HEBO

Johannes Hedinger (CHE) and Frank Bodin (CHE)

HEBO was invented 2008 by Johannes M. Hedinger and Frank Bodin. HEBO is a derivation of the two last names of the artists. (Hedinger/Bodin). HEBO is a series of humanoid robots and a kinetic sculptures. HEBO interpret scenes, allegories and stories from everyday life and the history of art. They are small world explanatory models, little machines with big emotions. The programmed movements are aesthetic and narrative part of the kinetic art work. The robot itself becomes the narrator and creator. HEBO features humanoid lines and qualities and acts humanly. Next to the technical aspect, the focus of HEBO is on the shown action, the philosophical references and the reaction and interaction with the audience. HEBO is a cooperation of the artist duo Johannes M. Hedinger and Frank Bodin with ETH Zürich (SMS Lab, Prof. Robert Riener).

Speech 2 Singing

Institute for Infocomm Research, A*STAR (SGP)

So you want to be a pop-star – and so what if you cannot sing well? With the Personalised Singing Synthesis Technology developed by the Speech Synthesis Team at I2R, you can convert a person’s reading into singing. Try reading in the lyrics of your favorite song and listening to the playback of your own singing. Impress your friends and fans! This demo showcases the singing voice synthesis technology that is developed by I2R’s Human Language Technology Department. The demo will accept a recording of the read lyrics of a song. The system will then apply the melody of the song to the speech recording, thus generating a personalised singing voice. The technology equips the computer with the ability to automatically convert a spoken voice into a professional singing voice.

I Am Maddy Burns / The One and Only

N.G. Bristow (GBR)

About to step on stage for her comeback performance, a stand-up comedian in the grip of chronic stage-fright finds herself growing dangerously uncoupled from her own reflection. "I AM MADDY BURNS" / "THE ONE AND ONLY" is an installation comprising a pair of complementary five minute films. The latter retells the same events as the original, but from the perceptual and emotional perspective of the other side of the dressing-room mirror - from the point-of-view of Maddy Burns' renegade doppelgänger. Both films play simultaneously on a pair of monitors arranged back-to-back. The viewer is able to walk around the monitors comparing contemporaneous moments - though, significantly for a piece of work conjuring a paranoid, schizoid state, they are never able to experience both simultaneously. The conjoined films share a synchronous soundtrack. Tonally, MADDY BURNS encompasses both the uncanny and the darkly comic. Ultimately its dark heart lies in the spaces between. Maddy and Maddy are performed by Natalia Tena.

Permulations Poster on Transactional Arts

Curious Minds (CHE) with Daniela Plewe (DEU/SGP)

Transactional Arts is a form of art, where the exchange of value is one of its key characteristic. Here, artists reflect on and apply economic principles in creating a work. Economic and monetary capital as well as social, cultural, symbolic or other forms of capital are transformed through artistic process when interaction takes on the form of transaction. This is common to many new media based works that contain transactional features and fundamental to artworks based on the Internet, which greatly facilitates diverse forms of transaction.

The international arts group Curious Minds and the art theorist and practitioner Daniel Plewe.has provided an artwork that allows for a unique presentation concept for viewing a collection of online artworks. Termed "WIKIOSK", visitors can interact with the display by employing their mobile phones in a transactional manner where the exchange of aesthetic "value" is greatly promoted.

Represented Artists

The Genome Scroller

The Bio Boys with Geoff Barton (GBR), Chris Cole (GRB) & Nick Schurch (GBR)

The completed Human genome was published almost a decade ago, but many of its secrets have still not been revealed. The field of Bioinformatics, which combines Computer science, Statistics and Biology is instrumental in making inroads to these secrets. genomescroller is a large-scale, dynamic, visualisation of the information surrounding the Human genome in conjunction with Duncan of Jordanston College of Art & Design. Its aim is to convey the huge scale of the genome itself, the rarity of the information rich regions, but the richness of the information that we know within those regions. We hope that it inspires in people a sense of curiosity about bioinformatics and biology as a whole, and amazement at the wonder that is the Human genome. We are only presenting one chromosome here, as the whole genome would take 6 months!

When Equations Dance --TANGO with Lin Hsin Hsin

Lin Hsin Hsin (SGP)

When Equations Dance --TANGO with Lin Hsin Hsin is a 12-part 30' digital dance journeying through equation-based 3D imageries accompanied by digital music real-time performance as Hsin Hsin fingers and choreographs her Android-based smartphone screen. Hsin Hsin's equation-based technology, manifests itself in moving images. Immerse yourself in this unique, avant-garde digital aesthetics, an unprecedented and unforgettable live digital experience, a gleaming presage of the future. As this finger-based choreography unfolds itself onto the TV screen, you will see images swirl and twirl, spins, rotates or pirouettes, instantaneously. Be it the silvery thread of adagio that floats in an unbroken melodic line through monotones, or the spins that gyrate and skim the digital floor, no detail is accidental,indeed, an orchestrated e-motion fantasia of swooning romanticism. via smartphone, witnessing the mobile lifestyle that Hsin Hsin has predicted as in her oil painting “Voices of the Future”1), 1994 and “Mobility”2), thepoem she penned in 1999.

Food For Thought…

Leon McCarthy (IRE/GBR)

Sustainability is vogue amongst scientists, liberal politicians and progressive thinkers alike. You may be aware of rising sea levels and of a floating rubbish-island in the pacific the size of Europe, but are you aware of the impact that the industrial-scale harvesting our oceans is having? This audiovisual performance will present perspectives on such. The premise and content are inspired by the 2009 documentary ‘The End of the Line’, with the performance a form of live-cinema. The performer will render live audiovisuals to the main 4*4 video wall and speaker-array, with his software systems displayed on smaller flat screens. The show becomes participatory when audience tweets are visualized to these flat screens, fostering audience interaction and aiding the performer gauge audience reaction.

Virtual VJ

Steve Gibson (GBR/CAN) & Stefan Müller Arisona (SGP/CHE)

Virtual VJ employs motion tracking technology in order to allow participants to use space as an audio and video performance tool. Virtual VJ unites the role of the DJ and VJ into one interface: motion in 3D space. Virtual VJ enables users to control different aspects of the sound and video environment with their movements. One tracker is set to trigger sound and video and the other is set to manipulate the sound and video initiated by the first tracker.