5-HT_five levels to zero

TMS is an experimental noise project by Malte Steiner and Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen. The format is improvisational sound performances built out of Steiner and Madsen’s sonic interactions, where noise-scapes and complex structures emerge from intense layering of various in- and outputs. Each chosen element is very important for the whole, where the combination of these play a vital role in the sound as well as in the visual character of the performance. The inputs can be analogue as well as digital; modulated, transformed and distorted.

For the Piksel Festival 16 TMS will propose the piece: 5-HT_five levels to zero, which is based on the structural qualities of the neurotransmitter serotonin. The dynamics of the molecule will be improvised and performed live in a dynamic and counterbalanced noise act that deals with both the balances as well as the imbalances inherent, resulting in chaotic states caused by disruption of this unit in the brain. The piece is a translation of a physiological entity into a mixed analogue and digital composition. During the continuance of the piece the structure will through noise-based sounds illustrate a biochemical conversion process going to zero; a molecular structure used as a concept for a sonic arrangement.

For the piece, TMS has created a score that captures the dynamics of the musical composition. The performance for the Piksel Festival will be a revised edition of this, where the audio will be accompanied by a projection of a visual score created in Blender and Pure Data, based on the shape of the serotonin molecule displayed together with scientific meta data as well as a timer. This enables the audience to follow the progression of the piece, which is divided into 5 dynamic levels, gradually counting down time.

The instrumentation for each performance is variable and not the exact same set-up will be used. This additionally effects the output and enhance the dynamic qualities of the score. This can be regarded in the same way that external factors interfere and play an important and unexpected role in the chemical (un)balance of the brain. Earlier versions of the piece have been performed at the Audioblast Festival hosted by APO-33 (concert played live and streamed from Kommunal Kunst og Teknik in Copenhagen, Denmark) and at Noiseberg in Berlin, Germany.


Malte Steiner
http://www.block4.com
Independent media artist, electronic musician and composer.
Germany

Malte Steiner is a German, Berlin-based media artist, electronic musician and composer. Steiner started creating electronic music and visual art around 1983, developing his own vision of the interdisciplinary Gesamtkunstwerk. Steiner’s musical projects are primarily the experimental electro-acoustic Elektronengehirn, the industrial outfit Notstandskomitee, Akustikkoppler (with Matthias Schuster), Das Kombinat, Embedded Artist (with Wolfgang Spahn) and TMS (with Tina MK Madsen).

Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen
http://tmkm.dk/
Independent artist, curator and researcher

Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen is a Danish, Berlin-based independent artist researcher, who works in the intersection between performance art and technology. She hold a Master of Arts in Art History from Aarhus University (DK) as well as having an education from the College of Arts Crafts and Design in Nørresundby (DK), where she began studying performance art in 1999. Madsen’s research deals with theory as well as practice and how these can intertwine as inseparable entities. The main focus points of her work and research are: performative practices, post-humanism and genders studies, internet-based art and networked performance, site specificity, system aesthetics, open technology and sound.