_log(_rithm) is a quartet of two improvisation machines and two humans that brings selective surveillance, data analytics, and data ownership into a performative question. Both humans and improvisation machines rely on camera, audio, and motion sensors to read the situation of the performance and make musical decisions; this fact is purposefully manipulated through the selective lighting of the performance space, which both hides and reveals the working frame of the quartet. The human performers play with this and their ability to partially evade the sensors of the improvisation machines. Together, they experiment with what happens in an improvised dialogue when one hears/sees/perceives only part of the story.

In a contemporary society brimming with persistent user tracking and data collection, questions of data ownership and retention are unavoidable realities. The data of the performers/users and other detected human units in the performance are continuously extracted and reapplied in the reproduction of sounds and visuals during the performance, as well as the alternation of decision making processes of the two machines. The quartet is in its purest form a selective feedback system of sensors and sensations, playing with the delicate balance of revealing and concealing analog and digital data.

performers: Melody Chua, Chi Him Chik, AIYA (Chua), Aiii (Chik)
visuals: Melody Chua & Chi Him Chik
photos: Frank Post
videography: Nikola Lutz & Shaotong He
editing: Melody Chua