AI & Music powered by S+T+ARTS, with support from LaSalle URL’s IASLab

AI has been marketed as a tool for automating creativity or making music from text prompts - but what would happen if we went in the opposite direction? What would happen if we learnt to play AI like an instrument? Les Paul’s sound on sound and flanging, distortion pedals, the Moog ladder filter, the TR-808’s faulty transistors: instrument makers have always pushed technology outside its intended use and past the breaking point. How can we make AI musicianship more expressive - and how can we break it?

These are the questions that the participants of the second edition of the AI Performance Playground will attempt to answer, over the course of three days of intensive workshops split between Sónar+D and La-Salle URL’s IASLab. The 12 participants - selected via an open call held in January this year, will collaborate, experiment and create under the watchful eyes and gentle supervision of experimental music producer and researcher Anna Xambó, plus electronic musician, educator and CTO of DataMind Audio, Ben Cantil aka Encanti. It all culminates with a radical, unprecedented collaborative live showcase on Saturday at Sónar+D, where you’ll be able to witness the fruits of their labours.