Interactive Design, Audio, Visuals, and Performance by Ben Heim

Playing Chaos

OXO Wharf, London, 2017

Finalist in the 2017 Celeste Art Prize, Playing Chaos is a multimedia performance work that explores interlocking chaotic systems as a basis for performance. Three interconnected systems form the basis for this project: a particle and simulation based visual system, a synthesis-based audio system, and a human performer. This work was first performed as part of an exhibition at OXO Wharf during Frieze Week in London

Interactive Design, Sound Design by Ben Heim; Drawing, Neural Network Design by Anna Ridler

Drawing Sound

VERtigo conference, IRcam (Paris), 2017

Drawing with Sound is a durational performance project which turns the act of drawing into a musical instrument, made with Artist Anna Ridler.  A neural network was trained to recognise lines and shapes that occur while drawing with charcoal, this data is then used to control an interactive audio system which triggered different sounds and effects based on what shapes the are recognised in the drawing being made. The performance occurs over a period of time, with the track drawn in charcoal on a white wall and then erased, echoing the repetitions that a machine learning programme goes through in different epochs when training and learning. Because each track is redrawn in the same space, traces build up over time, which causes disorder, and, ultimately entropy - a track drawn at the start will be clearer and more precise than one made towards the end.