Monica Tolia
Monica Tolia is an interdisciplinary artist working across choreography, dance and score, computation, installation, sculpture and sound. She creates immersive performances using computational methods involving sensing technologies, machine learning and AI, raising questions about bodily affects, perception and agency.
Recent performances in London have included ‘Diffracta’ at TRC and ‘Sonic Topologies’ at The Glove That Fits. She has recently spoken in ‘AVBODY: Symposium on the AudioVisual Body’ at the University of Huddersfield, and in the ‘London Conference in Critical Thought’ on the panel ‘Art and Automation’ at University of Westminster. She is recipient of an 2018 A-N Biennial Bursary.
BioSonics
BioSonics is a biosignal-algorithmic sonic performance work by Monica Tolia. The work uses machine learning to manipulate sonic effects and frequencies through the algorithm's reading of the performers’ data. Moving between states of bodily control and loss of it in the sonic layers produced by the algorithm, the performance explores agency of the moving body in the machinic soundscape.
BioSonics was originally performed at The Glove that Fits in May 2018. The initial sound composition was created by Monica, and warped through the interfacing of the Ableton Live Set with the machine learning programme developed in collaboration with programmer Terry Clark. In each rendition of the performance, a new electronic musician is invited to create the Live Set composition that will be altered through how the algorithm interprets the performer’s bodily movements in the performance.
UKYA PROJECTS:
UKYA City Takeover: Nottingham 2019
UKYA Cornish Weekender 2018
