becoming together, '00
electrical components, speakers, plywood, plexiglass. Dimensions 45cmx40cmx80cm.
becoming together is comprised of robots (usually three or four) engaged in exchanging information by listening to each other, and responding to what they hear.
Sound enters each robot via the small microphone on each one. The robots store what it has heard, begin to listen again and respond when significant bits in the sound coming in match certain bits in the stored sounds. Each robot has a certain amount of sound stored on it which will always be there, and certain space for acquiring sound from its neighbors. The sounds stored on the chips were chosen carefully so that they could be recombined: taken apart, fragmented, reorganized, etc., and still work together to create a continually shifting yet cohesive composition - or, more accurately, composition becoming, or, perhaps composing. All of the sounds you hear were generated from the chips on the circuit boards themselves via creating and amplifying PWM algorithms from the micro-controller. I don't believe the arrangement of sound coming from this robot ensemble will ever repeat. As such the piece is then continually opening out, or, continually in the act of becoming.
Here is the video in as an .mp4.