| Year/Length: | 2023, 60', world premiere |
|---|---|
| Artists: | Guy Ben-Ary, Nathan Thompson, Darren Moore, Andrew Fitch |
| Scientific advisor: | Stuart Ian Hodgetts |
| Commission, production by: | La Biennale di Venezia |
| Developed at: | Lasalle College of The Arts and Symbiotica Centre For Excellence in Biological Art |
| Funded by: | Lasalle College of The Arts, The Australia Council for the Arts, The Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, Government of Western Australia |
| Thanks to: | IRCCS Ospedale San Camillo di Venezia Lido |
Music
Guy Ben-Ary / Nathan Thompson / Darren Moore / Andrew Fitch - Music for surrogate performer
Description
Music for Surrogate Performer is a living bio-engineered musical entity able to improvise live, as a proxy for a deceased composer, and create post-human sound performances.
In 2018 Alvin Lucier (1931-2021), one of the most influential composers of the twentieth-century avant-garde whose pieces are succinct explorations of the physical properties of sound, agreed to collaborate with us. In 2020 donated his blood, which we transformed into living neural networks grown on specialised interfaces. This work proposes to embody Lucier’s “in-vitro brain” with a sound-producing body in such a way that they work in synergy. This new living entity, or Lucier’s “surrogate performer”, would be capable of improvising and performing with human musicians.