The work we are presenting - MAGNIFICATIO ALGERVENSIS - is rightly inspired by the Algarvensis Geopark, through its many facets: unique geological aspects, but also landscapes, fauna and flora.
It consists of a transdisciplinary performance in which instrumental music and generative visuals communicate through the mediation of digital technologies. On the sonic side, a computational component adds characteristics to the traditional electroacoustic potential, as well as taking an important part in the musical dialogue through the use of Interactive Machine Learning algorithms, making it possible for the musical response of the computational component to evolve in real time.
On the visual side, there is a generative system that is controlled in real time, as if it were an instrument, and in which the textures - based on a photographic survey of the Algarvensis Geopark and subsequent digital manipulation - are transformed to accompany the musical performance. Thus, the convergence of these three vectors - musical performance, digital augmentation and responsive generative art - is used to take the audience on a magnificent sensory journey.
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ALGARVE COLLECTIVE - ART LAB
Coletivo Algarve - Art Lab is a collaborative structure made up of artists from different backgrounds and paths, although all of them have a strong connection to the Algarve, either through their place of birth, affection or life journey. It was born out of their desire to open up common paths between music, visual arts and emerging technologies, transforming tradition and the land into a matter for the future. Art Lab is therefore a living space for encounter, invention and experimentation, where different languages intertwine to give birth to new forms of creation.
At its core, the collective is driven by a passion for digital media art and the impulse to explore the unknown. Digitally augmenting so-called traditional musical instruments is just one of the gestures that symbolise this crossroads: the breath of a clarinet, the impact of a marimba or the vibration of a percussion expand into universes of sound and light, amplified by digital audiovisual systems created by the artists themselves. The performance ceases to be just a performance and becomes an immersive experience, where the sound gesture meets the image, and where technology is not a tool, but a living body that responds and transforms.
Art Lab's uniqueness results from the sum of complementary sensibilities: the technical rigour of those who inhabit the world of programming, artificial intelligence, databases or machine learning; the aesthetic vision of those who cross design, multimedia, assemblage or generative art; the musical depth of performers trained in the classical tradition, but who embrace improvisation, sound experimentation and transdisciplinary collaboration with equal intensity.
This fertile mix creates an augmented territory where artistic practice is simultaneously research, performance and poetic-technological manifesto. Thus, each performance by the collective is unique and unrepeatable: it is a changing ecosystem, a force field in which music, image and code intertwine in real time.
Coletivo Algarve - Art Lab is thus an open platform for creation, research and sharing, where tradition and innovation dialogue, and where art is projected as a transformative, radically contemporary experience.
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MEMBERS
RUI TRAVASSO
Rui Travasso holds a PhD in Digital Media Arts (UAb/UAlg) and is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Beja. His research crosses performing arts, multimedia communication and interactive technology, with a focus on instrumental expansion and performance ecologies mediated by algorithms, as well as pedagogy related to Audiovisual and Media Production. She has participated in projects funded by DGArtes and the GDA Foundation, integrating artistic production and applied research. His artistic practice includes a decade as head of clarinet in the Algarve Orchestra, interactive performances, audiovisual systems, sound experimentation with an emphasis on inclusion and cultural mediation, and he has published over a hundred tracks.
VASCO RAMALHO
Born in Reguengos de Monsaraz, Vasco Ramalho holds a Master's Degree in Percussion/Interpretation (2024) and a Degree in Percussion/Teaching (2005) from the University of Évora in the class of Professor Eduardo Lopes. He completed a postgraduate course in solo marimba at the Royal Conservatory Antwerp - Belgium in the class of Dr Ludwig Albert (2008). Since 2012 he has been the artistic director of 21 International Percussion Festivals in Portimão, Évora, Reguengos de Monsaraz and Alcácer do Sal. In July 2017 he recorded his first CD, Vasco Ramalho - Essências de Marimba, Fados & Choros. As a teacher, he teaches at the Loulé Conservatory of Music and is a visiting assistant professor at the University of Évora. Since 2013 he has been an Adams artist, one of the world's leading percussion instrument brands. He studied for a PhD in Digital Media Art at the University of the Algarve and Universidade Aberta and is currently studying for a PhD in Music and Musicology at the University of Évora. In 2023 he was awarded the medal of cultural merit by the municipality of Reguengos de Monsaraz.
PEDRO ALVES DA VEIGA
Pedro Alves da Veiga is an artist and researcher with a PhD in Digital Media Art from the University of Algarve and Universidade Aberta. He is an Assistant Professor at the Universidade Aberta, where he is Deputy Director of the PhD in Digital Media Art. He has been an entrepreneur for over two decades and has developed award-winning web design and multimedia projects. He is an integrated member of the Arts and Communication Research Centre and a collaborator with the ID+ Institute for Research in Design, Media and Culture. He has recorded two albums for the Polygram label and one of his songs is part of the soundtrack for the film "Variações". He has exhibited his generative artworks, individually and collectively, in Portugal, Brazil, Spain, France, Italy, Holland, Romania, Russia, China, South Korea, Thailand and the USA.
RUI D'OREY
Rui Sousa d'Orey is a PhD student and researcher in Digital MediaArt at the Universities of Algarve and Aberta, affiliated with CIAC - Centre for Research in Arts and Communication, and works as a 3D software engineer. With a degree in Computer Science from the University of Porto (2013), he started as a researcher at the Porto Interactive Center, specialising in computer graphics and human-computer interaction. He has participated in projects such as Virtual Embodiment and Robotic Re-Embodiment (FCT) and Move4Health (PT Inovação), developing solutions in motion capture, virtual reality, interactive 3D applications, artificial intelligence, data processing and backend systems. He has worked directly with companies, as a freelancer and through an agency he founded. In the context of her PhD in digital media art, she has participated in various digital media art projects in collaboration with other colleagues and seeks to work at the crossroads between technology, the arts and the humanities from a more-than-human perspective.
