Installations — MM Studio (2nd floor) & foyer (4th floor), Music Academy Zagreb

MM studio 2nd floor
Living Room Pieces – generative sound installation | Michael Schumacher

Living Room Pieces is a long-form music composition and generative sound installation designed for living spaces. Similar to how paintings impact the visual space of one’s home, this installation functions to reframe and reimagine one’s sonic environment through an expansive sound palette set upon a canvas of silence. Upon activation, the installation sets up a cycle lasting seven days. In this cycle, each day of the week has a distinct compositional structure. The structure of each day determines the types of sounds heard, their duration and frequency of occurrence as well as the types of processing used to vary them. For this presentation at SMC26, the composer has prepared a dense, highly active version of the piece, designed for short listening sessions. Several of the work’s daily modes are superimposed so they unfold simultaneously rather than across separate days. In the span of about 20–30 minutes, listeners can experience the full range of sounds and temporal patterns that would otherwise require hours, or even days, of listening.

Michael J. Schumacher is a Brooklyn-based composer, performer, curator and educator whose work explores spatialized sound and algorithmic composition. His installations have been presented at EMPAC, GRM, PS1, The Kitchen, SculptureCenter, and other venues internationally. Schumacher founded Diapason Sound Art Gallery in 1996. He is music director of the Liz Gerring Dance Company and has collaborated with artists including Oren Ambarchi, Bruce Andrews, Tom Chiu, Zorica Colic, Charles Curtis, Ken Jacobs, Victoria Meyers and Sally Silvers. His recordings have appeared on XI, Sub Rosa, Superpang and others.

Foyer, 4th floor
Echobjects – sound installation with kinetic objects | Philippe Kocher and Daniel Bisig 

Echobjects is a context-aware sound installation designed for public spaces. It consists of five kinetic objects, each equipped with a loudspeaker and a microphone. The installation oscillates between a listening phase and a playback phase. During the listening phase, it records the surrounding sounds; during the playback phase, it replays them. By selecting and storing some of the recorded sounds, the installation forms a long-term memory that grows throughout the exhibition. It reproduces not only the most recently recorded sounds but also earlier ones, possibly from several hours or days ago. Visitors are encouraged to engaged with it by contributing sounds directly through one of the microphones.

Philippe Kocher is a musician and researcher. He studied piano, music theory, composition and musicology in Zurich, Basel, London and Bern. He is a professor of music theory, composition and computer music at the Zurich University of the Arts, where he also conducts research at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology. His output includes both concert works and sound installations, and his artistic interests focus on algorithmic composition and computer-generated music. Daniel Bisig is a researcher and artist working in the fields of artificial intelligence and generative art. He is a senior research associate at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology of the Zurich University of the Arts. He has realised algorithmic films, interactive installations and audiovisual performances, some in collaboration with musicians and choreographers. Central to his work is deriving generative algorithms and interaction techniques from biomimetic simulations.