MICHAEL MØRKHOLT

The Answering Machine is a listening computer responding instantly to acoustic input, mirroring or conjuring new forms.

Michael Mørkholt’s artistic research explores the interplay between human musicians and machines in a multi-directional communication network. Rather than positioning the human and the machine as opposing entities in a binary relationship, Mørkholt approaches their interaction as a form of cross-pollination — each influencing and enriching the other.

Central to this inquiry is the development of a computer music system conceived as an intelligent instrument. Here, intelligence refers to the system’s ability to make compositional decisions, as well as its responsive behavior to acoustic input from a live performer. This ability contains complexity, nuance, and non-determinacy. It acts as a co-performer within its own cybernetic logic — listening, interpreting, and intervening.