Building from the living structures, expanding and gently adding. The artefacts from the initial inputs are being translated into the one given medium, sound. Feeling the breath of the texture. Finding exact frequency. Iterative remix of these artefacts created a sound structure, which resulted in the piece #unSELFed, a 20-minute sound work. Trusting the listening.

It was during one of our brainstorming sessions (I believe around December 2020) that we noticed that 'autonomous systems' are often described using the prefix 'self-': self-organization, self-regulation, self-observation, self-referentiality, self-adaptation, self-sensing, self-performing, self-generating, self-determining. That's how we decided to experiment with the term: maybe the word 'self' can provide an altered access to ideas of autonomy, systems, emergence. My contribution to this experimental round is composed of two blog posts, that are somehow interwoven.

The self project I completed was an interesting exercise, but after playing around with parameters, the artistic result was not interesting. After hearing the projects of others, and synthesizing ideas from discussions on performer autonomy and system feedback, I have decided to pursue the concept of autonomie from a different angle, and one that incorporates a sounding body and live human agents interacting.

Begin with the smallest possible impulse An identity A single sound The sound is processed The processed is processed The processed sound becomes the self Again A new identity Begin with the smallest possible impulse An identity A single sound The sound is processed The processed is processed The processed sound becomes the self Again A new identity

Double bass not performed on, but enacted upon Where is the autonomy of the self, of the double bass? Create a system, a loop, a feedback, between the double bass, the agents, and some kind of exciter How does the exciter interact with the agents? Do they react to the sounds of this object?

One experiment I want to conduct that relates to the double bass and the intervals is to create an electronic piece that uses the same pitches, but going up to much higher harmonics. This will allow two things: 1) an expanded possibility of pitches, and 2) precision of tuning and steadiness of tone that is not achievable by a performer, or by the instrument itself.

My thoughts on our project for Art's Birthday. On January 17, we will be presenting some of our work on the radio. For this, we have decided to each take some of the materials we have already created/generated, and create a sort of mash-up, so to speak. Essentially one person would take the materials, and create the first version. Then we would pass it around and add to or modify the track. It actually reminded me of the perpetual machine that we discussed early on in our meetings, because each of us was applying our own "process" to this overall project.

I've been thinking about autonomous or AI-controlled spatialization. And designing systems that control the movement of audio sources in space automatically, based on the parameters of the sound system, perhaps even based on the parameters of the room itself.

subjective reflexion: the person, which i’m seeing in the mirror, is not the one, whom the others see. walking between the texts(-to-speech). generating the new meaning during this eternal walk. the walk is generating itself.

when we write about self, does writing change the object written about? does overwriting change my sense of self? my self-ish-ness? when we write about self, does writing change the object written about? does overwriting change my sense of self? my self-ish-ness?

There is a snowstorm outside, wiping out the visible world in front of my window. I am sitting inside, staring at the white wall that suddenly resembles the landscape outside. When darkness falls, the white will be softly replaced by another non-colour, turning my window into a mirror that reflects the light from within. Seeing myself in the window mirrored, I can imagine what would be if the outside had turned my inside. Could I look into myself when looking at the world? The whole selfie-culture that has arisen from the use of smartphone cameras has changed the way we look at the world and on ourselves. On the one hand, the world has become a backdrop for the self. Or is it the other way round, the constantly present self becoming irrelevant for the sake of the scenery displayed around? Taking selfies seems also to be a process of reassuring the self by depicting it constantly in changing settings, as if our hybrid analog-digital identities and lives were so volatile that they need this constant reassurance and confirmation of the camera's eye, the display on screen. To take a selfie is to say, yes I do exist, I am. Thus I imagine a series of selfies without the self: would they be unselfies, or even re-emphasize the self by exhibiting the void?

Working on an art project about autonomy, I find myself constantly asking the question: how can I acknowledge the autonomy of materials, or certain processes, in shaping and creating an artwork? Should I resist the desire to interfere, to give form, shape and intent to something, rather leaving the output take its own form? One widely acknowledged form of autonomous art creation is using generative algorithms. Algorithmic art leaves the process of creating an artwork and its resulting shape to the machine, while human ideas and intentions are only involved in the stage of planning and setting up the mechanism. All algorithmic art does not only point its spectator or listener towards the beauty of machine-generated patterns, it also puts the role of the creator at stake. Am I ready to accept a result I don't clearly know? Am I ready to stand by and watch, even if the output doesn't resonate with my own intuitions, feelings and taste?