Arts

In the fall of 2023, I was lucky enough to participate in a digital art festival in Sofia. As part of this event, I prepared a small experimental set using my favorite modular synthesizers and TouchDesigner. The basis of the performance was a complex feedback loop, slightly more controlled than in my usual experiments, but still very unstable and dangerous. It was a serious challenge for me to perform this live. Unfortunately, there is no quality recording, but I collected some fragments to convey the atmosphere in the hall.

I created this work while contemplating my perception and attitude towards the city of Sofia, where I had been living for more than a year and a half by that time. I walked the streets, recording various sounds: trams, the subway, passing cars, as well as the atmosphere of parks, busy and quiet streets. In the end, I assembled a mosaic from these recordings. The video sequence turned out to be quite simple, but it conveys the feeling of hidden energy and electricity present in the city.

In the winter of 2023, I visited the ski resort of Bansko in Bulgaria. Although there was little snow and we didn’t go skiing, this short trip gave me a rich collection of sound material. With a recorder in hand, I explored the city streets, capturing all the interesting sounds: from the ringing of bells to the creaking of wooden stairs under the feet of my friends descending from the mountain. Upon returning home, I created a musical composition from these field recordings. For the visual accompaniment, I experimented with neural networks for the first time, using Stable Diffusion Deforum, one of the first tools for video generation.

I love working with a modular synthesizer, where devices can be used in completely unexpected and unconventional ways. I especially enjoy creating complex feedback loops, where the signal is not generated by an oscillator, but arises solely from noise and interference within the circuit, amplifying itself. Then you interact with this material, trying to guide it in the right direction. You turn the knobs, listen to what comes out, and try to organize the system; sometimes everything gets out of control, but then you find a point of balance, and then everything falls apart into noise again. I love it!

A work about the terrible present that will eventually come to an end.

This was a concert with the same guys we collaborated with at Sound Artist. A year later, we came together again and performed, each of us bringing new experience. This time, in addition to synthesizers, I prepared a visual component for the performance.

This is a recording of my first performance with a modular synthesizer. At that time, I was not yet using a visual component. The event took place after the completion of our course at Sound Artist, and several participants took turns performing. I was one of them and used the modular. I was very nervous, but everything turned out even a little better than I expected. I thought it would be much worse. This moment became important and memorable for me.

With this series of works, my acquaintance with TouchDesigner began. When I first opened the program, I started to figure it out and was pleasantly surprised by how familiar it felt to me, despite the fact that I was using it for the first time. It reminded me of Houdini, as the two have a lot in common. Very soon I started using GLSL because it was the way to have full control and complexity in real time. With my academic background, I wanted to explore how traditional art and visual aesthetics can look in the format of real-time generative video. ...