Panel discussion with Damien Smith, Creative Partner, ISOdesign; John Butler, Digital Artist, the Butler Brothers; Giles Lamb, Composer; Craig Ritchie Allan, Composer & Visual Artist, Numbercult and, Dr. Jessica Argo, Lecturer in Sound, Glasgow School of Art’s School of Simulation and Visualisation.

As part of Sonica series of talks and discussions please join the artists and collaborators to discuss the themes and ideas around the exhibition, Siren Servers, and the opportunities in using VR as a creative medium.

Presented in partnership with the Visual Artist Unit.

“Theres’s no plan to be evil. A siren server seduces you”
Jason Lanier
Siren Servers is a new commission for Sonica that brings together 4 leading Scottish sound and digital media creatives isodesign, Butler Bros, Numbercult and Giles Lamb to create a subterranean VR installation at the heart of Glasgow’s Merchant City. Exploring real time graphics, sensing and 3D audio this is a journey through a series of volumetric tableaux, with reactive motionography and sound.

Blending the hyperreal with the uncanny, Siren Servers is a series of digital experiences that extends the imagery of The Sirens; mythical creatures, who lured sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.
Using immersive 3D audio and VR, three digital visions, created in collaboration with composer Giles Lamb, are presented as a series of installations that sit in the niche between virtual art and digital theatre, a unique interpretation of the possibilities of VR.
The works generate a sensory web that replicates the ephemeral pull of the ever-present Siren Servers; unreality is superimposed upon physical spaces as the participants explore 3D spaces that manipulate sound and vision.
“Siren Servers” is an allusion to mythological sonic power and contemporary technocratic control. First coined by VR pioneer Jason Lanier in his 2013 book ‘Who Owns the Future’ Lanier questions the contemporary power and imbalance of wealth of today’s ‘siren servers’, the massive data centres and computing power owned by today’s digital giants that pull consumers towards their embrace by trading services for our personal data.
The four artists have worked together on individual projects over the last 10 years and have constantly investigated the boundaries between sound and music composition and its application to CGI and motion graphics; via screen, performance and installation. This new work explores the potential of Virtual Reality to create realtime digital environments and experiences now afforded by the developments in games engine software and powerful graphics cards.

• http://www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/son...