Sound Animats - June, 2019
Sound Animats is a 16-channel spatial composition that inhabits the space where algorithmic life becomes audible presence. The work explores spatial and procedurally generated music, drawing from the architectural sonic visions of Ioannis Xenakis and Karl Stockhausen, the generative philosophies of Brian Eno, and the cybernetic frameworks of Norbert Wiener, Jon Von Neumann, and Gordon Pask.
The piece employs simulations of multiple artificial organisms interacting with each other, generating a living composition that evolves in real-time. These phantom beings—sound creatures that occupy physical space but resist visibility—create an autonomous ecosystem where their existence is felt only through the sonic traces they leave in air and perception.
Presented as an invited piece at Field of Sounds, curated by Kai Lab and artist Arthur Carabott at Hackney Marshes in 2019, the work unfolds across sixteen speakers arranged in a four-by-four grid. The audience moves freely through this sonic field, navigating the invisible ecology as the 16-channel composition envelops them from all directions.
The music is driven by a simple two-agent simulation, where one agent pursues the other in an endless chase. Their positions and velocities are continuously mapped to the spatial configuration, translating algorithmic behavior into sound that moves through the speaker array—predator and prey locked in perpetual dance, their movements sculpting music in three-dimensional space.
