Tasos Asonitis - Exhibits (MANTIS festival)

MANTIS (Manchester Theatre in Sound) festival March 2025

Exhibits
Tasos Asonitis - 17,15 | Stereo AV
Exhibits introduces a fictional gallery where four sculptures are presented and combined in surrealistic transformations. The sculptures are separated into two categories: the geometric solids and the algorithmic sculptures. The algorithmic sculptures have been generated through the three-dimensional visualisation of Genetic Algorithm’s optimisation process. Through this process two sculptures were obtained resembling distorted or xenomorphic versions of the geometric solids. The two sculpture types are hybridised and increasingly deformed, as the piece balances on the interplay between recognisable and unrecognisable, symmetrical and biomorphic, rigid and elastic. This dialogic narrative unfolds in three acts during which we explore the sculptures visually and sonically. The latter becomes possible through a mechanism that scans the geometry of the sculpture and conveys its shape to sound. Experimenting with various scanning directions and patterns, novel sonic material is obtained, ranging from complex textures and rhythmic articulations to expressive gestures. As the result of the direct conversion of the morphology of each sculpture to sound, this technique maintains a powerful intrinsic connection between sound and image, functioning as the carrier of narrative for the greatest part of the work.

Tasos Asonitis:
Tasos Asonitis is an audiovisual artist whose activities encompass various facets of digital arts. His primary interest is immersive virtual environments that can be described by the creative entanglement of computer-generated music and 3D graphics. Asonitis' artistic output however is not limited to the audiovisual domain, and includes multi-channel fixed media pieces, sonic installations and compositions for moving image. He is a part of the UnSupervised artists collective, a creative group that merges Artificial Intelligence (AI), music and visual arts. His works have been exhibited at the People’s History Museum (Manchester, UK), Science and Industry Museum (Manchester, UK), Athens Digital Arts Festival, METS Fest (Cuneo, Italy), MA/IN Festival (Lecce, Italy), and prestigious conferences like International Computer Music Conference 2023 (Shenzen, China), Artificial Intelligence and Music Creativity 2023 (Brighton, UK) and xCoAx 2021 (Graz, Austria). His audiovisual work Exhibits received the first place and Award of Distinction at the MA/IN Awards, in the audiovisual category. Recipient of the EPSRC doctoral scholarship, he obtained his PhD in Electroacoustic Composition at NOVARS Research Center, at the University of Manchester.