The physical world around us is structured not randomly but according to patterns – the laws of nature. The one that has personally fascinated me the most is self-similarity, which is nature's tendency to repeat similar structures at different scales – think of how the veins of a leaf resemble the tree itself.

This phenomenon, while mathematically abstract, is immediately familiar to any observer and is indeed one of the most reliable ways of differentiating man-made structures from those of natural occurrence. My musical practice is inspired by such phenomena, and I strive to ground my compositions in the concrete experience of the sounding world. In this masterclass,

I will present my approach to working with found sound and field recordings, how to unmask their hidden properties, and how to employ them as material for self-similar compositions. I will explore the concrete tools used to achieve this and discuss the philosophical implications of music that is or isn’t grounded in the physical world

Bio

Heinrich Lenz is a musician and sound artist from Cologne. His work includes composition, live performance as well as sound and audiovisual installations. The main focuses of his work are minimalism, generative structures, and very long forms, as well as music for altered states of consciousness. From 2016 to 2021, he studied Electroacoustic Composition at the University of Music "Franz Liszt" in Weimar. Combining ambient music with studies of room acoustics and impulse responses, he developed music at the boundary between performance and installation: sleep music. Since 2018, he has regularly organized sleep concerts, in which he appears both as an organizer and as an artist.

His bachelor's thesis dealt with the social-psychological and cultural backgrounds of sleep music. From 2019 to 2020, he studied abroad at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and studied Electronic Music from 2021 to 2024 at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, where he completed his master's degree. His master's thesis focused on the use of machine learning for assisted real-time composition, culminating in an eight-hour live performance.

From 2018 to 2024, Heinrich Lenz was a scholarship holder of the Hans Böckler Foundation and was a Fellow at ON After School in 2023. In 2024, he is an Artist in Residence at No End To The Road, Witten. His projects, especially his sleep concerts, have been supported by various public institutions, and he has presented his vision of electronic sound art at the Experimance Festival (2024), Tarmac Festival (2023), and Nowhere Festival (2023), among others.

Is generative AI living up to its promises, particularly in the non-photorealistic domain? Can it be integrated into a 2D animation pipeline? What are the risks and benefits for animation professions?

Bio

Stéphanie Cadoret is an animation director and audiovisual performer. She makes 2D animated films, real-time animated performances, and explores the relationship between mental imagery, the animating body, gesture and its animated outcome in academic research in Animation studies.