Revival
Revival Artwork: Collaborative Interaction Between Human and AI
Revival explores how artificial intelligence, improvisation, and historical musical traces can be brought into relation within a live audiovisual performance. Created by the artist collective K-Phi-A, the work unfolds through structured improvisation among human performers, musical agents, and generative visual systems, shaped by real-time interaction, negotiation, and feedback. Drawing on curated small datasets, including fragments associated with deceased composers alongside the collective’s own materials, Revival reactivates historical traces through musical agents that transform, recombine, and respond to these materials without reproducing them directly. In doing so, the project unsettles stable notions of authorship, liveness, and creative control. Through a noise-maximalist aesthetic combining avant-garde percussion palettes, electroacoustic music, live electronics, and interactive audiovisual production, the work proposes expanded performance as a site of distributed agency, where agents operate not merely as tools but as active artistic collaborators. As an artwork and case study, Revival demonstrates how human and artificial agents can co-produce emergent audiovisual form through interaction, tension, and feedback, reanimating historical materials as active forces within present performance.
Research-Creation Methodology in Music and Artistic Practice
The research-creation methodology in the Revival project blends artistic practice and academic research, where the creative process informs and is informed by technological developments. In this case, the focus is on the co-creation between human musicians and AI agents, with the aim of exploring new forms of improvisational music-making and audiovisual art. The methodology emphasizes several key principles:
Collaborative Co-Creation: Human musicians and AI systems interact in real-time to produce music and visuals. This dynamic collaboration is central to the methodology, as it allows for the exploration of new musical ideas and creative possibilities that neither the human nor the AI could achieve alone.
Iterative Exploration: The methodology allows for ongoing refinement and experimentation, where feedback loops from both musicians and the AI agents shape the outcomes of the performance. The AI's response to human inputs is an essential aspect, as it learns from and adapts to the evolving performance environment.
Ethical and Sustainable Practices: The project incorporates a "small data mindset," which involves using small, curated datasets for training the AI systems. This approach reduces the computational resources needed for AI training, making it more environmentally sustainable. It also ensures transparency in the use of data, helping avoid ethical issues like copyright infringement or the misuse of artists' work. Small datasets also allow for more personalized and artist-centered AI models.
Human-AI Synergy: A core aspect of the research-creation methodology is the recognition that AI can enhance human creativity. The AI agents do not replace the human performer but act as creative partners, amplifying the potential for novel musical and visual expression. The methodology encourages a reflective understanding of how AI alters the traditional roles of composers and performers, especially in the context of improvisation.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration: The integration of music, visual art, and technology highlights the interdisciplinary nature of the research-creation process. The project brings together musicians, VJs, AI researchers, and technologists to create an interactive, co-creative space, demonstrating the evolving role of AI in artistic practices.
In essence, the research-creation methodology in Revival allows for an in-depth exploration of human-AI collaboration, with the goal of pushing the boundaries of both musical and audiovisual art forms while ensuring ethical practices and sustainability.
MUTEK 2025 3-min excerpt audiovisual.
Credits:
Artist Collective K-Phi-A
Keon Ju Maverick Lee: Percussionist/Drummer, Music System Design
Philippe Pasquier: Live Electronics, Director
VJ Amagi (Jun Yuri): VJing, Visual System Design
Related Paper:
Note: Our official art paper has not been published in the official proceedings yet, but it will be included soon upon acceptance.
