Javascript Code Performance. p5.js Web Editor. 400x400.  2023. 

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Singing Shapes(?) is a new media piece that integrates elements of code, randomized data, and artistic performance. My code is quite simple: every half second, the code produces a randomized sound while simultaneously generating a randomized polygon. In each cycle, the sound has a different pitch than the cycle prior, and the polygon has a different number of sides, shape, fill color, orientation, etc. I set the pitches and polygons to regenerate each half second, but the time can be adjusted to provide a different performance and experience. No single time the code runs is the performance the same.

My idea for the project came from a recent development with Spotify, in which 7% of AI-generated songs on Spotify were removed due to their streaming data being bolstered by bots in order for the algorithms to distribute the songs more frequently to generate money (see Forbes.com). This made me think about music and performance in relation to data, and how it feels like more and more creative content made in society today is AI-generated, and the ethical/moral implications involved in that. Is AI-generated content art or data? Both? Neither? Can computers truly create music? Art? Performance? Is code a performance in and of itself? What is the creative authenticity of that performance? Is the performance of code creatively legitimate because code and AI are created by humans, therefore what AI creates is a product of human creation? Or because the art is generated by the machine, while the "artist" merely gives orders, art and performance created by AI is subsequently inauthentic, unreal, cheap?

By Singing Shapes(?) creating a randomly generated performance of sound and shape, I hope to challenge audience notions and create a conversation about the legitimacy of AI generated art and music and the ethics surrounding AI- generated media in commodified environments.