Audiovisual Alchemy

Description: The page about this event is available on the ARTos House webpage.

Link to the page here

Variational Quantum Harmonies

Description: The Variational Quantum Harmonizer (VQH) is a musical interface resulting from research being developed at DESY, in collaboration with the University of Plymouth, Pompeu Fabra University, and The Cyprus Institute. It is a tool for the sonification of quantum algorithms, providing auditory insight on how quantum computers are being used for simulating physical systems, solving optimization problems, and more.

This concert - presented with the QUEST Open Day in partnership with Moth - features pieces created using the VQH as a music composition tool, in collaboration with composer-researchers involved in quantum computer music research. These works show the versatility of hybrid digital-quantum musical instruments to provide new ways of making music, while reflecting on both technical and aesthetic aspects of state-of-the-art quantum technologies.

Programme

Hexagonal Chambers - by Cephas Teom and Itabora Puy (2023-24; dur: 12min)

for VQH and ZenQ
Performed by Cephas Teom and Itabora Puy

In Jorge Luis Borges’s short story “The Library Of Babel”, the author explores the universe through the metaphor of a vast library. Comprised of a warren of hexagonal rooms, its catalog spans every possible permutation of language in a virtually infinite collection of incomprehensible texts. The library thereby contains all the knowledge ever to be written (and never to be written). Within this sea of chaos are the Vindications: books to absolve humanity of its sins, granting unity with God. And yet, due to the scale of the library, the search for these works — tomes of clarity amidst compendiums of noise, the light of meaning within a fog of meaninglessness — is considered to be futile. Being librarians in the realm of quantum technologies ourselves, we are navigating the infinite quantum library space for vindications, by using the optimization process of variational quantum algorithms.

Backflip - by OCH (2024; dur: 8 min)

for Saxophone and VQH
Performed by OCH

Backflip is the most recent work by OCH for saxophone and live electronics. It is a reflection of his quickly shifting improvisational lines with new variational quantum harmonic rhythms.

Tragouin tou Diheni (Polymeric 1) - by Spyros Kallivokas (2024; dur: 5min)

for VQH and Bouzouki
Performed by Andreas Athenodorou

The minimization of the energy is crucial in physics, both classical and quantum. Death is literally and metaphorically the minimization of the energy. A folk metered narrative text about a famous guardian, Dihenis, fighting with Death, historically exists from the 9th century A.C. Merely we can say that this piece could have the alternative title "Fight for Equilibrium." In many perspectives: Physically, mentally, and politically. In this piece, the story of Dihenis fighting with Death is presented in a Polymeric composition: Polymeric composition is my definition of using both acoustic and optical branches of music/information to compose. The piece is for acoustic music (for traditional lute or bouzouki), fixed electronic music (from quantum algorithms), text (the folk narrative song), and 3D fixed projections (of Pafos and Famagusta Gate around the 18th and 19th centuries).

The Veil - by Eren Utku (2024; dur: 10 min)

for VQH and Live Electronics
Performed by Itabora Puy

"The Veil" is inspired by a poem by Omar Khayyam, in which a veil is mentioned, covering the eternal secrets of existence from us. In our daily routine, we live as if this Veil does not exist, as if it doesn't affect how we experience life and then we merely choose to forget about it. With this piece, my aim was to create a sonic environment that would 'remind' us of the Veil and the "self-transcendent nature of human existence".

Holy Writ - by Cephas Teom and Itabora Puy (2024; dur: 10 min)

for VQH and ZenQ
Performed by Cephas Teom and Itabora Puy

Continuing our journey through Jorge Luis Borges's fictional landscape, we traverse the infinite library to reach the "Book of Sand", also known as the Holy Writ. As one turns the pages of this sacred book, new pages spawn from its covers. We are tasked, as librarians, to make sense of the unknown language written upon its ever-increasing pages; to distill the wisdom of an infinite book.

Moth Quantum Showcase

Presented by Astryd Park and María Aguado Yáñez

Moth is a pioneering company driving forward the applications of quantum technologies in the arts. Their research team and scientific collaborators have been researching, developing, and improving frameworks, tools, and musical interfaces in the field of Quantum Computer Music.

In this event, the Moth technical team will showcase the research and products that are being developed — most of which are also being employed in the Quantum Itineraries Week, enabling artists to use quantum computers in their creative processes.

Qubit Echoes: Quantum Computer Music

Concert duration: ∼ 80 min

Description: This event explores the field of Quantum Computer Music, where new emerging quantum technologies are being integrated with artistic creation. In Qubit Echoes, we will have an immersive experience and travel across analog, digital, and quantum media. It presents talk-demonstrations and a concert featuring artists that explore different approaches to connecting quantum algorithms with live coding, audio sampling, telematics, video mapping, and multimedia performances.

Moth will demonstrate how they develop tools to encode and decode audio files in a quantum circuit, as well as how to use quantum computing to generate new music. Additional frameworks and methodologies — developed by researchers at Moth, Cyprus Institute, DESY, University of Plymouth, and CEIS20 — will enable the use of quantum algorithms in the live musical concert.

Particularly, we highlight the use of the ‘quantumaudio’ package, an early research computational tool able to encode and decode audio samples from a quantum computer.

Programme

Tragouin tou Diheni (Polymeric 1) - by Spyros Kallivokas (2024; dur: 5min)

for VQH and Bouzouki
Performed by Andreas Athenodorou

The description is the same as in Event 02.

ReVeR (short version) - by Itabora Puy and Dino Vicente (2023; dur: 7min)

for live coding, quantumaudio, and analog synthesizers
Performed by Paulo Itaborai and Dino Vicente

The brilliant musical instrument constructor Walter Smetak (1913 - 1984) used to name his own creations as “Sonic Plastics”. When describing this term, he concludes that the musical instrument is nothing but a route, an Itinerary of Sound. In ReVeR, we establish an intricate telematic connection to Brazil, where a waveform is encoded and decoded through a quantum circuit, and then travels (digitally) to Brazil to drive analog oscillators that are used in a 50-year-old Moog 15 modular synthesizer. We hence establish a Quantum Itinerary of Sound, where the sounds will be traveling through quantum, digital, analog, and mechanical media. As a result, we revisit, or look again (rever) into the origins of electronic music aesthetics.

DesTrair - by Dino Vicente and Itabora Puy (2024; dur: 9min)

for quantum live coding, quantumaudio, and analog synthesizers
Performed by Itabora Puy, Dino Vicente

In this piece we invert the relationship of the Quantum Itinerary of Sound. Instead of measuring quantum information to drive the analog synths, we now use the analog media to produce information and sounds in Cyprus. Based on Paulo Leminsky’s poetry work, we use one of his main lemmas: “Distraídos Venceremos” (in a free translation: “We will win when we get distracted”). The piece explores the notion that when observing (measuring) a quantum system in superposition, it collapses into a single state. In other words, when there is focus, there is definition, but also loss of information. When we stop looking — when we get distracted — then the system will resume with its quantum trickery. This also comes with an interplay of the crafted word, Des (with an e, meaning “undo”) - trair (to commit treason).

Holy Writ - by Cephas Teom and Itabora Puy (2024; dur: 10 min)

for VQH and ZenQ
Performed by Cephas Teom and Itabora Puy

The description is the same as in Event 02.

10 min break

Through the Hearing Glass, and What Bob Found There - by Eduardo R. Miranda (2023; dur: 8min)

Generated with PaulisMIDI in a Photonic Computer
Performed as an Acousmatic Piece

Composed using a photonic generative system developed by the composer at ICCMR University of Plymouth, in collaboration with Brian Siegelwax. The system, which runs on a photonic computer developed by Quandela in France, extracts musical rules from given MIDI files and uses these rules to generate new compositions. For this piece, Eduardo pre-composed a piece in minimalist style, inspired by Philip Glass, and fed it into the system to generate the various movements. The different movements were produced from the same rules.

Jupiter Meets Saturn - by OCH, Sarah Trotter, and Grant Speich (2023-24; dur: 20min)

for saxophone, percussion, live electronics, live painting, video, and The QAC Toolkit
Performed by OCH, Sarah Trotter, and Grant Speich

Jupiter meets Saturn is an immersive music and painting live performance inspired by celestial planets and the solar system. We explore the tensions between inner and outer space, integrating meditation practice, intuitive movement, rituals, allowing a moment to shape shift and reconnect, as well as offering a nourishing sanctuary for the senses. In this performance, we journey between natural acoustic instruments and electronic computed media, integrating quantum-computing aided composition (QAC) and live video projection.

Potencial (work-in-progress) - by Itabora Puy (2024; dur: 5min)

for Theremin, Actias, quantumaudio, and ZenQ
Performed by Itabora Puy

You hold much potential my friend! Look how much potential energy is around! Look how it accumulates! You, you should hold this potential! Hold it for as long as you can! Where will this potential energy go if you don’t hold it?