Category: 2023

What about food and VR technologies?

During PIFcamp 2023, Sophia Bulgakova is planning to experiment with food and various augmentation of reality using XR technologies and analogue tools of sensory deprivation while dining.

She wants to conduct testing & tasting sessions together with other participants exploring their relationship with various sensory stimulants with a focus on food and dining as a communal ritual. How can a change in visual perception affect the taste of certain foods? Can physical togetherness be achieved at a distance? How our taste buds be tricked by the stimulation of other senses? These experimentations will be a part of her collaborative, ongoing umbrella project, Metaphysical Tastings, which Sophia is working on together with Leonardo Scarin & Cemre Deniz Kara.

Sophia will also continue her experimentations with the analogue/digital VJ set-up she is developing and work on arranging jam and play sessions with other participants of this year’s program.

Body to Code by Laurent Malys

Laurent Malys is working on a show that mixes dance and techniques of live music composition. He build a prosthesis to attach each part of a split computer keyboard to his hands, allowing him to type while moving freely and dancing.

The show is intended to be an ironic and impractical transhumanist performance that will show the creativity of algorithmic and electronic music, while bringing all the musical expressiveness through the movement of the body. It is also a questioning of the interfaces between humans and machines/instruments and our relationship to technical languages.

The technical part of the project involves three software components that are in an early stage of development and will continue to be built and tested during PIFcamp:
– tui-seq: A terminal user interface for live composition and live coding (using FoxDot and supercollider)
– body2ctrl: A set of computer vision tools that can translate movement of the body into musical control
– ofxpartloop: An “event-driven” music visualization software (made in Openframeworks)

During the PIFcamp, Laurent will try to engage other participants to experiment ‘body2ctrl’ to control music software or their own software or hardware synthetiser (via midi or osc).

Laurent Malys makes sound and moving images with algorithm and electronics and experiment with various ways to mix music, visuals and performance (with live-coding, digital and analog synthesis, vector synthesis, electronics, mechanics, fabrication.)

Food & Ecosystems: Nourishing Connections through Nature

Fransisca Tan is an Austrian food experience designer with a diverse background in cognitive sciences, communication, gastronomy, and media technology. With a deep-rooted passion for exploring and curating transformative human experiences, Fransisca uses the multisensory power of food as her canvas. As an artist, creative producer, and international project manager, she endeavors to foster connections among individuals from diverse backgrounds, unveiling the profound significance of community and compassion. 

In her project for PIFcamp, all participants are invited to collaborate and embark on a collective exploration. Together, they may delve into the fascinating questions such as: How does food and our environment shape our interactions?  What does the future (of food) smell, taste and feel like to our touch – engaging all our senses? The beautiful surroundings of Soča valley will partake in this explorative journey by feeding inspirations on ecosystem thinking. 

During the event, participants can look forward to engaging talks challenging concepts such as food waste and nature, hacking rituals & cultural practices surrounding food, and workshops on sensory exploration that venture beyond traditional culinary boundaries. 

Join Fransisca and fellow participants at PIFcamp as they unlock the mysteries of our relationship with food, each other and the natural world, and collectively envision a future that tantalizes not just our taste buds but all our senses.

Experiments in Echolocation by Rodolfo Acosta Castro

70% of the bat species use echolocation to hunt and communicate. The ultrasound signals that bats emit are above human hearing, but we can bring them down to our perception with some electronics. Let’s build a couple of Bat-detectors and let’s search for bats at the Soča river when the sun comes down. 

No bats? No problem! We can steal the bats superpower and build a small square-wave synth secretly screaming for attention. 

Rodolfo Acosta Castro is a Berlin based artist working with electronics, code and nature in theater context. He will try some experiments with ultrasound transmitters and is happy to collaborate with other projects, to improvise or use new materials.