Catacomb Generator
By MSHR

Part of Order of Sonic Chaos, organized by Jonáš Gruska at Terén, Catacomby CED, Brno, CZ, 2022

MSHR presents two interlocking cybernetic compositions for the catacombs.

Self-mutating entities with composite faces: a sculpture, an interface, an instrument, a living system.

A light-audio feedback system is embedded in a table. Visitors can slide sculptural light-sensors across the surface of the table to shift the feedback patterns between light and sound. This musical interface can be played together by multiple people.

A system composed of sound emitting objects, sound reactive lights, sensors and signal processors is spread throughout the catacomb's tunnels. Visitor's movements through the space signal mutations in the system, changing the lights and sounds in the tunnels as well as the behavior of the light-audio feedback table.

These compositions are systems that are activated through exploration. The visitor's presence ripples through the nodes and connectors, acting as the source of a cascade, a flow that is constantly reforming.

Building and exploring synthetic systems is a way of meditating on the interwoven biological, ecological and technological structures that frame our experience as embodied beings living in the present.