CLAUDIA LARCHER & GISCHT

LIVE AV

»HALLUCINATIONS«

The audiovisual performance Hallucinations combines the experimental practices of visual artist Claudia Larcher and composer Ursula Winterauer (aka Gischt) in a 40-minute live production.

This second collaboration between the two artists, following the film „The great tree piece“, explores the theoretical and aesthetic implications of the term ‘hallucinations’ as it is used in artificial intelligence (AI) research. Here, the term describes the tendency of algorithmic systems to misinterpret data or generate fictional content – a phenomenon that is taken up and transformed in the performance in both auditory and visual form.

Claudia Larcher’s live video work is based on material from her exhibition Still Lifes 3000, which she has reworked and expanded using AI techniques. Central to her visual language are motifs from media technology – pixel noise, the iconic ‘ants’ of analogue tube televisions and test images – which are transformed into organic forms using AI. These processes open up a field of tension between mechanical abstraction and aesthetic materiality, which Larcher also transfers to the floral elements of her work.

Ursula Winterauer’s soundscapes – characterised by her exploration of industrial, ambient and techno – contrast raw, digitally superimposed layers of sound with the organic nuances of her voice, which she uses as an instrumental medium. In Hallucinations, she works with analogue and digital sounds that absorb, expand and acoustically condense the visual aesthetics of the performance. The combination of bass guitar sounds, synthetic soundscapes and electro-acoustic compositions creates an immersive sound architecture that makes the concept of algorithmic ‘misinterpretations’ acoustically tangible.

The performance explores the interactions between algorithmic processes, digital technologies and human perception. It shows how the so-called ‚hallucination‘ in AI – as a supposed error or breaking point – can become a productive aesthetic strategy. At the same time, it points to the ambivalence of these technological processes, visualising their creative potential as well as their limitations.

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