Projects – Matthew Steinke

Deliriums

2018, mixed media, robotics, video, animation, sound

STEINKE DELIRIUMS LAYOUT

“Deliriums” explores the space between “matter and mind” through robotic sculpture, animation, and sound. I have always been interested in the ephemeral parts of things that cannot be seen like the electrons in a circuit, the music from an instrument, or the thoughts of a person. I am also interested in how these internal processes can manifest in physical space as movements, sounds, and behaviors. The three instruments in this documentation represent one of three personality clusters from the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) which include Cluster A (odd, eccentric), Cluster B (dramatic erratic), Cluster C (anxious, fearful).

I collected monologs from anonymous individuals diagnosed with personality disorders, transcribed the recordings into text and then outputted them from voice synthesizers. Then I created animations to help illustrate the imaginations of these “virtual souls”. The robotic instruments score the emotional content of their confessions. The animations, sound design, monologs, and robotics are all perfectly synched like the tracks of a film except you cannot experience them all at once. You have to move throughout the installation space and put the pieces together.

Noplace

Excerpt from Fusebox 2017 at Big Medium, Austin, TX

2017 NIME Festival in Copenhagen

The evolving score of NOPLACE incorporates several of my invented robotic musical instruments. It is accompanied by live projections from closed-circuit cameras, synced animations, motorized zoetropes, and the shifting shadows produced by an ensemble of mechanical devices.

The title, Noplace, is taken from the literary interpretation of Thomas More’s Utopia and the score is based on the second half of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Through musical and visual interpretations of this narrative, I explore modern ideologies relating to prosperity, safety, and identity.