Volume 26 Issue 2 - October 2020

Different planes: Sinha explained that working with machinelearning
tools is a very new field in artistic practice with many
unknowns, not least of which is not being able to predict what will
happen when you work with them. His previous interest in story
and mythology also comes into play in this new work. The more he
learned about these machine-learning tools, the more he realized
that the process parallels discoveries he had already made about
deities such as Shiva or Ganesh. “Since they are on such a different
plane from humans, how can we possibly understand how they
think?” he asks. “If a consciousness operates on eight dimensions,
like a deity of some kind, how can we as humans, who operate in
either three or four dimensions, understand those thought
processes? When we’re confronted with the way these entities think
we have to collapse them in a way that makes sense to us. When you
collapse something that complicated into something very simple,
you lose information or information gets garbled. It lies at the
periphery of our abilities.” Exploring this space or gap between
human and “deity intelligence” forms the basis of Sinha’s
investigation in this new work.
To understand this more fully, I asked Sinha to explain how machine
learning tools actually work, particularly when applied to music. He
gave an example of a particular tool that only understands music as if
it were a Bach fugue. “If you give it a series of notes, it will spit out an
answer to you that is mirrored in its understanding of the world, which
is a Bach fugue.” The result will be different from the original melody
that was put into the system and may or may not be useful. “These
processes are not a magic button,” he emphasizes. The creator still
needs to sift through the results and use what is interesting.
One of his key interests in using these tools is that since they give
results he wouldn’t have come up with on his own, they cause him to
question his musical habits. After all, if he were to reject the results he
receives, why bother using them in the first place? “I can’t just dismiss
them outright, aesthetically,” he said. “I have to question myself, on
many levels, including dramaturgically and conceptually. Sometimes I
have to give in, and when I do a new story emerges, a story I wouldn’t
have possibly come up with.” Another aspect of his research is
to explore the shortcomings of these algorithms and the built-in
assumptions they have about the world. He gave the example of a
“SometimesI have to give in, and when I do
a new story emerges, a story I wouldn’t
have possibly come up with.”
The Rigveda, the oldest known Vedic text is an ancient
Indian collection of Sanskrit hymns: the first of four sacred
canonical texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas.
recent face recognition algorithm that Twitter released that does not
recognize black faces, even though it sees white faces very well. “This
brings up all sorts of questions about who is building those tools and
the questions they are asking as they build them.”
Rules-based: His new piece will incorporate text drawn from the
Rigveda, the first of the four Vedic texts. Since the Rigveda is very
rules-based, Sinha has translated this characteristic into a process
whereby he is creating a lot of rules for himself in the ways he
engages with the tools. The resultant texts will be combined with
rhythmic material and other audio created from the machine learning
processes, as well as field recordings he has collected in India. The
piece will be semi-improvisational, as he is not interested in replicable
live performances, and will be created from the large pool of materials
he will have on hand.
Visually we will see a combination of him interacting with his tools
along with digitally generated visuals and images from field recordings
he has made in Kolkata, India. He’s also building text cards to use
so we will know the words that are being used in the resultant “sea of
20/21 Extraordinary
Music for
Extraordinary
Times
FREE Online Broadcasts from
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Anima – 10.18.20
feat. Sanya Eng, harp
and Ryan Scott, percussion
Cello Masterworks – 10.29.20
feat. David Hetherington, cello
Love Songs co-presented
with Tapestry Opera – 11.28.20
feat. Wallace Halladay, saxophone
and Xin Wang, soprano
NMC 50th Anniversary
Commissioning Series – 12.06.20
feat. new works by: Kotoka Suzuki,
Eliot Britton, and James O’Callaghan
thewholenote.com October 2020 | 17