The Substation/​ Robbie Avenaim/​ Motorgenic/

Motorgenic aims to challenge the role of percussion in modern music by expanding the physical capabilities of the instruments and augmenting human decision making with artificial intelligence.

Motorgenic represents Avenaim's current position negotiating an ongoing loop, whereby his intervention (i.e. physical and robotic modification of the drums) paired with an artificial “brain” and programming, necessitate new ways of listening to, playing and understanding percussion in an expanded contemporary field. Avenaim's work presents acoustic music that’s performance exists beyond the realm of human dexterity, whilst retaining the human element of aesthetic decision making. Avenaim has spent over seven years inventing and implicating machines in an improvisational context, looking for ways for them to inspire and guide the music. What has come out of these experiments are new directions in rhythm, texture and groove which are simultaneously autonomous and manipulated, contingent and compositional. Motorgenic expounds on the findings of these improvisational experiments and uses them as raw material for a durational installation.

Motorgenic presents an opportunity for audiences to decipher, interpret and decide for themselves what music can be and incorporate, by whom or what processes music comes to be, and the value of technological contributions to cultural and institutionalised phenomena.