Army of Darkness. A generative sound installation by Gullibloon.

Army of Darkness is a generative sound installation, in which four custom-programmed minirobots act as instrumentalists, playing electric guitars and basses. The robots move freely in a room with a network of black lines laid out on the floor. They are programmed to follow the lines and to find their way back on course in case of going off track. On some special points of interest, guitars and basses are placed upside down so that the robots, prepared with a kind of plectrum, are able to play the instruments by driving underneath them. Sensors monitor these points and initiate a plucking algorithm. Each robot tries to play a guitar or bass for a certain amount of time and moves on afterwards. The robots can detune the instruments by hitting the boundaries of the installation. This triggers the detuning of one or more instruments, generating complex harmonics that evolve throughout the session. Changes in the distortion applied by a computer to the sound of the instruments before feeding the amplifiers and the decrease of the robots’ battery power configure a dramatical progression of the piece until reaching the throes of death.

Gullibloon is a Berlin/Barcelona-based group of audio artists and programmers interested in algorithmic and over-directed audio and video creation.

Thursday-Saturday 16-18.12.2010

Nivell Zero / Fundació Suñol. Rosselló, 240. Barcelona. Metro Diagonal.

Free admission
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