Theodore Telonis

_____Data centers and the cloud have become omnipresent forces in society at large. Today more than ever we have access to faster and stronger technology which allows us to upload, download, and share information instantly on a global scale. The pragmatism of the cloud is efficient and so undeniably useful to the point where we would never willingly go back to archaic methods of data transfer. Fear is growing in the public in relation to the cloud; we have all unknowingly signed away our privacy - all of our data is being collected and sold through the same means which we currently navigate the internet.
____We plan to investigate data centers as sites with physical locations, as well as data centers as a type of universal infrastructure, architecture, and as an immaterial cloud. The data stored within the cloud is composed of us collectively; in this sense, data centers can be thought of as a pantheistic body for humanity. Diving deeper, panpsychism allows us 1 2 to imagine that all matter, regardless of size, has a consciousness. The paper trail of our data is actually carrying a piece of our existence and uploading it to a universal neural network composed of all digital information.
____This investigation will manifest itself as an infinitely long sonic arrangement and film. In creating an infinitely long piece, we are circumventing the data center’s ability to consume. In this occlusion of the cloud, we reveal its omnipresence. Theo is exploring the sonic landscape of data centers and the cloud, which compositionally is inspired by Brain Eno’s and William Basinski’s approach to creating 3 4 generative music. Field recordings, found sound, and sonification will be used to create an infinitely long durational piece of music that will never repeat exactly. This is accomplished through using specific ratios of length and playback which will never come back into alignment with one another.
____This procedure will be executed in Max/MSP, and the resulting sound will be used as an editing score for the film, which will be shot analog by August. Counter to the traditional norms of film scoring, where the cinematic element comes first and the sound second, we will play with the idea of using the sonic element to score the visuals of the film. The 16mm film that August shoots will be edited to correspond with the rhythms and timbres of the scored sound. Taking inspiration from the experimental films of Stan Brakhage, the film will be edited in a manner where the visual aspects appear to be endless. The content of the film will focus on depicting the relationship of the body to the physical structures of data centers, collective consciousness, security, and surveillance. Experimental techniques such as double exposures and superimposed projections will be used during the playback of the film, creating loops which are out of sync with one another. These loops will in effect create an infinitely long film that will never repeat, much like the generative music aspect of the work. Again, in the eclipse of the data center, the audience will be made aware of its presence.
____ Sonification example
Try to make infinite in a real sense that cannot be consumed - irrational numbers in the loops - analog sine waves are vectors - bit rates -etc - irreducibility.
Free sound.org
Piezos on electonics