The Wandering Mind
The Wandering Mind is an AI-powered performance platform for shaping dreams with the sounds of our world. Sampling and recomposing tiny fragments of sound from tens of thousands of global field recordings found online, the system generates a winding sound journey for sleeping and meditating audiences.
In our curated performances, group naps and guided mind-wanderings, dream guides convene a collective action of sleeping together. We respond to the past years, in which stay-at-home orders have torn old social fabrics and mass uprisings have constituted new ones, and through which digital and physical public space has played a pivotal and transformative role.
In micro-sampled sound baths, we travel through parks and public spaces across the world, paying tribute to human habitats of social distance and safe gathering, makeshift shelter and tenuous refuge, mass uprising and fresh air.
The project was originally selected by Ars Electronica and the European ARTificial Intelligence Lab in 2019 for their first commission and residency. The piece was to be premiered at the Ars Electronica 2020 Festival after residencies in Buenos Aires and Linz. COVID-19 derailed the Linz residency and festival, transforming the piece and extending its development.
For the Ars premiere, in Sept 2020, we embraced an online format, performing live from a chapel in Troy, NY to online sleepers. More information and videos of 3 live performances can be found at https://thewanderingmind.live.
ARS ELECTRONICA + AI Lab video commission: behind the scenes of our studio process during the COVID-19 lockdown
A physical installation is set to be presented at Ars 2021, and in the intervening time we will be conducting sleep research at the De Vinci Innovation Center in Paris to develop the concept further.
