Noah Pred
LXD-1, 2024
Basic Needs Guaranteed, 2024
Combining manipulated satellite imagery with sonified data sets, LXD-1 explores layers of complicity and non-compliance implied in surveillance, data extraction, and climate breakdown. The asynchronous convergence of audio- visual layers, when fully activated, invokes the overwhelming sensation of an accelerated lifetime’s planetary flux. Using data sets commencing from the artist’s year of birth sonified with custom tools and accompanied by deliberately decimated images, can you decipher the territory implied by the map? Beckoning viewers to confront their role in a world increasingly dependent on inscrutable data flows while undergoing profound ecological transformation, LXD-1 outlines the intersection of individual agency and collective responsibility amidst the ceaseless flux of our shared biosphere and the emerging technological systems reshaping it — with or without our consent. Originally constructed as an interactive work for the debut exhibition of Pred’s own Metamedia format, the condensed excerpt presented here was specially crafted by the artist to showcase a variety of layers contained in the original version.
Sound design constructed with Sonification Tools developed by the artist for Manifest Audio: https://manifest.audio
Data sourced from: https://ourworldindata.org/fossil-fuels (Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Rosado); https://ourworldindata.org/ozone-layer (Hannah Ritchie, Lucas Rodés-Guirao and Max Roser); and https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions (Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser)
Experience and explore the full original 15-layer interactive work on Zora: https://zora.co/collect/zora:0xe84c1658db8e9a3817cf9159f9a134d6368b2cb3/1
Learn more about the Metamedia format at: http://meta-media.club
“It’s easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism.” Mark Fisher, in Capitalist Realism
“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.” William Gibson, on NPR
Originally created for Sónar Festival 2024 as part of Sound Obsessed’s Temporal Tide exhibition, S+T+ARTS EU funding required the use of so-called AI technology in crafting this piece. Rather than deploy AI image generators with all their telltale artifacts, Basic Needs Guaranteed enlists a GPT to produce a series of increasingly radical solutions to poverty. Using predictive text as a mirror, the steadily intensifying soundtrack reflects the urgency of widening inequalities. Translating global income gaps into sound using custom sonification software developed by the artist (and used throughout Temporal Tide), Basic Needs Guaranteed’s chorus of Realtime Audio Variational Encoder-produced pseudo-vocalizations trace the contours of wealth ratios, giving uncanny voice to those living daily below acceptable thresholds. Poverty persists as a Gordian knot at the twisted heart of a tangled web of systemic issues. Expressed with familiar typefaces, the generated sloganeering makes a self-aware nod to propaganda, while asking: why do fundamental necessities seem beyond reach in an era of techno-capitalist excess?
Sound design constructed with Sonification Tools developed by the artist for Manifest Audio: https://manifest.audio
Data sourced from: https://ourworldindata.org/poverty#explore-data-on-poverty (Joe Hasell, Max Roser, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, and Pablo Arriagada)
Collect the digital work on Zora: https://zora.co/collect/zora:0x765a9c9038bd39d3595e2b28cb85be3737cd04bc/1 (50% of network rewards automatically go to: https://savethechildren.org)
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Noah Pred is a multimedia audio-visual artist, developer, record producer, sound designer, and educator currently based in Portugal. Exploring metaphysical ecosystems through creative technology, his works have been presented at MUTEK (Montréal), Sónar (Barcelona), despace (Berlin), and Refraction (NYC).
Instagram/X: @noahpred