My work capitalizes on the potential of art, technology, and data to not only document the evolving human and environmental landscapes but also to inspire transformative action. By exploring the multisensory aspects of our world and promoting community engagement, I hope to contribute to the broader dialogue on change and progress in the realms of art, technology, and society. In doing so, I aim to facilitate a future that is both innovative and socially responsible, driven by the power of data and the creative spirit.
Méiyǒu shālù - without killing (A. Troisi 2023)
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"Méiyǒu shālù (Without Killing)" stands as a collaborative venture, a confluence of acousmatic music and interpretive dance that I, Anna Troisi, had the honor of creating alongside the esteemed Rongrong Gao, an exceptional dancer with a distinguished background from the Beijing Dance Academy.
This piece was a definitive feature of the past "Great Sounds Seek Silence: Sonic and Visual Art Exhibition," held |
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at the Exhibition Space on the Ground Floor of the St. James Hatcham Building in London from the 24th to the 30th of November 2023.
In this collaboration, Rongrong Gao brought unparalleled grace and expertise to the performance, engaging in a poignant exchange that traversed the realms of auditory creation and physical narrative. Inspired by the sage insights of Laozi, our work deeply resonated with the exhibition's theme, echoing the intricate interplay between silence and sound, the formless and the shaped.
"Méiyǒu shālù" was not merely a performance but an immersive experience that wove together art, culture, and philosophy. It invited the audience to a celebration of the profound depth of Chinese tradition while advocating for peace and non-violence, themes that find universal resonance across all cultures and time.
At the heart of our performance was the innovative use of Chinese characters for "without killing" [沒有殺戮] as a graphic score, moving beyond traditional musical notation to intertwine visual art with sound in a profound and contemplative manner. These characters, intricate and visually captivating, became more than text—they transformed into an auditory experience, harmonizing sight and sound in a display that embodied the exhibition's exploration of the visual influenced by the non-visual.
The performance was a poignant symbol of pacifism, addressing the exhibition's dichotomy of sound and silence. The absence of violence, encapsulated by "without killing," emerged as a profound silence, echoing more powerfully than any audible sound.
Through "Méiyǒu shālù," I aimed to convey a pacifist message, inviting the audience to reflect on the profound impact of non-violence and the potent stillness of peace. The composition itself was an acousmatic journey, inviting the audience to immerse themselves in a soundscape created by these Chinese characters, transcending linguistic barriers to evoke deep contemplation and reflection.
This piece stood as a testament to the collaborative creation and the enduring belief in the power of art to embody and communicate the principles of Tao and the teachings of peace. The performance was so well-received that the Goldsmiths Confucius Institute For Dance and Performance has graciously offered to produce a film directed by Dove Che, capturing the essence of this captivating work. This film is set to be screened at the Chinese New Year festival organized by the institute in February 2024, promising to extend the reach and impact of "Méiyǒu shālù" to an even wider audience.
In this collaboration, Rongrong Gao brought unparalleled grace and expertise to the performance, engaging in a poignant exchange that traversed the realms of auditory creation and physical narrative. Inspired by the sage insights of Laozi, our work deeply resonated with the exhibition's theme, echoing the intricate interplay between silence and sound, the formless and the shaped.
"Méiyǒu shālù" was not merely a performance but an immersive experience that wove together art, culture, and philosophy. It invited the audience to a celebration of the profound depth of Chinese tradition while advocating for peace and non-violence, themes that find universal resonance across all cultures and time.
At the heart of our performance was the innovative use of Chinese characters for "without killing" [沒有殺戮] as a graphic score, moving beyond traditional musical notation to intertwine visual art with sound in a profound and contemplative manner. These characters, intricate and visually captivating, became more than text—they transformed into an auditory experience, harmonizing sight and sound in a display that embodied the exhibition's exploration of the visual influenced by the non-visual.
The performance was a poignant symbol of pacifism, addressing the exhibition's dichotomy of sound and silence. The absence of violence, encapsulated by "without killing," emerged as a profound silence, echoing more powerfully than any audible sound.
Through "Méiyǒu shālù," I aimed to convey a pacifist message, inviting the audience to reflect on the profound impact of non-violence and the potent stillness of peace. The composition itself was an acousmatic journey, inviting the audience to immerse themselves in a soundscape created by these Chinese characters, transcending linguistic barriers to evoke deep contemplation and reflection.
This piece stood as a testament to the collaborative creation and the enduring belief in the power of art to embody and communicate the principles of Tao and the teachings of peace. The performance was so well-received that the Goldsmiths Confucius Institute For Dance and Performance has graciously offered to produce a film directed by Dove Che, capturing the essence of this captivating work. This film is set to be screened at the Chinese New Year festival organized by the institute in February 2024, promising to extend the reach and impact of "Méiyǒu shālù" to an even wider audience.
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Hyperdrone #2
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---Concert Programme---
- Introduction - Chase - Andrew Knight-Hill - [WORLD PREMIERE] - The Swan - Camille Saint-Saëns - Free Music 1 & 2 - Percy Grainger - Rhythmicon Ensemble - Lydia Kavina - Hyperdrone #2 - Anna Triosi - [WORLD PREMIERE] - Mixing Radio - Lydia Kavina - Theremin Breaks - Mishael Holdbrook [WORLD PREMIERE] - Theremin Film Music - Bernard Herrmann, Danny Elfman, Howard Shaw - Sirenscapes - Nadine Schütz - [WORLD PREMIERE] |
This version of the Hyperdrone includes prepared piano and was specially modified for the performance of the virtuoso Lydia Kavina celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the invention of the Theremin.
It has been such a great honour!
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Lydia Kavina is one of the leading performing musicians on the theremin. She began studying the theremin at the age of 9 under the direction of Léon Theremin. Lydia’s most notable recent works were solo performance in Danny Elfman’s UK concert tour with BBC concert orchestra and London Concert orchestra (2013-2014), as well as the theremin solo in ''The Little Mermaid'', a ballet by Lera Auerbach, choreographed by John Neumeier, in Copenhagen New Opera House, Hamburger Staatsoper and Beijing Tianqiao Theater, (2005-2015). Lydia played for a number of film soundtracks including “Ed Wood” and “eXistetnZ” with music by Howard Shore and ''The Machinist'' by Roque Banos.
It has been such a great honour!
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Lydia Kavina is one of the leading performing musicians on the theremin. She began studying the theremin at the age of 9 under the direction of Léon Theremin. Lydia’s most notable recent works were solo performance in Danny Elfman’s UK concert tour with BBC concert orchestra and London Concert orchestra (2013-2014), as well as the theremin solo in ''The Little Mermaid'', a ballet by Lera Auerbach, choreographed by John Neumeier, in Copenhagen New Opera House, Hamburger Staatsoper and Beijing Tianqiao Theater, (2005-2015). Lydia played for a number of film soundtracks including “Ed Wood” and “eXistetnZ” with music by Howard Shore and ''The Machinist'' by Roque Banos.
Norm contaminated [A Troisi 2018]
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Norm contaminated is a work commissioned by Arts Catalyst for the Exhibition “Brownsea: an imaginary island (an island of the imaginary)” 22/03/2018 to 12/05/2018 - Arts Catalyst, 74-76 Cromer Street, King's Cross, London.
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Exhibition “Brownsea: an imaginary island (an island of the imaginary)” 22/03/2018 to 12/05/2018 - Arts Catalyst, 74-76 Cromer Street, King's Cross, London. Pictures courtesy of Neal White.
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Norm Contaminated is part of a series of artists’ projects, curatorial interventions, and transdisciplinary research Test Sites: Poole, which is curated and produced by Arts Catalyst and it is the result of a field work taken place the 22nd of February 2018 around the Perenco Oil Farm, Poole, Dorset. The commission for the exhibition and co-inquiry aimed to respond to the issue to involve the local community to respond collectively to social and environmental challenges in the local area of the Poole harbour. This piece is part of a project called Test Sites, a longitudinal environmental project with a range of partner institutions (The Forestry Commission, The National Trust, and Canals and Rivers Trust). The long-term goal is to engage the public in a discussion of ethical and social implications of environmental politics, and to address key issues of sustainability for agencies and local socially engaged groups, clubs and societies. Link at the page event:
https://www.artscatalyst.org/brownsea-imaginary-island-island-imaginary
https://www.artscatalyst.org/brownsea-imaginary-island-island-imaginary
Pictures taken during the audio recording fieldwork at the Perenco Oil Farm (February 2018)
Hyperdrone - [N White, A Troisi, R Smith 2015-2016]
The video below is of a Field Experiment conducted at Wysing in July 2015. The HyperDrone is a project developed by Rob Smith, Anna Troisi and Neal White for the "Office of Experiments". The HyperDrone is an instrument that generates acoustic waves taken from the data generated by seismic sensors across the surface of the entire globe. The data here is supplied by the Atomic Weapons Establishment Blacknest, Reading UK, which is part of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) ctbto.org/photos/#ctbto_gallery_14362/1 which monitors the ground for nuclear scale explosions. This data is now contributing to other systems, such as early warning earthquake and tsunami alerts data.The entire network acts as a 'hyper' object, that is, a form which is too large (in scale of space/time etc), or too small in scale (of visibility etc), to be perceived by humans without the use of scientific systems.
Data is arranged to be played back to generate resonance - a hyper 'drone' through the radome panel itself. The panel has been developed to work with a resonating geometric ‘tensegrity’ structure which was designed and made from aluminium and steel by Rob Smith during his artist residency at Wysing, where the Hyper Drone is currently located. (text by N.White).
Data is arranged to be played back to generate resonance - a hyper 'drone' through the radome panel itself. The panel has been developed to work with a resonating geometric ‘tensegrity’ structure which was designed and made from aluminium and steel by Rob Smith during his artist residency at Wysing, where the Hyper Drone is currently located. (text by N.White).
Hyperdrone at The Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, 2015
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RCA Dyson Gallery, London 2016
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"Objectif Exhibitions" Gallery , Antwerp 2016
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The project extends research undertaken into the global techno-scientific sites, from labs to observatories that support advances in human development; experimentation, scientific instruments, supercomputing advances etc. Using the deep geometry of data, the abstractions of science and other forms of human interpretations of the natural world, a scientific belief system, the work challenges the viewer to consider their own scale and sense of place in relation to unfolding ‘hyper’ events and their ability now and in the future, to understand events such as climate change – events beyond their own temporal register or senses.
History and Thanks
The Radome Panel was part of a golf ball shaped sphere used to cover military and industrial satellite dishes and radar - used to trace or work with near earth objects such as planes, GPS satellites etc. It was acquired for Steve Rowell (Member of Office of Experiments, 2010-) for the project ‘Ultimate High Ground’, which was part of ‘Dark Places’, curated by Office of Experiments at John Hansard Gallery with Arts Catalyst and SCAN in 2009. The experiment has been developed so far with thanks to Wysing and the Experimental Media Research Group at Bournemouth University.
Exhibited:
History and Thanks
The Radome Panel was part of a golf ball shaped sphere used to cover military and industrial satellite dishes and radar - used to trace or work with near earth objects such as planes, GPS satellites etc. It was acquired for Steve Rowell (Member of Office of Experiments, 2010-) for the project ‘Ultimate High Ground’, which was part of ‘Dark Places’, curated by Office of Experiments at John Hansard Gallery with Arts Catalyst and SCAN in 2009. The experiment has been developed so far with thanks to Wysing and the Experimental Media Research Group at Bournemouth University.
Exhibited:
- The Wysing Arts Centre, August 2015
- DHRA 2016 Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts
- 9 Events with Tina O'Connell & Neal White at the RCA Dyson Gallery, in association with Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp Saturday 5 March - Friday 25 March 2016
- "Objectif Exhibitions" Gallery in the exhibition of Neal White "Sites of Excavation and Construction" 13 November 2015–16 January 2016 http://objectif-exhibitions.org/programme/exhibitions/neal-white-sites-of-excavation-and-construction
OB-scene, a live audio/visual performance for photoplethysmograph and female body [A Troisi 2016-ongoing]
OB-scene, is a performance centred on a live sonification of biological data gathered in real-time with a medical probe (photoplethysmograph), made by the author. The use of the photoplethysmograph, which takes inspiration from the first medical vaginal probes used for diagnostic purposes by Masters and Johnson (1966) introduces a media-archaeological aspect to this work. Data gathered through the probe is processed and transformed into sound and visuals projected in the exhibition space. OB-scene takes inspiration from Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter (2009) in which she argues that human agency has echoes in nonhuman nature and vice versa, shifting away from anthropocentrism towards the concept of “vital materiality” that runs across bodies, both humans and unhuman. Furthermore, OB-Scene is affiliated with an emerging movement of women and technology called ’XenoFeminism’ (XF). It introduces the idea of techno-alienation and focuses on the concept of other/diverse desires, new forms of desiring, experiencing something other (Laboria Cuboniks 2015). In this specific work, this takes the form of a technofeminism incorporating the fluid, the non-human, and the diverse. In this performance, the body is fused with the technology, rather than empowered or enhanced by technology itself, body and technology become a unique actant (Latour 2009) enabling the audience to experience the sensorial assemblage as a space for communal experience with political implications. OB- scene is as an immersive environmental work where the senses, affect, and memory were key features of “assemblage thinking” (Hamilaikis 2017).
TRANSMEDIALE 2016, panel called “Transmediale /Panic Room / From C to X - an alphabet of intersectional feminism”.” Berlin, February 2016
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The performance at the Artaud Performance Centre, Brunel University , London. April 2016
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Futurefest 2017, Tobacco Dock, London
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CFP The Politics of Performance and Play. Feminist Matters, Institute for Philosophy, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands, July 2016
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Keen-skin 2.0 [A Troisi 2015]
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"Keen-skin" is a performance based on haptic sensations by combined tactile and kinaesthetic feedback measured through electroencephalography. Streamed data create a sound experience generated by real emotions of both performer and “user”. Keen-Skin consists in an immersive interactive installation that intends to create an augmented reality of human tactile senses, emotions that are triggered by movements of the performance, but also from the sound itself. Humans haptic interaction relates to all aspects of touch and body movement but also to the application of human senses to the digital interactive language. Interpersonal touch is an undervalued aspect of human nature; the proposed installation aims to create an environment where the most profound communication channel for humans takes a renewed meaningful role.
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The performer will wear EEG wireless system as well as the participant; data will be streamed and processed in order to create an intriguing environment in respect of the emotional state of the participants. The original software is programmed used Max/MSP over OSC-router and the sound will be spatialised through a quadraphonic high quality sound diffusion system.
Exhibited:
Exhibited:
- Transmission Symposium Business Centre Bournemouth University, 22nd April 2015
- DRHA, Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts, DCU Dublin, 1st-3rd September 2015
Nonrecursive [EMERGE research centre, 2015-2018]
NonRecursive is a free-entry experimental music/sound-art event featuring a soundtrack of electronic atmospheres, noisescapes, pulses/rhythms and tones/drones. The programme will include explorations of hardware-hacked devices, simple electronic instruments, data networks and basic sensors to augment and inform laptop improvisations, immersive fixed-media soundscapes and live visuals.
Performances will be by a selection of artists connected to Bournemouth University who use technology as part of their creative practice.
Performers include: Anna Troisi, Antonino Chiaramonte, Rob Canning, Bill Thompson, Ambrose Seddon, Tom Davis, Panos Amelidis.
Performances will be by a selection of artists connected to Bournemouth University who use technology as part of their creative practice.
Performers include: Anna Troisi, Antonino Chiaramonte, Rob Canning, Bill Thompson, Ambrose Seddon, Tom Davis, Panos Amelidis.
Talk to me [J Ng, A Troisi, S Gregg, A Chiaramonte 2012]
Talk to me is a digital art web installation that serves to augment the story world of Override, a theatrical production by Stacey Gregg, commissioned by Watford Palace Theatre (London). Talk to me intends to spark discussion and raise public awareness of the issues involved in digital media use, particularly the ways people configure their sense of selves and their social relations through digital media. This work was supported by AHRC, Watford Palace Theatre, CRASSH, University of Cambridge.
Exhibited:
Exhibited:
- 10th International Symposium on Computer Music Multidisciplinary Research, Marseille, France, October 15-18, 2013
- EMUfest, International Electroacustic Music Festival (Conservatorio di Roma S. Cecilia, Rome 20-29/10/2013)
- Di-stanze, community festival of sound arts, Various Venues 18-30/12/2014
The video use for the interactive installation. Functionality of the web installation has not been mantained alive.
Below a selection of previous projects on computer music and music research
Live touring (US/Europe)
Electroshop [A Troisi, A Chiaramonte 2009-2015]
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The Electroshop ensemble focuses on instrumental sound-based artworks comprising both mechanical and non-mechanical gesture (sounding sculptures). The position adopted in this research is that new musical interfaces demand new musical contexts, and vice-versa. The use of new interfaces reflects the aim of creating a unique work of art where fine arts, sound, programming, interaction paradigms between performers, composition and performance create an intermedial experience.
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Performed at
- 9th Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology – CIM14, Berlin (4-6/12/2014)
- Issue Project Room, New York City, (USA) 2011
- Brecht Forum, New York City (USA) 2011
- Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival, University of Plymouth (UK) 2010
- Emufest, International Electroacustic Music Festival (Conservatorio di Roma S. Cecilia, Rome 2010
- 46th Nuova Consonanza Festival - Roma. 2009
How to play a duet with a subatomic particles [2011]
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‘Cloud Chamber’ - a composition by Alexis Kirke, Antonino Chiaramonte, and Anna Troisi - is a live performance in which the invisible quantum world becomes visible as a violinist and subatomic particle tracks interact together. An electronic instrument was developed which can be "played" live by radioactive atomic particles. Electronic circuitry was developed enabling a violin to create a physical force field that directly affects the ions generated by cosmic radiation particles. This enabled the violinist and the ions to influence each other musically in real time. A glass cloud chamber was used onstage to make radioactivity visible in bright white tracks moving within, with the tracks projected onto a large screen.
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Article on "Wired" by Olivia Solon
Presented at ICMC International Computer Music Conference (Huddersflield, 2011)
Published on MIT PRESS JOURNAL, Leonardo 2013.
Presented at ICMC International Computer Music Conference (Huddersflield, 2011)
Published on MIT PRESS JOURNAL, Leonardo 2013.
Anna Troisi and Carsten Goertz @ EME 08, Lisbon, Portugal
Issue Project Room, New York CITY 2011
Transitus [A Troisi - work in progress]
Conceptually, this project draws on the “Transiti” of Mario Perniola, to explore my own physical interpretation of “transĭtus” as a passage through different “situs” (locations, emotions, pleasure, pain, frustration) by means of restraints.My next performance “Transitus” builds on the themes and technologies developed for Ob-scene: This is conceived as a digital performance where the ancient art of Shibari intersects with the data mediated art. Data gathered by ropes equipped by original sensors of my own making, combined with the original software I’m coding will be able to produce sounds while restraining and suspending the performer’s body. The technology will be near-invisible (as usually in my performances).
Rope serves here as a stand-in for the multiple forms of restraint (and self-restraint) that bodies are subjected to. I aim to create a performance-environment that enables the audience to perceive through the sensing of data the trans-emotional experience of the performer. This project addresses resilience and the “magical” passage of resilience from objects (ropes) to persons and communities (body). Often, in fact, is the community resilience sustaining when confronting endogenous and exogenous shocks.