With live demos of Clara 2.0 (a theremin-playing robot doll) and other curiosities, Sarah explores her own approach to digital arts. Her work may use computers and embedded microprocessors - but Sarah aims to create interactive objects with a tactile and convincing quality that extend beyond the computer screen and mouse. Sewer pipes, car park technology and roboticised toys are just some of the items she’s appropriated over the last few years to create novel experiences. Sarah shows some of the thinking that goes into her work and reveals how she shamelessly mines ideas from cognitive science, stage magic, ancient music and other areas to come up with new ideas. She’ll briefly discuss her latest work, inspired by an Edwardian funfair illusion, that’s currently interesting researchers of human perception.

Trained in electroacoustics, music and a little evolutionary robotics, Sarah Angliss specialises in creating original sound installations, exhibits and live performances that mix cutting-edge science with vintage sound technology and little known stories from the history of science. An experienced creator of one-off installations and exhibits, Sarah is also a regular performer, particularly known for her skills on the theremin and musical saw.

Regularly featured in the national press, Sarah’s solo and collaborative work exploring infrasonic music, Category 4 diseases, cyborgs, extreme reverb, the uncanny valley, genetic privacy, evolutionary music, dogs in space, hurdy gurdies, Swinging London and a host of other topics has been seen and heard at venues throughout the UK. These include the Brighton Festival, Cheltenham Music and Science Festivals, Final Cut, the Eden Project, Edinburgh International Science Festival, Glasgow Science Centre, London Zoo, South Bank Centre, Science Museum, Soho Theatre, Southwold Pier and Winchester Festival of Art and Mind.

On Radio 4, Roger Highfield described Sarah’s electroacoustic cabaret act at Cheltenham as ‘the most surreal and memorable moment of the festival’. Two of her recent, interactive sound shows, Senster and The Haunt, were shortlisted as ’standout shows’ of Brighton Festival 2006.

Links:

Spacedog UK (owned and run by Sarah Angliss)
NESTA interview

The IOCT Salon is managed by Chris Joseph, Digital Writer in Residence at the Institute of Creative Technologies, De Montfort University. This residency is funded by Arts Council England: East Midlands.

Most of the general public rarely sees or is even aware of the development of alternative controllers and musical interfaces, so it is particularly interesting to read some of the comments on the YouTube video showing the reacTable’s use in Björk’s performance.

Introduction: All people have experienced hearing sounds produced when they touch and manipulate different materials. We know what it will sound like to bang our fist against a wooden door, or to crumple a piece of newspaper. We can imagine what a coffee mug will sound like if it is dropped onto a concrete floor. But our wealth of experience handling physical materials does not typically produce much intuition for operating a new electronic instrument, given the inherently arbitrary mapping from gesture to sound.

Approach: The Sound of Touch is a new instrument for real-time capture and sensitive physical stimulation of sound samples using digital convolution. Our hand-held wand can be used to (1) record sound, then (2) playback the recording by brushing, scraping, striking or otherwise physically manipulating the wand against physical objects. During playback, the recorded sound is continuously filtered by the acoustic interaction of the wand and the material being touched. Our texture kit allows for convenient acoustic exploration of a range of materials. The system enables a flexible capture and manipulation of audio that is characteristic of digital tools, but in a direct and physical manner that approaches the continuous experience of manipulating acoustic musical instruments and found objects. The Sound of Touch allows people to leverage their existing intuitions about how different objects will sound when these objects are touched, struck, or otherwise physically manipulated – a feature shared by acoustic instruments and objects from our everyday lives. It is thus a sonic exploration tool that borrows properties from both acoustic and electronic sound creation, bringing them together in a way that incorporates advantages of each. More >> At SIGGRAPH 2007.