Lydia

WANDERING THE PIANO

La Biennale di Venezia Musica (IT)
Sound installation / Multichannel spatial performance (16-channel) | 2023

In 2023 (JAN-OCT), I was selected as the youngest artist of the festival (Biennale Musica sector). Along with nine other composers, performers, and musicians, I was awarded an artistic residency to produce my installation Wandering the Piano, which premiered at the Biennale Musica di Venezia 2023 under the curation of Lucia Ronchetti and under supervision of Prof. Dr. Miller Smith Puckette, Prof. Dr Gerfried Stocker (Ars Electronica), and Ali Nikrang (Ars Electronica, Future Lab).

The installation explored the spatial and mechanical memory of the piano through fragmented motifs, prepared strings, and resonant responses to movement, creating a dialogue between performer and instrument.

There are (2) main components of this installation:

• Creation and curation of a large dataset of >10,000 sound files
• Creation of 8 spatial maps (soundscapes) with 64 sounds each

YouTube: Amateur film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dts4YQDgXVw

La Biennale Website:
https://www.labiennale.org/en/music/2023/music-performances/lydia-krifka-dobes-wandering-piano

Version 1 Code:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZiyisKzEQCcyZq-QzN87tD2KZLJCkB4w/view?usp=sharing

01001100.mov (DE)

Composition for choreography (Extended-range violin + dance) | 12′15 | 2022–2023

In 2022 & 2023 I collaborated with contemporary dancer and choreographer Adithi. The work focuses on exploring everyday gestures, both the extent and the emotions evoked by them. Music for the piece is parallel in places to the dance and accompanying in certain places. Music for this piece is composed on extended range violin, freeze pedal and convolution. Constantly varying tempos, artificial harmonics overlapped by microtones, unsync counterpoint, and multi-phonics are some of the concepts used for sound. Dance explores gestures not just as artistic elements but to query the cultural space and its practices.

Watch:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x_MiH9oyBDrd1CgKFSBVRZ6jyVJOHbrN/view?usp=sharing

WANDERING THE SOUNDS OF LANGUAGES (NL)

Interactive sound/language installation + Website interface / research concert | 17′00 (looped installation) | 2025

There are two main components to this research: (1) Curation and analysis of recordings of Aesop's fable in 22 highly diverse languages and (2) Collective retelling of the story for an installation or a website on utterance level.

Drawing from my experience with different languages, from growing up trilingual to encountering the languages of Vanuatu, I explore ways to appreciate the variety of spoken languages in their acoustic realization. I work with recordings of the same text, a fable by Aesop, which appeals to many cultures and carries great significance in the face of language endangerment.

A concert-research presentation expanding on my thesis project, combining field recordings of Aesop's Fable across 22 languages with live phonetic sonification. Audience members interacted with an interface displaying parallel speech gestures as spatial sound fields.

Presentation at Sonology for documentation:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fa5kiLGAkGCzdIe28EKIosv3bViizRPG/view?usp=sharing

Bachelors language research - Sounds of Languages Thesis (2025, Institute of Sonology):
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1joZ3wgK0aZhOOPxlf1VOXy2Jzwor2NzW?usp=sharing

GAME OF LIFE :: QUICKSEND (NL)

192-channel (Wave Field Synthesis System) live coding | 2023

Quicksend is a live-coded performance presented in the Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) system by Game of Life Foundation. The system consists of 192 loudspeakers to create an immersive virtual acoustic environment. Quicksend utilises an audio feedback algorithm in search of the border between noise and tone.

GAME OF LIFE :: ZUNGENTANZ (NL)

192-channel (Wave Field Synthesis System) fixed media | 6′ | 2025

Showcased at the Game of Life Festival as part of the Institute of Sonology's featured presentations. Zungentanz (6′): The three main components of this Fixed Media piece: Spatial mapping of vowel positions to physical coordinates using Wave Field Synthesis, extending micro-choreographies of speech articulation and the mechanics of resonant acoustic memory within the oral cavity.

The idea of this project is to virtually place the listener inside the oral cavity of a speaker to appreciate the complexity of movement while we speak. In particular, I observe the vowels in the so-called vowel quadrant that identifies the position of the tongue (e.g. i: high, front, u: high, back, a: low, central) and map them to virtual points in space using Wave Field Analysis.

Game of Life Festival:
https://www.koncon.nl/en/events/wave-field-synthesis-festival-2

DOOM SCROLLING

AI-driven performance exploring algorithmic identity through real-time Instagram Reels sampling | 2023

UNERHÖRT UNDERGROUND PERFORMANCE

Cellular automata-based autonomous musical system with Butoh dancers | 2025

MOTHER TONGUES

Generative visualization of language extinction through genetic algorithms | 2023

CONTOUR & FEATURE TRACKER

Real-time computer vision code for performance (openFrameworks / C++) | Ongoing | 2024+

This is a reference implementation of my ongoing work with openCV API. Once complete it will be released both as a standalone library and openFrameworks add-on. I am using the contour-finder algorithm (using kernel convolution techniques such as Sobel + Canny edge-detection, etc.) to recognize contours from a moving image. Using Shi-Tomasi Algorithm to define and extract features that can be selectively synthesized to form newer shapes or animated to form distortions within the contours. All processing is done parallelly using POCO thread library.

The library has enhanced corner detection algorithms, expanded by me, that will directly contribute to my research at Long Meadow Art Residency. It will help understand the relationship between a movement artist and latent inanimate objects in the space.

Link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q4zcMNuZxJoQuw66Dk-iLk3RGtpPGJFw

DYNAMIC STOCHASTIC SYNTHESIS

Algorithmic composition code / C++ sound engine | 2022

This library reimplements Xenakis and Sergio Luque's dynamic stochastic synthesis algorithm in C++ using openFrameworks. Combined with my formants-detection tool, this system recognizes vowels and extends them algorithmically, creating a method for exploring phonetic diversity through computational means. The project will be used in my upcoming exhibition at the Humboldt-Forum, demonstrating the practical application of my research in linguistic sonification.

PATTERNS FOR C++

Threaded pattern synthesis library (C++) | Continuous development | 2024

I have been writing multi-threaded classes for C++ to mimic Patterns UGens from SuperCollider. As of now, calling (threaded) libraries with either user-defined functions/lambdas for patterns or using any of the member pattern functions have been implemented.

Threaded patterns:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E2ptHYe2DnNCncTwB-Xw2yHH-KCmNpXz

TRACKING COLLECTION

Gesture-tracking research code (C++, Kinect / POCO Threads) | 2023

Below is a list of C++ projects (eventually turned into classes) I am writing as part of my gesture-tracking library for my Second year sonology project at the Institute of Sonology. One of the libraries shows how I create new parametric relationships from Kinect data (example: The rotation of the knee with the speed of hand movement to form a single vector). Another library shows using derivatives and statistical information from mouse movement to form new animations on screen. It also has a first draft of a granular synthesis (credit Aaron Anderson) to be used in my upcoming performance with a dancer at the WaveField Synthesis festival. This is the primary basis library for the gesture recognition phase of the work.

Gesture derivatives:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12MRekXJbVFOT4LYniq2w0cPhMErhMKm1

REALTIME PROCESSING SHOWCASE (NL)

Multichannel audiovisual improvisation (24-channel audio + real-time processing sensor data) | The Hague, NL | 2023

Experimental presentation exploring the relationship between motion, data, and sound in multi-channel setups using the PinePhone Pro (Linux open source bio Phone). The showcase featured algorithmically triggered visual and sonic elements derived from dancer gesture capture using in-house gesture tracking libraries. The whole sound palette was produced from simple granular synthesis of a sine wave and 1 sample only, where the main transformations are: (1) A sequenced Ring Modulator (2) an FFT freezer, (3) a FFT bin shifter, and (4) a buffer scanner.

Listen:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12MRekXJbVFOT4LYniq2w0cPhMErhMKm1

WORKING WITH ANALOG SYNTH (DE)

Analog modular synthesis + violin improvisation | 2019

My first introduction to synthesizers was through the Berlin DIY community who assembled a comprehensive Eurorack synthesizer setup in Berlin. We started experimenting in 2017 with improvised performance sessions in various underground DIY festivals, culminating with a composition based on "Gagaku" japanese tradition. This piece concentrates on aspects of Gagaku such as its timbral and spectral richness, its openness in rhythm, its minimalism, and chiefly the different tuning systems.

Listen:
https://soundcloud.com/grunfeld/impressions-of-gagaku-1

DEUTSCHE OPER – COMMON SOUND (DE)

Micro-festival curation / live intermedia performance | Residency 4 weeks | Berlin, DE | 2019

Co-Curation of Micro-festival curated and co-produced as part of Common Sound at the Tischlerei, Deutsche Oper Berlin. The laboratory brought together young artists, composers, and performers from diverse backgrounds to experiment across sound, gesture, and stage media, culminating in a series of curated interdisciplinary performances with public workshops.

Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfs_h92yqp0

TRXXXTER – HARMONICA CONCERTO (DE)

DJ set / radio broadcast with live sampling | 42′15 | Berlin, DE | 2025

DJ-set installation and live radio project fusing generative sampling with manipulated harmonica recordings. The performance transformed field textures into cyclical layers through granular processing, creating a hybrid between DJ practice, sound collage, and live coding. Broadcast as part of the Trxxxter Radio Performance Series.

HISTORY SAMPLING USING SHADERS

GPU shader image sampler / Interactive visual system | 2024

This library collects texture samples either from input video or a collection of images. In this implementation, it uses the distance between mouse position and pixel in shaders to sample different textures coordinated from the supplied Deque of history to interpolate and form new display images. In its next iteration, it will use gestures from LeapMotion instead of mouse positions.

Documentation:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FlVGGDN7CJEbVuAKrvC_UC0MTw05ZC9L/view?usp=sharing

OUTFLUX (NL)

Live trio (FFT cross synthesis + violin + phone apps) | 2019

A live improvisation trio featured me on violin and electronics, Tristan Beutter on smartphone apps and FFT cross synthesis via Max/MSP and Wacom tablet. The central concept behind the trio is the conceptual and literal exchange of ideas. Sound output from each member is sent to every other member in order to be processed or tweaked live.

Listen adblock module:
https://soundcloud.com/grunfeld/adblock-module/s-d45w5

BERLIN ERRORISTS (DE)

Electroacoustic improvisation / Hybrid analog-digital ensemble | 2022

An improvisers collective was formed by me in Berlin to create a mix of traditional instruments, everyday objects with contact mics, one analog synthesizer (Eurorack), some programming languages, and manipulated playback of field recordings. The live improvisation consisted of acoustic violin, PureData, vibrating plates, bowed clothes string, a Eurorack synth, and clarinet. The final performance consisted of manipulation of field recordings and samples from the field recording as an impulse response for violin convolution.

Listen:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Uxy_Kuni0GCXwKlaoPpm9RE0PZNkH5YK/view?usp=sharing

SOUND & SPACE WORKSHOP at Curiosity Club (ES)

Workshop | Barcelona | 2025

Comprehensive workshop series exploring the materiality and spatiality of sound through multiple sessions at Sound and Music Computing Masters (Curiosity Club: acousmatrix (field recordings and Islamic adhan compositions), sound & space (12-channel dodecaphonic systems), philosophical investigations of sound's nature, n-channel reverb implementations, microphone techniques (coincident and spaced pairs), hybrid spatial approaches combining Chladni figures and Harry Partch's tuning systems, and Japanese concepts of onkyō (sound + resonance).

Material:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vGRY1WvET-BQ5aUWXFRIiF_Gnoe2gxvC/view?usp=sharing

STOCHASTIC TENDENCIES

Analogue studio generative composition (Institute of Sonology) | 2021

The principal concept behind this composition is Tendency Masks. Tendency mask is a method of containing, enveloping, or masking stochastic processes or events into organized tendencies. Each of these parameters has an element of chance. Pitch/frequency is generated by binary scaling white noise in 8 division bands, the sum of which modulates the frequency of a function generator. The random texture is created by multiplying the function generator output with a controlled random pulse generator. The phrasing is generated by four random envelope generators, summed using a mixing amplifier, the levels on the mixing amplifier determining a variety of phrases. Developed in the analogue studio that continues the tradition of the former Philips electronic music studio.

Listen:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CgmbqdDxICZjfjskqgHLoF4SJi_pC4P6

CATEGORICAL PERCEPTION OF MICROTONALITY (DE)

Research paper / Psychoacoustics study | 2018

There are four main components to this research study: Survey of historical approaches to microtonality from multiple traditions. Experimental investigation of tone perception across diverse backgrounds. Creation of an empirical study of categorical boundaries in microtonal discrimination. This project investigates the perception of microtonal intervals in music, examining both historical approaches and contemporary applications.

Research paper:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oCCvuNM_dlYrX42v_MkD9c2fg3nHulHV

UNERHÖRT (TBA)

4-channel live | 20′ | 2026 | Experiment (Dance) & Fixed Media

Machines reflect the desire for control, embodying our expectations of the 'other,' which often results in imbalanced power dynamics centered around ourselves. While we are confined to our own perspectives, could there still be ways to genuinely listen to others? Is there something worth exploring in the potential intersections?

I explore several multidisciplinary approaches encompassing sound art, computer software development and improvisational movement. In recent years, the use of AI in creative productions has become increasingly common, raising existential questions about humanity, particularly regarding the possibility of computers outperforming humans. The fear stems from the prioritisation of 'human-like AI' development, which tends to overlook the fundamental differences between humans and machines. In the context of generative AI, its creative output is often evaluated solely through the lens of our aesthetics.

In this work I emphasize the dynamics of experimentation and collaboration rather than control in human-machine relationships. Through experiments with contemporary dancers and underground choreographers, it seeks to present an improvisational dialogue between human and machine, exploring the intersection of sound, computation, and dance.