Software and the internet enabled people to produce and distribute music from their home computer. Nowadays the development of powerful mobile technology and accessible coding languages adds a whole range of possibilities to the production and performance of sound and music.
The instruments that create and play sound are prepared with spatial, sensory and tangible interfaces. Musicians, sound artists and other sonic creatives expand the possibilities between physical materials and software by using light, projections, sensors, code and data as integral part of their work.
Sensors make it possible to develop next-level instruments, that tap into the unseen, unheard ‘rhythms’ of our networked environment, and play the soundtrack of the (near) future. On the one hand analog instruments are hacked and enriched with digital features. While ‘hybrid instruments’, on the other hand, are created by using open hardware and self-build parts made with digital fabrication methods.
The second edition of Coded Matter(s): Sound Hackers has investigated the rising possibilities and new expressions in sound and music due to emerging technologies and coded cultures. Furthermore it has looked into the influence of autonomous processes, based on algorithms and data-streams as an artistic source. Coded Matter(s) has also investigated the role of digital processes which enable the merging of virtual and analog instruments.
The event took place yesterday at De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam with the support of Steim (http://steim.org/), with a rich program of ‘sound hackers’, audiovisual performances, a showcase and short talks presented by a wide variety of artists who introduced and performed these ‘hybrid instruments’.