SCORES for UNKNOWING
Bodies, indigo fermentation, turmeric paste, wooden Noh mask, instruments, shells, bells, charcoal & ink on paper; three x laptop computers with a soundcard, a microphone, an active speaker, LDR wearable sensor with ESP microcontroller e-Textile capacitive sensor embedded textile water, dimensions variable
Scores for Unknowing is a live installation composed of post-Butoh movement, A.I. neural audio synthesis feedback, and an indigo fermentation textile dye practice. We take ourselves too seriously, connecting rationalism to intelligence. We seek solutions to solve, knowledge to know. But how do we navigate spaces that are unknowable, such as intuition, (artificial) neural networks, microbial behaviour?
'Scores' are conceived as physical, sonic, visual, interfaces that materialize spaces for cognitive rest. The project creates an interactive aesthetic experience that explores chance and states of uncertainty, incorporating AI (neural audio synthesis/ RAVE), Butoh’s surrealist oral choreography, and the fermentation indigo dye called ai-zome/藍染. AI/human/ai : three complex systems each with a ‘latent space’ that hosts unknowability
AI becomes a ritual technology providing a polyvocal rhythmic field acting as a support for improvisation, as an embodied encounter with the unknown, be it as an unexpected crossdisciplinary art form, the stream of consciousness babble of the space, or in the unpredictable responses of the humans active within the system. Over the installation’s durational activation, the three technologies begin to induce ‘states of unknowing’ for the artists and the witnesses.
The performer/Savitri acts as a human ‘trance-ducer’, carrying signals and outputs across the space through her body and voice. Finding ways to ‘communicate’ with the RAVE model, her movement reconfigures the installation and shapes the AI feedback as endless poetry and song. The dyer/ Mika is engaged in a contemplative process of dyeing cotton from fermented plant matter; an ancient technique that releases potent odours as it colors textile, heightening the immediacy of the experience. Fragments of memory spiral in and out, creating a whirlpool of sensory feedback: a Noh mask, Indian turmeric paste, tribal instruments. A cultural kaleidoscope reflecting the complexity and unknowability of our own material existence.
