Expanded Sound − Artificial intelligence and musical experiments

The Grand Finale of this year’s BLAUES RAUSCHEN Festival takes place at RWE Pavillon / Philharmonie Essen − a venue that perfectly suits the exciting performances of the evening with its open, experimental atmosphere and excellent technical conditions.

The evening begins with a special performance “Data Ethics in Creative Practice“, a workshop which was created on the basis of an open call and is led by Portrait XO. In this 20-minute performance, the selected participants will present their three-day interdisciplinary collaboration, which deals intensively with the dialogue between art and artificial intelligence and explores the boundaries between humans, machines and musical authorship.

The subsequent programme also moves between experimentation and sound research: Powell uses minimal music and electro-acoustic processes to create new, virtual forms of music. His work merges with the theories of electronic music, which is evolving from traditional, composition-driven musical forms to an experimental, often randomized and unpredictable soundscape. Julie Herndon creates aural landscapes, in which organic and synthetic elements are constantly changing and explores the interaction between space and sound, a concept that draws on the acoustic ecology of Luigi Nono and Alvin Lucier. Portrait XO operates at the interface of music, art and artificial intelligence and questions the classical concepts of composition and authorship. Her works explore the interactions between algorithmic processes and creative decisions, weaving analogue and digital sound generation into innovative, constantly changing musical structures.

The evening questions traditional notions of music and shows how artificial intelligence and technological developments are transforming sound, opening up new creative possibilities and raising questions about authenticity and control.