Artificial Sonorous Ecosystem

Virtual sound installation in real time

The Artificial Sonorous Ecosystem is a life simulator that manifests itself with sound. The sound organisms that inhabit this ecosystem are born, mature or die, depending on the time of day and the atmospheric stimuli of their current location. Each organism has unique life cycles and sound behaviors that contribute to the sound of the installation in real time.

Listen to it here:

Press each organism to listen to it!

Can you distinguish them in the sound of the installation?

Parque Fundidora,
Monterrey, Mexico

These weak organisms are just being born or are about to die.

These organisms are well adapted to their environment.

These organisms are strong and dominate the sound spectrum.

About this Project

About the Sound Installation:

The "Artificial Sonorous Ecosystem" is a life simulator that manifests through sound. In this digital ecosystem, autonomous sonorous organisms experience cycles of birth, maturation, and death, influenced by real environmental variables such as temperature, humidity percentage, wind speed, air quality, climatic conditions, lunar phase, the number of celestial bodies close to the atmosphere, the time of year, and the time of day. Each organism has unique life cycles and sonorous behaviors that contribute to the sound of the installation in real time.

This project invites participants to reconsider what they know about nature and technology, to blur the boundaries between the organic and the artificial, fostering a deeper understanding of how our senses can be expanded and intensified through electronic means. It shows how technology can help us perceive beyond the evident, including other planes of reality, such as the one where these autonomous organisms exist; which, in addition to being heard in the installation, can be visualized in real time on a web interface.

By interacting with the interface and touching these organisms, the user has the opportunity to listen to them individually, transforming the experience into a listening exercise. This dynamic invites users to immerse themselves in the sound of the installation, challenging them to identify and distinguish each of the sonorous organisms within the general auditory landscape.

The installation comes to life through a generative algorithm designed by Isaías, which adapts and responds to the immediacy of the atmospheric conditions of the place where the installation is set up. The sound experience is enriched with the collaboration of renowned composers and sound artists in the design of autonomous sonorous organisms: Malitzin Cortés (CNDSD), Bioluminik, Hugo Solís, Bernardo Feldman, and Iván Naranjo.

It exists in two versions: In situ and Virtual.

About the Artist:

Isaías de Jesús Herrera Ibarra (1989, Monterrey, México)

New media artist who employs digital and electronic devices to alter perception and expand sensory possibilities. He holds a master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction from the Università degli Studi di Trento in Italy and a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from Tecnológico de Monterrey. He was invited by the Centro de Cultura Digital (CCD) to host the radio program "Notes on Human-Machine Interaction" (2023) and has received several accolades, including the Nuevo León Art Award (2024), the PECDA Nuevo León (2024 and 2022), the EFCA from Conarte (2023 and 2019), Yami-Ichi from CCD (2021), Creations with Algorithms from CCD (2020), and the Erasmus+ scholarship (2022) to study at the Eindhoven University of Technology. His work was featured in the book “A Decade to Download,” exhibited in Tokyo, New York, Amsterdam, and Berlin.

Isaías is involved in multidisciplinary projects such as the Zoonoros laboratory, which focuses on creating from a place of precariousness, alongside cellist Maricarmen Graue, writer Edgar Lacolz, and musician Fores Basura. They have performed at the Improv Fest (2022) in Canada, in France with the documentary "Là où manque une tuile, entre la lumière" (2022), and in Mexico at the Blas Galindo Auditorium at CNA, Teatro Galeón, Bucareli 69, among other venues.

Website: https://isaiasherrera.net/

Artistic production carried out with the fiscal stimulus of article 159 Bis of the Law of Finance of the State of Nuevo León, with the support of the Government of the State of Nuevo León and the Council for Culture and the Arts of Nuevo León.

Collaborators

In the sound design of some organisms, the following artists collaborated:

Malitzin Cortés (CNDSD)

Experimental musician and audiovisual artist. She adopts a transdisciplinary approach and technology in the generation of contemporary audiovisual practices. Her work is developed between livecoding, live cinema, animation, generative art and sound art. She is present in the compilations "Conditional" Resonance Extra by Mike Hodnick, "Kindohm" and Calum Gunn (UK), music with algorithms and SNU (MX). She studied Architecture at UNAM and at ENSAP-La Villette Paris. She has performed live acts in Multimedia Center, Alameda Art Laboratory, Ex-Teresa Arte Actual, Centro de Cultura Digital, Centro Cultural España, and she has also given workshops, diplomas and conferences at UNAM, UACM and UAEMex.

Website: https://malitzincortes.net/

Bioluminik

It is a duo made up of Ivonne Valdez and Eliz Gómez. Active in the music circuit in Mexico, their work is made up of field recordings, digital synthesizers and electronic glitches with an organic approach. Cultivated between composition, sound design and audiovisual experimentation, they create a sonic identity that evokes the exploration of atmospheres, timbres and soundscapes that mix with detailed rhythms and evolving environments.

Website: https://www.instagram.com/bioluminik_/

Hugo Solís

He is a Sound Artist. His main field is the creation of interactive sonic works. His work has been shown or performed on national and international venues over the last years. He has received grants, prizes, and awards from FONCA, UNAM, TELMEX, MIT, UW, IMEB, 4Culture, Seattle City, among others. Currently, he is a full-time professor at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in the field of Digital Art and Interactive Technologies. He was a member of the “Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte” of México.

Website: http://hugosolis.net/

Bernardo Feldman

His music has been played throughout Mexico, the United States, Brazil, various European countries, and Israel by groups such as the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, New London Contemporary Ensemble, North / South Consonance, CalArts 20th Century Players, and the Latin American Quartet. He has been commissioned to write for the Los Angeles Festival, the Manuel Enríquez International New Music Forum, the Oaxaca Festival, the Grand Festival of Mexico City, and the Elektronmusic Festivalen in Sweden. His music has been described as “… highly original where innovative timbres abound…” (José Barros Sierra, Excelsior Mexico, D.F.); “… Possessing an emotional charge and a unique sensitivity…” (Jeannie Pool, Music of the Americas, KPFK, FM Los Angeles); "... where elements of rigor and fantasy harmoniously coexist with one another ..." (John Henken, Los Angeles Times).

Website: https://www.facebook.com/bernardo.feldman.1

Iván Naranjo

He studied at the Conservatory of Roses in Mexico and at Wesleyan and Stanford universities in the United States. His work includes works for chamber ensembles, installation, algorithmic music, live electronics, and improvisation. His main composition teachers have been Germán Romero, Ron Kuivila, Erik Ulman and Brian Ferneyhough.

Website: https://soundcloud.com/ivan-naranjo

You can see their names next to the name of the sound organism they designed, when they appear in the installation.

In addition, as part of the event Yami-Ichi 2021 of the Centro de Cultura Digital, 5 new sound organisms were designed during the live event by the auction winners.

In situ

Places where the Sound Installation has been mounted:

Nuevo León: La Huasteca, Cerro de la Silla, Icamole, Laguna de Higueras

Spring 2023

Ecosistema Artifical Sonoro - un proyecto de Isaías Herrera