“Three placeholders sitting in a room between empty spaces.” This is how the ensemble [ _ _ _ ] describes itself. It was founded in 2020 by the artists Shuoxin Tan, Jia Liu and Li Song, to compose music for the network. Shuoxin Tan was born in Beijing and works as a composer and sound artist in Cologne. She researches algorithmic acoustics, sound ontology and Lacanian topology. Jia Liu is a composer and computer music performer. She lives in Karlsruhe and is currently working on algorithmic music and composition for autonomous systems. Li Song is a musician and software developer based in London, his works show an interplay of acoustic instruments, electronic and improvised music.
The three members are united by an interest in algorithmic acoustics and composition, SuperCollider and live coding. Can algorithms be collaborative? What happens when the Borromean knot is applied to network structures for collaborative algorithmic composition? [ _ _ _ ] presents two of their latest projects of network music performance in November and August 2021.
