The Mutant Data Orchestra rewires the products of our digital society to expose the hidden agents within. Through live circuit modification of digital answering machines, cheap digital toys and sound instruments the performers manipulate the data pathways and exert on their sound production without the use of a conventional software interface. These sonic generators produce shards of noise with auto-improvised stabs of high pitched bell and cello tones. At times one can hear the intermeshing of data as a liquid waterfall of sonic information.

The Mutant Data Orchestra performs with rewired digital instruments which are designed to occupy a balance between chaos and control. This attractor is utilized to navigate improvised compositions toward ideal aesthetics based on the particular characteristics of each machine. Sonified data is manipulated through added interfaces and network capabilities providing new chip to chip connections within and among individual machines. The artists essentially build sonic organisms live on stage implying hidden sonic urbanism's reflecting the micro-urbanism's of the digital chips and their individual connections. Digital memory does have a sound and the Mutant Data Orchestra exploits this fact.

Personnel:

John Bain - modified digital electronics

Collaborators:

Mark Bain - vibrating buildings & electronics

Ffej Mandel - analog synthesizer

Mishka Morris - cello & effects

Otis F. Odder - samples

Ivory Smith - vocals & effects

Gregory Reynolds - sax

Angelina Baldoz - trumpet

 

Past Collaborations:

Martha Colburn - projections

InBoil - electronics

Rebreather - electronics

Intonorumori - electronics

Dessislava Karushkova - projections

Tero Nauha - voice

Entropic Advance - electronics

David Ledogar - dance

Allan Freed - oscillators

Bhob Rainey - soprano sax

Greg Kelly - trumpet

James Coleman - theremin

Vic Rawlings - cello

 

Selected Past Shows:

Smart Project Space, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 4/29/03

)toon) Festival, Haarlem, The Netherlands, 4/21/03

Edith Ruß Site for Media Art, performing with Sonusphere, Oldenburg, Germany 3/28/03

Mutant Data Orchestra at the Edith Ruß Site for Media Art, 11 min. (mp3)

Montage Musik: Rauschen at The Podewil Media Center, Berlin, Germany 10/22/01

Amorph!01 performance art festival, performing as Akku, Helsinki, Finland 9/22/01

Phoenix Festival, southwest Washington 7/01

Worm/Dodorama, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7/00

ReConstructies at Het Paard, The Hague, The Netherlands, produced by Cell 8/99

DEAF98, The Dutch Electronic Arts Festival at V2, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 10/98