Team
Hugo Paquete (INET-md/ UA, artistic coordination)
Christopher Zlaket
David Stingley
Luna Paquete
Period
1/10/ 2026 to 31/05/2027
Institutions involved (in collaboration or partnership)
INET‑md · Universidade de Aveiro
Absonus Lab
CIAC · Universidade do Algarve
iA\*Lab Sensoria · Universidade da Beira Interior
Planetário do Porto – Centro Ciência Viva
Artech‑International
Museu do Côa
Câmara Municipal de Aveiro / Museu Arte Nova
Funding
Direção-Geral das Artes DGArtes | Ref. 33004
Abstract
AI as Catalyst: The Chimera in the Machine is an experimental and computational music project that explores Artificial Intelligence as an unstable co‑authorial entity, continuously negotiating between human control and algorithmic autonomy. The research intersects sound art, computational music and post‑digital aesthetics, transforming deviations, errors and hallucinations of generative models, trained on non‑musical material, into aesthetic substance.
The sonic creation is grounded in an algorithmic archaeology built from a multimodal corpus: bio‑signals captured with the Instruo Pocket Scion, electromagnetic interferences recorded with the SOMA Ether V2, and georeferenced CO₂ measurements converted into musical parameters. These data feed generative models configured as MECS (Multi‑Agent Environmental Cognitive Synthesizer), a multi‑agent system capable of manifesting emergent behaviour and transforming environmental data into dynamic sonic structures.
Prompt‑design, embedded in the code, functions as a living score, mediating the negotiation between composer and system. Multichannel spatialisation culminates in a presentation at the Porto Planetarium, where the immersive dome acts as a co‑composer, linking environmental data to architectural space.
The project integrates technological research, tool development, multichannel composition and scientific mediation, resulting in a series of performances and an album of sonic micro‑experiences. Its uniqueness lies in the combination of environmental sound archaeology, generative AI, emergent behaviour and immersive spatialisation, a cybernetic ecology where data, environment and algorithm become living material for creation.
Keywords
Generative AI; Experimental music; Sound archaeology; Computational ecologies; Post-techno; Multichannel immersion; Interdisciplinary practice.