"Entropy, the average amount of information represented
by a symbol in a message, is a function of the model used to
produce that message and can be reduced by increasing the complexity
of the model so that it better reflects the actual distribution
of source symbols in the original message."
Metaphorically speaking, the quotation above has the character
of a song lyric - being truly coherent only with an accompanying
music, while simultaneously, and perhaps paradoxically,
becoming fragmented with contingent noise.
I propose to take this phrase out of context as a song lyric,
to have the song performed by a choir of virtual and actual
voices, and to distribute the resultant recording - ENTROPIA -
over networks.
A somewhat more conventional definition of entropy will be
a necessarily operative function in assembling the choir, performing
the song, and distributing it. Working with the given of a multicultural
but almost exclusively masculine group of 'techies' from MAT
will provide a richly-accented, sampled, baritone chorus:
chorus andros ek mekhanes
- the male-voice machine choir
To equalise the dominant male-voice tones of our choir, the female-voice
choristers will be gathered from the virtual members of the
MacinTalk Speech Synthesis Program: Agnes, Junior, Kathy,
Princess, & Victoria; plus the actual and only woman in
the group, Hindi Vocalist, Purva Gujar:
chorus androdameia ek mekhanes
- the male-voice-subduer machine choir
The finished piece will be a networked MPEG stream
Despite its strategic neo-Dadaism and like many if not most
songs, the supra-critical intent of this artwork is to approach
truth & beauty through voice.
--|--
Colophon
ENTROPIA is a song about a site of future ruin - an immersed, invisible
city - experienced as a diasporic technological event.