Dhvāni: Sacred Sounds and Decolonial Machines

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

This paper provides an entry into a decolonial approach to AI driven music and sound arts by describing an ongoing artistic research project Dhvāni. The project is a series of responsive, self-regulating, and autonomous installations driven by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and incorporating ritual and sacred sounds from South Asia. Such mélange re-emphasizes and advocates for the values of interconnectivity, codependence, network, and community with a decolonial approach. By giving the AI an autonomous agency, the project aims to reimagine the future of AI with an inter-subjective reciprocity in human-machine assemblages transcending the technologically deterministic approach to AI-driven live art, media arts and music. Through unpacking the project, this paper underscores the necessity to dehegemonize the AI-driven music field towards a transcultural exchange, thereby transcend the field’s Eurocentric bias.

Citation

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay. 2023. Dhvāni: Sacred Sounds and Decolonial Machines. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11189323

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{nime2023_92,
 abstract = {This paper provides an entry into a decolonial approach to AI driven music and sound arts by describing an ongoing artistic research project Dhvāni. The project is a series of responsive, self-regulating, and autonomous installations driven by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and incorporating ritual and sacred sounds from South Asia. Such mélange re-emphasizes and advocates for the values of interconnectivity, codependence, network, and community with a decolonial approach. By giving the AI an autonomous agency, the project aims to reimagine the future of AI with an inter-subjective reciprocity in human-machine assemblages transcending the technologically deterministic approach to AI-driven live art, media arts and music. Through unpacking the project, this paper underscores the necessity to dehegemonize the AI-driven music field towards a transcultural exchange, thereby transcend the field’s Eurocentric bias.},
 address = {Mexico City, Mexico},
 articleno = {92},
 author = {Budhaditya Chattopadhyay},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.11189323},
 editor = {Miguel Ortiz and Adnan Marquez-Borbon},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {May},
 numpages = {3},
 pages = {626--628},
 title = {Dhvāni: Sacred Sounds and Decolonial Machines},
 track = {Work in Progress},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2023/nime2023_92.pdf},
 year = {2023}
}