Author: Erin Gee

Review: Akimblog, Canada

02.02.2020 , News, Reviews

The first review for my solo exhibition To the Sooe at the MacKenzie Art Gallery is here!  To the Sooe is on view until April 19th in Regina, Canada.

“Gee delivers the output in ASMR style through role play and a sound performance that leave you both mesmerized and tingling to your core. The sterile white walls and scientific jargon of the exhibition texts should not deter you from this immersive and sensory experience. Gee’s complex communication configurations require your time, patience and an open mind.” -Alexa Heenan, Akimblog

Click here to read the full review

Machine Unlearning

31.01.2020 , Digital Media, Embodied Media/Performance/Scores, Gallery Artwork, Performance, Portfolio, Robotics/AI/XR/Quantum, Sound Art

Vision calibration from Machine Unlearning (2020).
Photography by Elody Libe. Image courtesy of the artist.

2020

In Machine Unlearning, the artist greets the viewer and slowly offers them a unique neural conditioning “treatment”: sonically reproducing the unraveling outputs of an LSTM algorithm as it “unlearns” through whispering, moving backwards in time through its epochs of training.

This aural treatment is couched in a first-person roleplay scenario that grounds the viewer through a series of simple audio visual tests. At no point is the neural network technology “seen” – it is instead performed by a human interlocuter, translated into affective vocality and whispered text. The algorithm was created by media artist Sofian Audry, and trained on the text of Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights (1847). This novel was chosen in part because of its richly poetic syntax, but also for its feminine vocality and conceptual themes of love and intergenerational trauma. Machine Unlearning is a novel combination of neural network technologies and the popular internet genre “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response,” or ASMR. ASMR is a social media genre that has developed largely through massive social media metrics in the form of upvotes, clicks, comments, subscribes, and likes in response to audio visual stimuli that creates feelings of mild euphoria, relaxation and pleasure. ASMR fans online seek out specific video content that causes the physiological reaction of “tingles” – tingling sensations across the skin, a mild body high, or simply a means of falling asleep. Gee considers ASMR as a form of psychosomatic body hacking. By combining machine learning with ASMR, Gee draws parallels between cutting edge autonomous/non-conscious algorithms and the autonomous/unconscious functions of the human body. Just as ASMRtists use specific sounds and visual patterns in their videos to “trigger” physical reactions in the viewer, machine learning algorithms also unconsciously respond to patterns perceived through limited senses in order to develop learning (and unlearning) results. The artist’s emphasis on whispering the textual outputs of the algorithm as it slowly “unlearns” allows the listener to grasp the materiality of machine learning processes at a human level, but also a subconscious level: allowing one’s body to be mildly and charmingly “hacked” through soft and gentle play.

The use of the word “intelligence” in the metaphor of AI focuses on higher functions of consciousness that algorithms do not possess. While algorithms have not meaningfully achieved a humanistic consciousness to date, today’s algorithms act autonomously on sensory information, processing data from its environment in unconscious, automatic ways. The human brain also responds unconsciously and automatically to sensory data in its environment, for example, even if you are not conscious of how hot a stove is, if you place your hand on a hot stove, your hand will automatically pull away. These unconscious, physiological actions in the sensory realm points to an area of common experience between algorithms and the human.  For more explanation of these ideas, take a look at the work of postmodern literary critic N. Katherine Hayles in her 2017 book Unthought: The power of the cognitive nonconscious.  In this way I wonder if the expression “autonomous intelligence” makes more sense than “artificial intelligence”, however like posthumanist feminist Rosi Braidotti I am deeply suspicious of the humanist pride that our species takes in the word “intelligence” as something that confers a special status and justification for domination of other forms of life on earth.

Credits

Photography and videography by Elody Libe.

Production Support: Machine Unlearning video installation was produced at Perte de Signal with the support of the MacKenzie Art Gallery for the exhibition To the Sooe (2020) curated by Tak Pham.

The roleplay performance was developed during my artistic residency at Locus Sonus – École Superieur d’art d’Aix en Provence and Laboratoire PRISM.

Custom LSTM Algorithm created by media artist Sofian Audry

Video

Machine Unlearning (2020)
Videography by Elody Libe

Gallery

This work was first developed as a performance that debuted at Cluster Festival, Winnipeg in 2019.  During live performance, each audience member dons a pair of wireless headphones.  The performance allows the audience members to see the ASMR “result” of the performance for camera, simultaneous with the ability to see my “backstage” manipulation of props and light in real time.

Cover Story: Leader Post

30.01.2020 , Exhibitions, Interviews, News

I was surprised for my exhibition To the Sooe to be featured as front-page news on January 27, 2020 in the Leader Post, the leading newspaper of Regina Saskatchewan. Inside the paper you can find an interview with exhibition curator Tak Pham and I regarding my solo show at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, To the Sooe.

““Erin’s work is very, very immersive. It’s really bringing the reaction, the chemistry, the biology within your body and really bringing it outwards and put(ting) it on display,” said Tak Pham, who curated this exhibition at the MacKenzie.”

Click here to read the full article.

 

 

Solo Exhibition MacKenzie Art Gallery

29.01.2020 , Articles, Artist Talks, Exhibitions, News

From January 24-April 19 2020, my first major solo exhibition in a Canadian museum, To the Sooe, will be on view at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Canada.

To the Sooe is curated by Tak Pham, and features a collection of my embodied technological works to date, as well as a few brand new works made especially for this exhibition including video installation Machine Unlearning (2020) and interactive biodata sound sculpture Pinch and Soothe (2020).

The exhibition has already garnered major attention from the printed press in Regina, with front page feature stories in both the Leader Post and the Prairie Dog as well as a french language interview with Radio Canada.  As part of my exhibition activities I also gave an artist talk at the University of Regina as part of their Art for Lunch speaker series on January 24, 2020.

Cover Story: Prairie Dog Magazine

28.01.2020 , Exhibitions, Interviews, News

“Modernity and the Age of Reason kind of championed the brain as this really important thing that defined us as human,” she adds. “I’m interested in recent scientific studies that [show] it’s not all about the brain. Our thinking process actually happens in concert with our body beyond the brain. What I’m interested in is using technology to create a culture of the body.”

“I’m interested in making a conversation about technology that doesn’t centre on intelligence but on emotion.”

– Erin Gee, excerpts from interview with Gregory Beatty

My exhibition “To the Sooe” at the MacKenzie Art Gallery is front page news in Regina’s Prairie Dog Magazine!  The Prairie Dog is Regina’s top source for what is going on in entertainment and the arts, so it is a great honor to be featured.  I also appreciate the reporting done by Gregory Beatty on this interview.  Click here to read the full article.

As a very brief aside, I want to address to the use of the words “Sound-Shaman” on the cover of this magazine.  I have never used these terms to describe my practice, as I am not currently practicing any form of spiritual faith that would qualify me to do so. These words are not my own, but were an editorial decision that I do not identify with and strongly reject.

Toronto Biennial

30.09.2019 , News, Performances

November 16, 2019: 3pm-7pm

Toronto: (Check the web link here for updates)

I am please to be presenting my Larynx series (2015) compositions for live vocal quartet in the context of a  fantastic looking posthuman vocal concert curated by Myung-Sun Kim and Maiko Tanaka. The concert is included in the programming for the Toronto Biennial 2019.

Erin Gee - Larynx Series

Erin Gee – Larynx1. Epson UltraChrome K3 ink on acid-free paper.
Edition of 5.
86 x 112 cm.

TELLINGS—A Post-Human Vocal Concert seeks to challenge traditional conceptions of voice. Artists working experimentally with sound—live electronics, deep listening, sound art—perform compositions that explore new modes of vocal production. The experimental vocal compositions in solo and ensemble formats question the way we imagine the body of a voice and the “receiver” as well as the divisions made between nature and technology. Each composition performed in TELLINGS presents increasingly inter-species, inter-organ, feminist, and collaborative notions through the languages of plants, animals, and even human organs not normally associated with having authorship or intention.

Artists: Jeneen Frei Njootli, Erin Gee, Ts̱ēmā Igharas, Stephanie Loveless, and Miya Masaoka

Co-curated by Maiko Tanaka and Myung-Sun Kim.

Co-presented in partnership with Trinity Square Video and MVS Proseminar, University of Toronto—John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design

BIOS

ERIN GEE

Erin Gee (born in Regina, SK, Canada; lives in Montreal, QC, Canada) is an artist inspired by feminist, posthumanist approaches to ontology, consciousness, and the human body. Known for her work in choral composition, biodata-driven interfaces, robotics, and ASMR, she uses art to explore the autonomous nature of sensory cognition, emotion, and empathy in humans and non-human assemblages. Her work has shown internationally at venues such as: Ars Electronica, Linz; NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, and Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. In 2020 she has a solo exhibition at MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina.

JENEEN FREI NJOOTLI

Jeneen Frei Njootli (Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, born in Whitehorse, YK, Canada; lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada) is a Vuntut Gwitchinartist working with mixed media, sound-based performances, textiles, and installation to explore Indigeneity in politics, community engagement, and history embedded in cultural materials. She was the 2017 recipient of the Contemporary Art Society of Vancouver’s Artist Prize. In 2018 alone she had solo exhibitions in venues such as: Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; FIERMAN, New York City; and Artspace, Peterborough. Her work has appeared in numerous international exhibitions, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Canada and Nottingham Contemporary among others.

MAIKO TANAKA

Maiko Tanaka (born in Toronto, ON, Canada; lives in Buffalo, NY, USA) is the Executive Director of Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center in Buffalo NY. She holds a BFA from OCADU and MVS from the University of Toronto. She has curated projects in Canada and abroad, including for TSV, Nuit Blanche at OCADU, Onsite, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, InterAccess, Gendai, all in Toronto, as well as Casco, in Utrecht/NL. She co-edited The Grand Domestic Revolution Handbook (Casco) and Model Minority (Gendai) and has written for Scapegoat, C Magazine, and Fuse as well as various artist publications.

MIYA MASAOKA

Miya Masaoka (born in Washington, USA; lives in New York City, NY, USA) is an American artist and composer. Her work explores bodily perception of vibration, movement, and time while foregrounding complex timbre relationships. Her work has been presented at the Venice Biennale; MoMA PS1, New York City; Kunstmuseum Bonn; and the Caramoor, NY. She is a 2019 Studio Artist for the Park Avenue Armory, and has previously received a Doris Duke Artist Award, Fulbright, and Alpert Award in the Arts. She teaches at Columbia University, New York City where she is the Director of the Sound Art Program.

STEPHANIE LOVELESS

Stephanie Loveless (born in Montreal, Canada; lives in New York, USA) is a sound and media artist whose research centres on listening and vocal embodiment. Her recent projects include a mobile web-app for geo-located listening and sound works that channel the voices of plants, animals, and musical divas. She holds MFAs from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and Bard College, both in upstate New York, and a certification in Deep Listening from composer Pauline Oliveros. She teaches courses on Deep Listening and ecologically-oriented sound art at RPI.

View participant page

TS̱ĒMĀ IGHARAS

Ts̱ēmā Igharas (Tahltan First Nation, born in Smithers, BC, Canada; lives in San Francisco, USA) is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist and a member of the Tahltan First Nation. Igharas is influenced by Potlatch methodology, teachings from her mentorship in Northwest Coast Formline Design at K’saan, her studies in visual culture, and time in the mountains. Igharas has shown and performed in various places in Canada and internationally, presenting her work that connects materials to mine sites and bodies to the land.

Pop Montreal

09.09.2019 , Artist Talks, News, Research

I will be part of a panel of artists as part of the Pop Montreal Symposium to discuss ASMR from artistic/scientific perspectives, come out to see me talking about my number one passion right now, also featuring…

Philippe Battikha holds a BFA in Integrative Music Studies and an MFA in Studio Arts (Interme-dia Concentration) from Concordia University. He is the co-founder of the Samizdat Records (SZR) label, based in Montreal and Brooklyn.

Jann Tomaro (Detroit/Montreal) is a doctoral student, researcher, and mental health practitioner who facilitates //practice//, a series using psychoacoustic properties of noise and sound to guide group meditations.

Click here for the facebook link to the event

Details!

What’s That Noise? ASMR For The Uninitiated
28 SEPT, 12 H 30, Piccolo Rialto

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is the static-like, tingling experience that people experience as a sensory response to auditory stimulus. ASMR has become a movement of its own in recent years, with the development of entire online communities of creators composing audio specifically tailored to produce pleasurable and relaxing effects for their audiences. So what’s the science behind ASMR? And where does it fit in the long tradition of “Brain Music,” from binaural beats to Muzak, through noise, musique concrète, and experimental sound art?

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C’est quoi ce bruit? L’ASMR pour les néophytes
Le 28 sept à 12 h 30 Piccolo Rialto

La réponse autonome sensorielle méridienne (ou ASMR pour Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) est une réponse sensorielle au stimulus auditif qui se manifeste sous forme de pico-tement ou d’électricité statique. L’ASMR est devenu un véritable mouvement en soi au cours des dernières années à travers le développement de communautés digitales de créateur·rice·s qui créent des pièces élaborées afin de susciter un effet plaisant et relaxant pour l’auditeur·rice. Quelle est la science derrière l’ASMR? Et quelle est sa place dans la longue tradition de « mu-sique cérébrale », allant des sons binauraux à la Muzak et passant du bruit à la musique concrète et à l’art sonore expérimental?

Erin Gee est une artiste qui travaille dans la composition chorale, les interfaces de données bio-métriques, la robotique et l’ASMR, explorant la culture numérique à travers les métaphores des voix humaines dans des corps électroniques. Dans sa pratique, Gee s’inspire des approches fé-ministes et posthumanistes qui remettent en question les concepts traditionnels de la conscience humaine.

Philippe Battikha est titulaire d’un baccalauréat en Études des musiques intégratives et d’une maîtrise en Studio Arts (concentration Intermedia) de l’Université Concordia. Il a bénéficié de nombreuses bourses et distinctions, dont le programme d’accompagnement et de mentorat du MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels). Il est co-fondateur de l’étiquette Samizdat Records (SZR), ba-sée à Montréal et à Brooklyn. De 2008 à 2012, il a été membre fondateur du projet d’artistes L’Envers à Montréal.

 

 

ASAP Journal

08.09.2019 , Articles, News, Research

Happy to announce that my short article on machine learning, ASMR and sound “Automation as Echo” written with Sofian Audry is now published in ASAP/Journal 4.2 in a collection of articles assembled by Jennifer Rhee covering automation from diverse/creative/critical perspectives.

From the article:

“The echo is a metaphor that goes beyond sound, speaking to the physical and temporal gaps in human-computer interaction that open up a space of aesthetic consumption problematized by the impossibility of comprehending machine perspectives on human terms. The echo unfolds in time, but most importantly it unfolds in space: sound travels as a physical interaction between a subject and an object that seemingly “speaks back.”

The mythological nymph Echo “speaks” or “performs” her subjectivity through reflection or imitation of the voice of human Narcissus. Her (incomplete, sometimes humorous, sometimes uncannily resemblant) nonhuman voice is dependent on the human subject, who is also the progenitor of her speech. The relationship between these two mythological entities creates an apt metaphor for machine learning: its processes are not of the human, yet its “neural” functions are crafted in imitation of and in response to human thought. As machine subjectivity is crafted from human subjectivity, we cannot grasp its machined voice, nor perceive its subjective position, through analysis of its various textual, sonic, visual, and robotic outputs alone. Rather, the “voice” of machine learning is fleeting, heard through the spaces, the gaps, the movements between the machine and the human, the vibrational color of nonhuman noise.”

ABOUT ASAP JOURNAL

ASAP/Journal is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published by John Hopkins University Press that explores new developments in post-1960s visual, media, literary, and performance arts. The scholarly publication of ASAP: The Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present, ASAP/Journal promotes intellectual exchange between artists and critics across the arts and humanities. The journal publishes methodologically cutting-edge, conceptually adventurous, and historically nuanced research about the arts of the present.

Sound Gender Feminism Activism – Tokyo

08.09.2019 , Exhibitions, News

My interactive website for survivors of sexual violence Laughing Web Dot Space will be a part of the exhibition at the SGFA Conference in Tokyo!  I am truly honoured to have been selected for this exhibition and conference, and the opportunity to spread awareness, togetherness, and healing through laughter.

SOUND::GENDER::FEMINISM::ACTIVISM – TOKYO

Chinretsukan Gallery, Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo, Japan)

4 & 5 October 2019

A collaboration between

Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice (CRiSAP), University of the Arts London

Graduate School of Global Arts (GA), Tokyo University of the Arts

Pinch and Soothe

22.08.2019 , Gallery Artwork, Portfolio

Pinch and Soothe (2019)
Custom biofeedback instruments, microcontroller-based hardware, plexiglass.

2019

An interactive biofeedback sculpture for two: the sounds of the bodies are structured through this score for giving/receiving physical pain and healing.

 

Pinch the hand of the other three times.
Soothe the hand of the other three times.

 

Each action can be performed for a short duration or a long duration, lightly or with force, or intermixed.  Listen to the sounds of your bodies, how they both shift and react to these interactions.  The sounds of your body are in your left ear: the sounds of the other’s body are on the right.

Scoring biofeedback beyond the interface, instead scoring interaction, social experience, and relationships across the body.

The interface is purely hardware (bodies with limited memory) so no data is retained in the device.  The biosensors consist of non-invasive heartrate, skin conductance and respiration sensors.  These sensors can be exhibited alongside sterile pads if the public chooses to clean them before use.

Each body has its own tone associated with its heart, breath and respiration.

Respiration is mapped to a clear pitch that fades in and out with the breath through the hardware synthesizer.

Heartbeats are heard as low pulses.

Skin conductance is a high, ethereal tone. Because skin conductance is a value that is not normally perceived or well understood, think of it like a volume knob for emotion, whether positive or negative, accidental or unconscious. It is particularly active during emotions of delight or curiosity, however it tends to spike and fall in moments of non-specific emotion, like a beacon for change.

Sounds are emitted directly into the headphones. The only auditory witnesses are the performers themselves.

The device itself is totally plug and play.  The hardware is intentionally fragile, with non-soldered wires visible – the circuitry is wired in such a way that the power sources are connected, co-dependent: if one half of the circuitry fails, the other will as well.

Please note that documentation of this work was partially obtained through social media, as the pandemic made the possible window for capturing human interaction with the work limited.

Credits

PCB designed by Martin Peach.

Exhibition history

To the Sooe. MacKenzie Art Gallery (Regina, Canada) January 2020 – April 2020 (closed early due to the pandemic)

Cluster Festival. (Winnipeg, Canada) March 2019.

Algorithms that Matter. Lydgalleriet (Bergen, Norway). February 2019.

Gallery

Photo Credits
Erin Gee and Cameron Wiest