Post-Digital Sonic Media Art: Composing Systems of Resistance through Sound
CO₂-to-MIDI Interface: Breathing Sound into Existence
by Hugo Paquete, 2024 - Ongoing.
The core of Negentropy: The Last Man in the Wasteland is a custom-built system that transforms the audience’s collective respiration into a dynamic, living score. Atmospheric CO₂ levels, captured by MH-Z19B sensors and processed through ultra-low-latency Teensy 4.1 microcontrollers, become the primary material for real-time composition. Unlike conventional sonification tools that prioritize predictability, this system embraces instability and emergence.
The system establishes a latent interactivity between the public and the performance: subtle shifts in collective breathing modulate sonic parameters, turning spectators into involuntary co-composers of an unfolding atmospheric soundscape.
Technical Development: Hugo Paquete in collaboration with Christopher Zlaket (hardware) and David Stingley (software).
Negentropy: The Last Man in the Wasteland is a research-creation project exploring post-operatic aesthetics, algorithmic resistance, and ecological interactivity.
For technical details, documentation, or collaboration inquiries, please contact the author.
Arduino Uno, custom MIDI interface, soldering, circuit board, hardware design, Christopher Zlaket, David Stingley, techno-urban-guerrilla.
Arduino Uno, custom MIDI interface, soldering, circuit board, hardware design, Christopher Zlaket, David Stingley, techno-urban-guerrilla.
Arduino Uno, custom MIDI interface, electronic components, hardware design, Christopher Zlaket, David Stingley, techno-urban-guerrilla.
Dromology of Orbital Bodies: A Critical Hardware System for Satellite Sonification by Hugo Paquete, 2017 - Ongoing.
Dromology of Orbital Bodies is a critical hardware system that reappropriates global orbital infrastructure for artistic inquiry. At its core is a custom telematic instrument that intercepts the data streams of satellites, transforming them from instruments of control and communication into autonomous partners in a non-human sonic performance. This project challenges the passive consumption of technology by constructing a method for direct, creative dialogue with the automated systems in our skies.
Hugo Paquete
Technical Collaborators & Co-developers
Christopher Zlaket (Interface Design, Arizona State University)
David Stingley (Computer Science, MIT)
Research Support
This work was developed within the following institutions and with support from:
Associated Artworks
Apoapsis (2019-2020), Periapsis (2019-2020), Orbital Eccentricity (Live Performance, 2021)
Further Research
For complete academic documentation, theoretical development, and detailed analysis of these concepts, see my doctoral thesis "Imanências espectrais: reflexão sobre o pós-digital nas artes sonoras" (2022)
Acknowledgements
The artist wishes to acknowledge the foundational work of telecommunications art pioneers. Special thanks to the teams at ZKM and all partners for their invaluable support.
The System: Critical Intervention through Hardware
This self-built instrument operates through a three-stage process of data reappropriation and sonic translation, constituting the core of its critical practice:- Data Interception & Hacking: Employing a ‘techno-urban-guerrilla’ methodology, the system taps into public NORAD data feeds, accessing the real-time positional telemetry (longitude, latitude, azimuth) of commercial and military satellites. This act of data acquisition is the primary critical gesture, turning surveillance and communication infrastructure into a source for artistic expression.
- Sonification as Translation/Critique: The raw orbital data is meticulously mapped and converted into MIDI, the standard language for digital music. This translation process, where celestial mechanics dictate musical parameters—generates a complex "torrent of data." This flow embodies what I term "chronoscopic time": an instantaneous, data-saturated temporality that critiques our conventional, human-scaled experience of time.
- Performance with Autonomy: The resulting MIDI stream functions as a dynamic, non-human score. It controls a hybrid setup of modular software and analog hardware synthesizers. My role as a performer shifts from composer to negotiator, interacting with this autonomous system in real-time. In installation settings, the sound is spatialized through multi-channel arrays, creating an immersive environment where sounds physically orbit the listener, mirroring the paths of their celestial sources.
Theoretical Framework & Aesthetic Implications
The system is designed to probe specific philosophical and aesthetic questions:- A Post-Digital Aesthetic of the Glitch: The system inherently embraces unpredictability and error. The inherent noise and erratic rhythms generated by the satellite data align with a post-digital sensibility, utilizing the glitch to demystify technology and challenge entrenched definitions of "musical" sound.
- Composing a Sonic Cosmology: The project is not merely data sonification; it is an attempt to compose a sonic cosmology. It gives audible form to the silent, majestic movement of orbital bodies, with works like Apoapsis and Periapsis structurally exploring cosmic relationships of distance and proximity.
- The Politics of Reappropriation: By utilizing the infrastructure of global control and capital (commercial/military satellites), the project engages in a critical discourse on power, access, and visibility. The act of "hacking the sky" is a poetic reclamation of technological systems for open-ended artistic exploration.
Significance & Critical Contribution
This work positions itself within key contemporary discourses through its methodology and outcomes:- More-than-Human Creativity: It proposes a decentralized model of artistic agency, where creativity is distributed between the human performer, the algorithmic system, and the orbital actant.
- Art as Critical Research: The project exemplifies artistic research, where the construction of the hardware system is the primary research method, and the resulting performances and compositions are the disseminated knowledge.
- Expanding Sonic Practice: It pushes the boundaries of sound art and composition into a new realm of real-time, data-driven performance, where the score is authored by the non-human dynamics of orbital mechanics.
Project Credits & Support
Artist & Principal InvestigatorHugo Paquete
Technical Collaborators & Co-developers
Christopher Zlaket (Interface Design, Arizona State University)
David Stingley (Computer Science, MIT)
Research Support
This work was developed within the following institutions and with support from:
- ZKM | Hertz-Lab (Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany) — Artistic Residency
- European i-Portunus Project — Mobility Grant
- FCT — Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal — Funding
- EMERGE — Contemporary Art Agency of Portugal — Production Support
Associated Artworks
Apoapsis (2019-2020), Periapsis (2019-2020), Orbital Eccentricity (Live Performance, 2021)
Further Research
For complete academic documentation, theoretical development, and detailed analysis of these concepts, see my doctoral thesis "Imanências espectrais: reflexão sobre o pós-digital nas artes sonoras" (2022)
Acknowledgements
The artist wishes to acknowledge the foundational work of telecommunications art pioneers. Special thanks to the teams at ZKM and all partners for their invaluable support.
Arduino Uno, custom MIDI interface, soldering, circuit board, electronic components, hardware design, Christopher Zlaket, David Stingley, techno-urban-guerrilla.
Arduino Uno, custom MIDI interface, soldering, circuit board, electronic components, hardware design, Christopher Zlaket, David Stingley, techno-urban-guerrilla.
Software, custom MIDI interfac, electronic components, Christopher Zlaket, David Stingley, techno-urban-guerrilla.
The Solar Resonance System
A Framework for Electromagnetic Sonification by Hugo Paquete. 2017
Introduction: Harnessing the Invisible Spectrum
I developed the Solar Resonance System as a core artistic methodology and instrumentarium for my practice. It is my primary research tool for translating imperceptible electromagnetic phenomena, from light waves to ambient radiation, into rich, generative soundscapes and compositional structures. This system is my way of redefining the boundaries of sound art and installation by making the energetic fabric of our environment audibly tangible.
My Method: The Transduction Process
- Capture: I use specialized photovoltaic arrays as precise sensors for light intensity and frequency.
- Transduction: The captured radiation is converted into a fluctuating electrical voltage, creating a direct analog representation of the source.
- Control & Synthesis: I deploy this voltage as a dynamic control signal for voltage-controlled synthesizers and modular Eurorack systems, enabling real-time manipulation of sonic parameters. I also digitize it (MIDI/OSC) to drive algorithmic processes and video manipulation.
- Spatialization: I orchestrate the output for multi-channel diffusion, creating deeply immersive and spatially reactive acoustic environments.
Proven Artistic Applications
- Large-Scale Installation: For Synthony under 20Hz (Linz), I created an autonomous audiovisual ecosystem where light generates its own compositional output.
- Interdisciplinary Performance: In Cosmos (ZKM Karlsruhe), I integrated the system into dance, where movement through light fields orchestrated a 48-channel score in real time.
- Biopolitical Sonification: My work ZOE: ACTANT (Arquipélago, Azores) sonified clinical environments and genetic data, using EM transductions from hospital equipment to explore themes of agency and life.
- Acousmatic Composition: I use the system to provide the foundational material for my fixed-media works, processing captured voltages and textures into studio-based electroacoustic compositions.
- Live A/V Performance: In Phase Shift and Obscure Radiation, I utilized the system for improvisation, establishing performative feedback loops between light, sound, and video. Obscure Radiation specifically explored real-time transduction of urban electromagnetic fields and light into immersive audiovisual experiences, presented internationally at venues like LAVA Valladolid and Noise Istanbul.
Theoretical Framework & Critical Context
My work operates at the intersection of art, science, and philosophy. It is grounded in the concept of "spectral immanence"—the act of rendering the intangible vibrational substrate of reality into a palpable sensory experience. This concept, along with the broader theoretical framework of post-digital sound arts, is extensively developed in my doctoral research. I consider the system a definitive post-digital instrument, challenging anthropocentric composition by embracing agency, materiality, and the inherent unpredictability of electromagnetic phenomena as core aesthetic principles.
Technical Specifications & Collaboration
I have designed the system to be modular so it can be tailored to specific project requirements, including:- Custom sensor arrays for specific EM frequencies.
- Integration with modular synth rigs via CV/Gate.
- Real-time data sonification pipelines (MIDI/OSC).
- Multi-channel spatialization setups (2.0 to 48+ channels).
Selected Exhibitions & Partners
- ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
- Arquipélago – Centro de Artes Contemporâneas
- CreArt (European Cultural Fund)
- LAVA: Laboratorio de las Artes de Valladolid
- Hertz Laboratory (ZKM)
- Kaunas Art Festival, Lithuania
- Noise Istanbul Festival
Further Research
For complete academic documentation, theoretical development, and detailed analysis of these concepts, see my doctoral thesis "Imanências espectrais: reflexão sobre o pós-digital nas artes sonoras" (2022)
Keywords: Electromagnetic sonification, voltage control synthesis, generative sound art, acousmatic composition, post-digital art, immersive sound installation, light-to-sound transduction, real-time audio processing, Hugo Paquete, Solar Resonance System.
Hyper-Instruments & Electromagnetic Archaeologies by Hugo Paquete. 2017
This body of work centers on the creation of critical interfaces through the repurposing of technological waste from institutional infrastructures. In projects such as Zoe: Actant, I construct hyper-instruments from decommissioned medical equipment—X-ray lamps, diagnostic machines, and retired computers, transforming them into active nodes within a performative network. This practice merges material reuse with sonic investigation, treating technological artefacts not as relics but as resonant bodies with latent agency.
Methodological Framework
At the core of this research is an auditory archaeology of technological vitality. Using custom-built inductive microphones, I capture the electromagnetic emissions of clinical machinery, the inaudible hum of MRI scanners, the data-noise of monitors, curating these signals into a unique sonic lexicon. These recordings form an electromagnetic portrait of the institutional environment, revealing a hidden layer of technological presence.The captured fields are paired with the reactivated objects in a closed-loop electroacoustic system. Instrumented with piezoelectric sensors and inductors microphones, the physical artefacts become interactive interfaces: striking a lamp or handling a computer casing triggers real-time manipulation of their own electromagnetic signatures. This feedback between object and sound creates a performative circuit where technology speaks itself into being.
Technical Ecosystem
- Signal Capture: Custom inductive and contact microphones for electromagnetic and vibrational recording
- Sound Bank: Site-specific sample libraries built in Native Instruments Kontakt
- Interaction System: Piezoelectric sensors and inductors mapped to MIDI/OSC control data
- Audio Engine: Modular signal processing and generative composition in Plogue Bidule
- Spatialization: Multichannel diffusion articulating architectural and energetic relations
System Behavior
The system operates as an instrumental ecology in which:- Physical interaction with a repurposed X-ray lamp triggers granular synthesis of its own electromagnetic recording
- Networked objects influence one another’s sonic behavior through shared control data
- The sonic output reflects both human gesture and the intrinsic resonances of the artefacts themselves
Conceptual Significance
This work functions as a form of media archaeology, excavating the material and energetic histories of obsolete technologies. By enabling devices to “perform” their own electromagnetic identities, the project challenges conventional subject-object relations in performence, aligning with Actor-Network Theory in granting agency to non-human actants. The result is not a representation of technology, but an enactment of its ongoing material and energetic presence.Project Context
- Key Work: Zoe: Actant (2017)
- Production Context: Artistic residency at Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo, Azores
- Technical Focus: Hardware hacking, interactive system design, critical reuse
- Thematic Frames: Media archaeology, post-digital materiality, object-oriented ontology
More Iformation
Keywords: Hyper-Instruments, Electromagnetic Archaeologies, Media Archaeology, Interactive Sound Art, Technological Waste, Hardware Hacking, Post-Digital Materiality, Object-Oriented Ontology, Critical Interfaces, Sonic Ecology
Sonifiction: Composing with Biological Actants
by Hugo Paquete. 2017-2019
My artistic research advances a practice I term sonifiction, a critical, interpretive approach to sonification that moves beyond scientific data translation into the realm of narrative and dialogue with non-human biological agents. This methodology treats biological data not as inert information but as an active participant in the creative process. In Zoe: Actant, the genetic structure of the Leptospirosis bacterium becomes a co-composer, challenging anthropocentric creation models through a process grounded in Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Multispecies Ethnography.
Process and Methodology
The sonifiction process begins with scientific data—in this case, the circular genetic code of Leptospirosis, provided through collaboration with molecular genetics researchers. Rather than applying automated or deterministic sonification algorithms, I use Iannix, a graphical sequencer, to establish subjective, culturally mediated mapping rules. Visual patterns within the genetic sequence, such as protein density, sequence length, and structural rhythms—are interpreted as compositional trajectories, triggering and shaping musical parameters in MIDI. This method acknowledges that our encounter with non-human agents is always filtered through aesthetic and technological mediations.The outcome is a generative composition in which the bacterium’s genetic architecture directly influences musical events—melody, rhythm, texture, and form. The result is not a literal “music of the bacteria,” but a co-authored narrative that reveals as much about human systems of representation as it does about biological actancy. Through this practice, the bacterium is elevated from a passive subject of study to an active agent within the artistic network.
Credits & Context
- Key Project: Zoe: Actant (2017)
- Host Institutions: Arquipélago – Centro de Artes Contemporâneas (Azores) and Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo (Azores)
- Scientific Collaboration: UGPM and IGC: Genetics Research Group BioISI
- Special Acknowledgement: Professor Doutora Luísa Mota Vieira
- Conceptual Grounding: Actor-Network Theory, Multispecies Ethnography, Post-Digital Musicology
The research and artistic practice presented in Leptospirosis Spiral Rhythms as a Sound and Music Invection, was featured as part of the upcoming exhibition RHI, which calls for a renewed dialogue between art, culture, and business. The initiative take place across 12 cities in Portugal, from North to South. An initial was held at MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology from 14 to 21 September 2019.
Keywords: Sonification, Biological Actants, Generative Composition, Post-Digital Musicology, Multispecies Ethnography, Actor-Network Theory, Data Art, Computational Creativity, Science-Art Collaboration, Non-Human Agency
USC: Unpredictble Systems and Collaps,
Critical Software envorement and Performance by Hugo Paquete. 2013
This work belongs to a lineage of post-digital aesthetics, where the immaterial promise of software is exposed in its material contradictions. Noise, error, and unpredictability here are not secondary effects but active agents in the production of meaning.
From a sonic perspective, (USC) generates and processes sound in real time through stochastic MIDI generators, modular synthesis, and multichannel spatialization. The system is played not only with conventional interfaces but also with unconventional MIDI controllers, joysticks, repurposed devices, and reverse-engineered hardware, that add a performative dimension of gesture, resistance, and unpredictability. These tactile negotiations inscribe the performer’s body into the work, while simultaneously redistributing agency between human, machine, and error.
Visually, the piece employs minimal geometries, accumulations, and distortions that mirror its sonic logic: order and disorder intertwine, structures are built and undone, and the system continually oscillates between emergence and collapse. The desktop ceases to be an invisible workspace and becomes instead an exposed ecology of interferences.
As a critical artwork, (USC) operates at the intersection of sound art, media art, and software studies. It is at once a tool, a performance, and a philosophical proposition: that collapse itself is a mode of thinking, a way of revealing the hidden infrastructures and metaphysical dimensions of digital systems. Rather than promising efficiency or perfection, (USC) embraces instability as an epistemic and aesthetic condition—an invitation to listen to technology not as a transparent medium but as a volatile, noisy, and profoundly human environment.
Credits:
Artist / Concept / Development
Hugo Paquete
Software Environment
Custom executable developed through Autorun Pro (C++ / Visual Basic)
Controllers & Interfaces
Unconventional MIDI controllers: joysticks, repurposed devices, reverse-engineered hardware, touch surfaces, and standard mouse input
Formats of Presentation
Live performance (Festival PNEM Sound Art, Netherlands, 2013) and In-Sonora, Madrid, (2016)
Installation (Primeira Avenida, Porto, 2014, with EXO:N/EX)
Radio broadcast (Antena 2 / RTP – Arte Eletroacústica, 2013)
Technical Requirements
Windows 7 system (i3/Athlon equivalent), GPU with OpenGL support, multichannel audio interface, projection or desktop display
Keywords
Critical Software, Post-Digital Aesthetics, Glitch, Noise, Spatial Sound, Stochastic Systems, Performance, Media Art
Trashology: Hyper-Hardware Instruments & Critical Material Practice
by Hugo Paquete. 2014
Trashology is a series of custom-built "hyper-hardware" instruments that unearth the sonic and conceptual potential hidden within technological waste. Through circuit bending, hardware hacking, and creative repurposing, obsolete consumer electronics, from discarded guitar pedals to salvaged game console chips, are transformed into critical assemblages that interrogate themes of agency, materiality, and noise.
Each instrument, Amplitude death: Chaotic Buffer Delay, Trashology VGA, and Junksynth, functions as an agential assemblage. Control is distributed between the performer, light sensors, salvaged components, and innate chaotic feedback loops. They generate glitch-laden audio and video not as errors, but as forms of material residues embedded in our technological objects. Performance becomes a live negotiation with these unpredictable systems, where space, light, and entropy emerge as active, co-creative partners.
Trashology (2014)
A series of hyper-hardware instruments and performances by Hugo Paquete
Concept, Design & Circuit Bending: Hugo Paquete
Keywords:
Critical Hardware, Circuit Bending, Glitch, Post-Digital, Agential Realism, Noise, Materiality, Performance, Sonic Knowledge.
(D.A.s): Death Amplitude Synchronization
An Agential Sonic Apparatus for Site-Specific Entropy
by Hugo Paquete. 2013-2014
(D.A.s) Death Amplitude Synchronization is a hyper-instrument and interactive system that transforms invisible environmental forces, wind, light, human movement, electromagnetic fields, into intricate, real-time sonic compositions. Developed during an intensive research period, this work functions as a distributed agential network, where creative agency is shared between the performer, software, hardware sensors, and the energetic dynamics of the space itself.
The system operates through a delicate ecosystem of sensors, contact microphones, magnetic field oscillators, and a motion-capturing webcam, all feeding data into a custom MAX/MSP patch. These inputs are sonified and spatialized in real time, generating emergent compositions that exist in the friction between order and entropy.
Conceptually, the work engages with ideas from quantum dynamics and thermodynamics as poetic imaginaries. It is less about representing nature than about participating in it, listening to the world as an active, vibrating partner. The title reflects this: “death amplitude” suggests the canceling-out of imposed form, while “synchronization” implies a fragile, discovered harmony within disorder.
Presented as both a performance and an installation, (D.A.s) poses a central question: How can technology help us hear the hidden forces—the light, the air, the electromagnetic whispers—that structure our experience of space and time?
This project is a core part of my ongoing inquiry into post-human performance and vibrational ontology, positioning sound as a way of knowing that privileges resonance over representation and relation over control.
Technical Ecosystem:
Sensors: Contact microphones, magnetic field oscillators, webcam
Software: Max/Msp (Drk Livecam4), MIDI routing (LoopBe1, VirtualMidi)
Process: Real-time data sonification, stochastic MIDI mapping, multi-channel spatialization
Presentation: Field Recording + Installation
Credits:
Concept, Design, Performance: Hugo Paquete
Software Development: Fabien Kesler
Keywords: Agential Realism, Entropy, Site-Specific Sound, Vibrational Ontology, Post-Humanism, Sonification, MAX/MSP, Environmental Sensing, Interactive Systems.
(404///+E<ratic8)
An
Software Art and the Poetics of Indeterminacy
by Hugo Paquete. 2013-2014
(404///+E<ratic8) is a suite of custom-built software instruments that reconfigure the computer into a site for techno-poetic discovery and improvisational dysfunction. These tools generate and manipulate complex noise textures and rhythmic structures, challenging the conventional, predictable relationship between performer and machine.
I designed these “hyper-instruments” as speculative systems, intentionally opaque, black boxes of sonic potential. By obscuring parameters and embracing uncertain outcomes, the work forces a collaborative dialogue where listening and intuitive response take precedence over technical mastery. The software functions not as a passive tool, but as an active, unpredictable partner. Glitches and system errors are embraced as central poetic strategies, revealing the hidden materiality of digital media and opening new paths for sonic exploration.
This practice draws upon the concept of software as science fiction, prioritizing inquiry over utility. It represents a shift from a fixed art object to the live, time-based process of performance, investigating the dematerialization of the art object in the emergent event between performer, software, and sound.
The suite includes VST instruments such as Ontologics, Ontometa, Noiser, and Zerozero, each focusing on specific processes like granular sampling, synthetic modulation, and complex feedback networks. Their interfaces are stripped of explanatory labels, fostering a pure, feedback-driven interaction that redefines our relationship with noise and rhythm.
The project has been utilized in collaboration, most notably on Pharmakustik's album "Particle Tracking" (Nostress Netlabel, 2014), which used the Zerozero software to generate its "pulsative engines" and "sharp radiological signals."
This practice-led research was developed within my Master's degree, situating itself within a lineage of software art, non-idiomatic improvisation, and critical technical practice.
Project: (404///+E<ratic8)
Type: Suite of custom software instruments (VST)
Context: Artistic Research, Master's Degree
Tools: Synthmaker/FlowStone
Instruments: Ontologics, Ontometa, Noiser, Zerozero
Keywords:
Software Art, Noise, Glitch, Hyper-Instrument, Digital Materiality, Non-Idiomatic Improvisation, Speculative Software, Post-Digital, Sound Art.
EXO:N/EX
The Desktop as a Performative and Political Apparatus
by Hugo Paquete, 2013-2014
EXO:N/EX is a software art project that sonically excavates the graphical user interface (GUI), treating it not as a transparent window, but as a thick, political material. This work is a form of critical media archaeology, misusing enterprise software (Autorun Pro) to dismantle the ideologies of usability, pre-programmed purpose, and efficiency embedded in our digital tools.
My inquiry is not about building a new instrument but about hacking the ideology of the desktop itself. Using its native visual language, windows, clicks, text, and colors, as the sole material for composition, I engage in a practice of speculative defamiliarization. This process strips these elements of their function, making the familiar operations of digital labor newly strange, audible, and politically charged.
The technical-conceptual synthesis is paramount. By subverting a corporate authoring tool into an engine for audiovisual improvisation, I enact a tactical media practice. The resulting system is a network where my agency as a performer is entangled with the software's hidden logic, the graphical primitives of the GUI, and glitch-prone processes of databending. I do not compose with the system so much as I negotiate through it; every error is a revelation of the system's materiality.
Situated between the radical media critique of Fluxus and contemporary glitch art, EXO:N/EX extends this lineage into the realm of sonic epistemology. It produces a unique form of knowledge: it makes us hear a mouse click as percussion, see a text box as a sequencer, and experience color as tone. This is a redistribution of the sensible within the digital realm, reorganizing what can be seen, heard, and understood about the tools we use every day.
Ultimately, EXO:N/EX argues that potent critique often lies not in building new systems, but in the poetic misuse of existing ones. It demystifies the digital, reframing it as a pliable, chaotic, and deeply expressive medium, and challenges us to see the political and aesthetic potential hidden in plain sight on our own screens.
Project: EXO:N/EX
Type: Software Art, Live Audiovisual Performance
Software: Autorun Pro
Techniques: Databending, misuse, real-time improvisation
Credits:
Concept, software, and performance: Hugo Paquete
Keywords:
Software Art, Critical Interface Studies, Glitch, Live Audiovisual Performance, Digital Materiality, Improvisation, Media Archaeology, Political Aesthetics.
Onto(M)etA>
Excavating the Involuntary: A Media Archaeology of the Physiological Interface by Hugo Paquete, 2013-2014
Onto(M)etA> is a media-archaeological performance system that transforms involuntary physiological data, the subtle tremors, blinks, and light reflexes of the eye, into a real-time cybernetic dialogue. Using a custom-built hyper-controller and repurposed software, the project explores the body as a site of hidden, unconscious data, challenging core assumptions about agency, control, and expression in digital performance.
At its heart, the work interrogates the physiological unconscious. A bespoke interface, constructed from modified technical glasses and a webcam, captures micro-movements that are beyond intentional control. This data is routed through a repurposed gaming software (FaceTrackNoIR) and transformed into compositional triggers within a Plogue Bidule and Arkaos VJ patch. The outcome is inherently stochastic, a live negotiation between the performer’s autonomic nervous system and the machine’s algorithmic processes.
Agency is distributed across a network of human and non-human actors: the pupil’s dilation, the software’s logic, and generative audiovisual feedback become equal partners in the creation of the work. This manifests in two primary visual themes: morphing ocular forms that mirror the biological source, and luminous, architectural “mind-spaces” that give form to abstract thought. These are spatialized through multi-channel projections, often mapped onto the performer’s body, creating a deep sense of immersion and entanglement.
Situated within a lineage of bio-artistic experimentation and critical technical practice, Onto(M)etA> draws inspiration from the bio-musical systems of Alvin Lucier and the tactical subversion of media. It is a fragile and poetic system designed not for efficiency, but to make audible and visible the often-invisible relationship between body, technology, and perception.
Project: Onto(M)etA>Software: FaceTrackNoIR, Plogue Bidule, Arkaos VJ, loopMIDI Project: Onto(M)etA>
Research Context: Master's Thesis "Entropia disfuncional: noise, glitch e caos nas artes sonoras" (2014)
Type: Performance System, Bio-Sensing Interface
Hardware: Custom hyper-controller (modified optics, webcam)
Software: FaceTrackNoIR, Plogue Bidule, Arkaos VJ, loopMIDI
Formats: Live Performance, Installation, Audiovisual Composition
Credits:
Concept, System Design & Performance: Hugo Paquete
Keywords:
Bio-Sensing Art, Physiological Computing, Media Archaeology, Critical Interface, Post-Digital Performance, Glitch, Stochastic Composition, Embodied Interaction, Sound Art.