for a new approach to digital phenomena: networks, multi motionless geolocation, interconnection of on-line produced or processed data, automation in the treatment of reality and, especially in the case of BOTs, sites for experiments, always accessible, and from anywhere. […] Those recordings have been realized between September 2012 and January 2013, taken from the most stable BOTs: Nantes, St Naziare and St Sebastien in France. The transformed and reconstructed soundscapes originated from places such as private garden, garages, offices, studios and housing environnements [sic]”. So, yes, I have no idea what this is all about, really. In the forty-five some minutes of music here we have mostly a loud sound, computer manipulation of field recordings, no doubt of various places mixed together. Bird calls can be heard a lot, and I was thinking, maybe a bunch of unnamed composers stuck microphones out their window for any given amount of time, and feed whatever was happening through computer plug ins, and another unnamed composers compiled all of these recordings together and mixed them, most of the time using a multitude of sound sources running at the same time. Maybe I am all wrong. As said it's usually quite loud, and sometimes a bit annoying, but most of it sounds alright. Sturdy, heavy, experimental music. Not the best I ever heard, but fine enough in itself. (FdW)

http://www.vitalweekly.net/880.html