Onur Deng, Mustafa Hakan Sevim, Etem Serkan Sökmen, and İlke Köse; with “Be’ve”; are establishing a sonic organism and a conditional environment where it acts or behaves accordingly with the collaboration of artificial intelligence, influenced by Musique Concrète, which is an experimental technique of musical composition using recorded sounds as raw material. To create such an organism they are continuously producing sets of various samples of generated signals and processed audio recordings simultaneously mimicking the technique with only one particular difference where the AI is the touch designer. The results can be very abstract or very concrete, but reactive to its environment, aiming to show that nonliving things can also behave and have sophisticated characteristics.
OnurDeng
Born in 1997, Gaziantep. He began his musical studies in İstanbul, encouraged by its cultural phenomenons and traditional arts. Later on, he started singing a capella as a bass vocalist in Bogazici Jazz Choir and had a European tour; which was when he gained a multidimensional view of what music is for the first time.
Currently he is studying in his third year at Bilgi University Music Department. During his studies, he met with electronic music instruments. He started to perform in musical events and concerts, especially in exhibitions, musical storytelling nights and podcasts. He exhibited his first sound installation called “Tekne” in 2019, staged in the exhibition “Are We OK?”, Istanbul. He is now practicing on electronics, free improvisations and fusions of musical genres.
Mustafa Hakan Sevim
Born in 1998, İstanbul. Started his music education at MSM with repertoire and songwriting classes. He was a bass in Boğaziçi Jazz Choir and several other choirs with multiple traditions (Western, Turkish folk, and art choirs). Currently studying music at Istanbul Bilgi University on composition, music technologies, and the cognitive side of music.
Inspired by “Deep Listening” practice about how we perceive, how we name and interpret sounds while improvising.
Recently started to collect sounds in a mobilized way and then experiment with what can emerge after we process raw audio recordings. He will work as a member of the exhibition team, perform with the trio |OHB|, and facilitate an audio-visual installation “Be’ve” in ISFF Detmold 2021.
Etem Serkan Sökmen
While studying Economics at Hacettepe University, he did personal and commercial studies with his interest in 3D modelling, animation and computer programming. Later, he left the department to study at the Faculty of Fine Arts. He completed his sculpture education with the highest degree and after that worked as a Research Assistant. During this period, he worked on his master’s thesis on human-machine interaction, algorithms and new media by adding tools from his past to his artistic works. He became a trainer and participant in national and international workshops, festivals and collective exhibitions with his works. He continues his journey by learning new tools, experimenting and applying them to his ideas.
İlke Köse
After graduating from the sound engineering department at Galatasaray İTM Academy. She researched science-art-psychology interactions and received short-term script training. During this period she worked in various studios and live performance teams. In 2012, she took a break from music and became interested in the fields of digital arts and artificial intelligence, and tried to devise ideas on the relationship between artificial intelligence and art. She took part in the film and advertising teams. Currently she works on visual and artificial intelligence in live performances.
