The Body is the Interface

A double bill of performances by Oglala Lakȟóta artist Kite (Music, BFA ‘14) and Mexico City-based collective Interspecifics brings together machine learning technologies, sound, the body, and Indigenous cosmologies.

For Wičháȟpi Wóihaŋbleya (Dreamlike Star), Kite performs with a custom computer that translates her body movements into experimental sounds and video by means of two hair braids she manipulates. Kite performs scores she has translated into Lakȟóta visual language, derived from the dreams of women and two-spirit community members, who consider dreaming as a sacred epistemological practice. Using her own body as an interface, each of Kite’s movements trains the machine learning software encoded with a Lakȟóta data set.

Interspecifics presents Meta Sincronía 1.0, a live sonic and visual composition with a feedback processor that follows rhythms and synchronizations of the human heart. Three performers outfitted with a heart-rate monitor interface with automated ceremonial leather drums—inspired by Rarámuri instruments. Beats synchronize between humans and machines, fluctuating from chaos to unison.

Presented in conjunction with REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney | CalArts Theater) PST ART: Art & Science Collide exhibition All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace.