Hunter Brown will be presenting a piece titled ‘Stoppages Vol. 1’. This is a collection of unedited recordings synthesized by an algorithm that produces streams of numbers that can approach or reach infinity via divide by zero errors. Due to the physical limitations of modern silicon microprocessors, computers cannot produce values of infinite size. With 32-bit processors (the most common as of now), the largest value a CPU can produce is 232. When this maximum value is approached, met, or surpassed, the computer (being the 100% deterministic machine that it is), doesn’t know what to output. It has reached a state of not-knowing and abruptly reaches a stoppage. What you’re hearing is indeterminacy emanating from the CPU’s physical inability to reproduce this audio data, not computer generated pseudo-randomness. This is similar to a record player’s inability to accurately play back a groove in a vinyl record that is impeded by static or dust; to a tape deck’s inability to accurately play back a cassette with mangled magnetic particles; to a CD player’s inability to accurately play back a scratched disc. The failures of vinyl, tape, and CD expose the physical materials that contain the sonic objects we are intended to hear by replacing them with auditory defects and malfunctions. In the case of this music, fractures and discontinuities in the digital medium are amplified and brought to the ear’s forefront. The algorithms executed in this music expose the material collapse of a silicon microprocessor pushed to its limit.
Friday, November 11, 2022
8:00 PM 11:10 PM
Elastic Arts Foundation
3429 W. Diversey #208
Chicago IL, 60647