Noisefold Group Members: David Stout & Cory Metcal
A network performance exploring A-Life, chaotic systems, intelligent noise and visual music. In this laptop duet the performers mix or breed 3D forms from a database of mathematic equations to create live audio-visual structures resembling fictional architectures and artificial organisms. The performers animate, coax, fold, bend and herd these audio-visual “organisms” by use of cameras, microphones, electro-magnetic and infrared sensors. The sound is synthesized directly from the form and movement of the image. The result is a visual music theater where “lifelike” avatars emerge, evolve and emit a startling array of chaotic rhythms, and shimmering sonic textures.
Animator-Computer Scientist, Ken Perlin describes the experience as – “Jimmy Hendrix with a power drill.”
Cellist, Frances Marie Uiiti describes Stout’s work as – “a whirling irresistible vision: hypnotic, subversive and dangerous.”
Video pioneer, Steina Vasulka observes – “Stout celebrates the elemental power of the digital signal stream in an articulate homage to interactive video’s analog past.”
Bio
NoiseFold is a leading installation and performance group founded by artists, Cory Metcalf and David Stout. The pair create interactive video installations, live cinema performances, large-scale public projections, fine art prints, and limited edition DVD and sound recordings. NoiseFold explores the artistic potential of generative systems in the wake of a steady increase of digital processing power. These technological developments provide unprecedented complexity in the design of recursive audio-visual structures. NoiseFold extends the pioneering work with real-time analog systems by earlier video artists, coupled with a new means for the direct trans-coding of image into sound and sound into image. The group’s emphasis on new media methodologies including algorithmic programming, artificial life and networked performance systems underlies a strong belief in the power of kinetic forms of expression. The resulting works are conceived as artifacts generated by artistic concepts embedded in the design and behavior of the software itself. This emphasis on ephemeral events and unique, often unrepeatable, aesthetic experiences also serves the artists’ creation of more traditional art objects.
Their performances, which include the Festival Internationale d’Art Video in Casablanca, Morocco (2006), the UNESCO Creative Cities Summit (2006) and the New York Electronic Arts Festival (2007), have garnered rave reviews and a growing audience. In addition to performance tours, NoiseFold also conducts lecture-demonstrations and teaching workshops for all ages. The pair recently received the New Mexico New Visions Award for their exploratory work in real-time animation. Stout is also the recipient of the Harvestworks Interactive Technology Residency and the Sun Micro Systems Award for Academic Excellence (2004) and was nominated for the both the WTN World Technology Award (2003) and the International Media Art Prize (2004). Stout & Metcalf currently live in Santa Fe, New Mexico where they are developing a series of multi-site networked installation environments in the form of a “live” synthetic ecosystem. The project has drawn collaborators from diverse disciplines to explore the creative nexus between algorithmic animation, immersive environments, multi-player computer games, information visualization, complexity science and ecology.
Links
Noisefold: http://nfold.csf.edu
Noisefold on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/NoiseFold
Selected media
Talk Talk
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