Back in November I performed and presented the Sophtar at Most Wanted: Music Berlin (MW:M). The event that took place at the Kulturbrauerei, a multicultural centre created after the fall of the Berlin Wall in a converted 19th century brewery. My contribution was part of the Hybrid Music Lab, a platform within MW:M for exploring new forms of musical expression.
It was a lovely, well-organised event, curated by Matthias Jung, whom I first met during the Embedding Algorithms Workshop. It was great to see fellow researchers and performers from the Intelligent Instruments Lab and the Wilding AI workshop again, meet new people and learn about their research work.
I was particularly surprised by how much people enjoyed playing with and exploring the Sophtar for the first time. Some people sat at my booth playing the instrument for nearly an hour and afterwards shared their impressions with me enthusiastically. I honestly did not expect that. I designed the instrument for myself, not thinking too much about whether other people might find it appealing or not. Apparently several aspects of the instrument resonated with others, and that’s definitely a good thing.
Here are some pictures from the event taken by Lisa Vlasenko.
