Connecting Signals – Workshop for Audiovisual Live Improvisation
KoLab Days Workshop Series: electronic feelings
As part of the Next Level Festival and inspired by the theme: Under the motto “Electronic Feelings”, this four-part workshop series makes the invisible processes between humans and machines tangible. We follow a path of artistic transformation: Abstract data becomes soundscapes, sounds become tangible 3D forms, and in the end, everything merges into an audiovisual, collaborative performance. Discover with us how a signal becomes a shared artistic statement.
Participation is possible in any workshop, even without attending the others! However, all workshops can also be attended consecutively.
The final workshop in our series as part of the KoLab Days focuses on audiovisual improvisation and performance. The emphasis is on the immediate interaction and interplay between the performers.
We will explore practical concepts and techniques of improvisation, addressing the following questions: What role does the convergence of many disciplines play on a stage? How do we find a common audiovisual interplay? And what forms of communication can arise live on stage?
The aim of the workshop is to develop short, improvised performances in small groups, which will then be presented at the Next Level Festival. For this, we will conduct some exercises together. Both material from previous workshops and your own complete setup can serve as a starting point.
The workshop is aimed at anyone interested, regardless of experience level. Any technical setup is welcome, whether laptop, hardware synthesizer, hybrid instruments, or live coding. However, due to the limited time, your setup should not be too complex. If you are interested but cannot bring your own setup, we will provide some tools for improvisation. We will then present the results of the workshop in the storyLab kiU as part of a jam session.
Florencia Alonso (Aka Flor de Fuego) is a digital artist who mainly works with programming and live coding to create performative experiences. She explores concepts such as body & space, code & chaos. She has participated in several international festivals in Europe and America, both alone and in collaboration with other artists. She has a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the National University, La Plata, Argentina. Flor is actively involved in the live coding community and has served as a reviewer at the International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC). She also frequently works with Hydra, a browser-based live coding software developed by Olivia Jack. She is an alumni of the Academy for Theatre and Digitality and is currently studying for a master’s degree in “Sound and Reality” at the Institute for Music and Media at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Fabian Bentrup is a composer, media artist, and sound designer. His artistic focus is on the relationship between determinism and improvisation, space as a compositional category, transferring genuinely musical parameters to visual methods, and algorithmic approaches to text and language. He composes for instruments and electronics, and his work spans auditory, audiovisual, performative, and installation art. At KoLab, as a Creative Developer, he supports artists with conceptual and technical programming questions. This involves both node-based and text-based languages. After exploring philosophy and sociology at WWU Münster, he studied Film and Sound with a focus on Sound Design at Fachhochschule Dortmund. Since 2022, he has been studying Integrative Composition at Folkwang University of the Arts, specializing in Electronic Composition and Composition and Visualization.