dali: Digital Arts Lab, Iscte

From the real to the surreal and back: audio composition by Luís Miguel (botelho) and friends, for the exhibition dali Show 2023 - Surrealistic City .

From the real to the surreal and back was the most participated creation in the digital arts lab, at that time, involving several dali members (Luís Miguel (botelho), Lurdes Horta, Miguel Casquinho, Denis Oliveira, Francisco Emanuel Fadigas, Khaoula Ennahli, Filipa Augusta Carvalho) and guests (Isabel Cristina Almeida, André Santos, João Rebola, Luís Nunes and Paul Johnson).

The audio composition reflects a journey from the real to the surreal and back. However, when it returns, the real is changed by the new perceptions of the narrative characters by virtue of their surreal experiences.

The creative process consisted of two parallel efforts: the poetic discourse and the audio narrative. Luís Miguel (botelho) invited Isabel Cristina Almeida to write and say three poetic texts for the composition. The first should be a realistic text, the second should be largely surrealistic, and the third should be realistic again but more abstract, more philosophical. These texts would be said and filmed to be placed in the beginning, in the middle and in the end of the composition. It was important that Isabel didn't know the narrative that guided the audio composition. The texts were written and said by Isabel, and were filmed by Francisco Emanuel.

For the audio, a narrative was written to guide the sound (Luís Miguel with contributions by Lurdes). The first step, after the narrative has been written, was to create an audio, using recordings and free sounds publicly available on the internet (Luís Miguel, with contributions by Luís Nunes, Paul Johnson, and Khaoula Ennahli). The second step was to add musical instruments to the audio: electric bass (Miguel Casquinho), Portuguese guitar (André Santos), and electric guitar (João Rebola). The third step was to illustrate the audio with images - films and photos. Most of the films were shot by Denis Oliveira, and acted by Isabel Cristina and Luis Miguel. Photos and other videoclips by Denis and Isabel. Finally, Filipa contributed images generated in interaction with the online AI image generation system MidJourney.