[rohrpost] KHM KOELN: Nocturne 17: Lars Graugaard. 9.4.08, Aula KHM

[Martin Rumori]

Klanglabor der Kunsthochschule für Medien lädt ein:

Nocturne 17

CONCERT/LECTURE

Lars Graugaard

Mittwoch, 9. April 2008, 20 Uhr
Aula der Kunsthochschule für Medien
Filzengraben 2
Köln-Altstadt
Nähe Heumarkt

Eintritt frei

http://www.khm.de


Meaningful interaction in multi- and cross-modalities require  
understanding of intentions and emotions. This is effortlessly done  
by humans (mostly), and it must also be the case for adequate  
response synthesis when a machine is involved. Embodiment - the  
concept of the body as a self-supporting mediator between low-level  
physical input and the dynamic forming of high-level clusters of  
meaning and emotion - provides a framework together with its  
practical methods for the formalisation of such soft knowledge in a  
procedural context.

The lecture's first part will go through the theoretical basis and  
empirical evidence of embodied cognition. It will emphasize the  
action/reaction amalgam as a non-linguistic, yet highly content- and  
experience-driven undertaking where communication, memory-building,  
and real-time adapting of knowledge emerges from the continued need  
to act in an environment. Knowledge is embedded in actions because  
actions are developed as reward-driven, learnable, modifiable, and  
subjective real-time bio-mechanical manifestations. Actions hereby  
take on a cultural signification, and when embodied cognition takes  
these aspects into account, it facilitates a wider range of cross- 
modal interaction data than a purely cognitive or mechanical  
approach. Its employment is therefore convenient in a mediated  
situation - to the extend we now are able to capture and analyse  
actions - because actions within a mediated space is fundamentally  
about knowledge, and not only about the short-term relationship  
between the subject and its environment.

The lecture's second part will address the weak discrimination  
between modalities in the action/reaction based approach, which  
points to the well-known inherent problem of imbalance in multimedia  
works. Aspects of research into creativity are used to underpin an  
approach for maintaining cross-modal creativity in problem-solving on  
an increasing scale in the specific area of multimedia, where  
creativity is balanced with the concept of appropriateness.

The lecture will end with practical demonstrations.


Lars Graugaard, (geb. 1957), danischer Flötist und Komponist, bewegt
sich an den Schnittstellen von klassischer und digitaler
elektronischer Musik.  Neben seinen unzähligen Kompositionen (die u.a
bei Sony Classical und EMI veröffentlicht wurden) beschäftigt er sich
mit der Inszenierung intermedialer Opern unter Verwendung aller
möglichen und unmöglichen Technologien und Konzepte der
zeitgenössischen Medienkunst.

Neben den klassischen Bildmedien ist Graugaard, als eingefleischter  
Max/MSP/Jitter Programmierer, ständig bestrebt, die Frage der Mensch- 
Maschine Interaktion und deren Verbindung zu menschlichem Ausdruck zu  
vertiefen und zu erweitern. Diese Arbeit verfolgt er, quasi nebenbei,  
auch als künstlerischer Leiter von Konferenzen wie der ICMC 2007  
(International Computer Music Conference), der ISCM World Music Days  
(International Symposium for Contemporary Music) oder des Re:New  
Festivals 2008, das den Titel "Genesis of meaning in digital art"  
trägt.

Graugaard promovierte im Fach Interaktive Performances an der Oxford
Brookes Universtität. Zur Zeit leitet er eine Forschungsgruppe zum
Thema Expressive Interaktions am Centre for Design Research an der
Dänischen Akademie der Künste. Er ist Gastprofessor an der
isländischen Akademie der Künste, der Aalborg Universität im Esbjerg
Department of Software and Media Technology, sowie an der Carl-
Nielsen-Academy of Music (Dänemark).