Grenzwerte (2015)

stereo piece, duration 6’25”. An algorithmic tape piece commissioned for the DEGEM CD 13 “Grenzen”, curated by Florian Hartlieb.

Boundary values (German: Grenzwerte) are ideational, gleaming from afar and may only be approximated. These horizons are not interesting through their acquisition but through the traversal towards them. The piece is based on genetic programming of sound structures. It presents a conflict between natural and synthetic sounds. I am attracted by the impurity or “reality” of the algorithm as an excess, the display of incomputabilities that fall short of or that transgress the set boundary, stirring up things. The process departs from the spoken sentence “Je vais donc essayer de lire, de me lire comme un autre.” An (impossible) search is initiated for the voice’s reproduction by means of building blocks of synthetic sounds. Hundreds of thousands of particles emerge and engage in a spatial self-organisation based on their similarity towards another. Partial trajectories unwinding this space form the structure of the three sections of the piece. It could be different.