04.10.2024
20:00
Artists: Jonathan Reus and Jaap Blonk
Libertas, Kopališko nabrežje, 6000 Koper, Slovenia
More info HERE

As part of the opening of IZIS Festival in Koper, Jonathan Reus will present BLA BLAVATAR vs. JAAP BLONK – an experimental collaboration together with sound poet and vocal improviser Jaap Blonk exploring voice dataset making as a laborious, improvisational and absurdly banal performance form. 

This performance is one of the outcomes of Reus’ 2023-24 S+T+ARTS EU residency work Dadasets, which explores the hidden labor of dataset creation and AI training through the perspective of human voices.

IZIS Festival is an annual event and exhibition organised by PiNA, and one of Slovenia’s premier cultural events presenting international forward-thinking new media art and audio/visual performances. This 12th edition of the festival is curated by Irena Borić with the theme JUST CONTROL.

BLA BLAVATAR vs JAAP BLONK is an experimental sound poetry performance by Jaap Blonk and Jonathan Reus that brings the vocal labor behind AI voice models to the stage. The performance is an absurdist take on the cultural obsession with generative AI avatars and creative automation. Rather than focusing on the uncanny realism of voice clones, the performance focuses on the physical, creative and mental effort of performing sound poetry according to a precise, AI-friendly script. Embracing the liberating joy of speech without meaning, and the cultural wealth of abundant nonsense made by generative AI systems, Blonk and Reus have created a set of dataset sound poems for live performance. 

Reus performs as BLA BLAVATAR, using a custom real-time voice synthesis instrument trained on previous dataset poem performances by Blonk. The dynamic between Blonk and Reus sways from moments of precise and controlled material to improvised duets between Blonk and his vocal avatar. During the performance all of Blonk’s vocalisations are recorded and added to a growing public dataset, and will be used as training data for making BLA BLAVATAR a better public speaker.

Made possible with support from:

Stroom Den Haag

S+T+ARTS AIR, “Making the Invisible Visible”, is funded by European Union call CNECT/2022/3482066 – Art and the digital: Unleashing creativity for European industry, regions, and society under grant agreement LC-01984767. It is part of the S+T+ARTS programme.