Singular Value Decomposition

The Arts at CERN-IARI Collaboration, 2021
Multimedia live stream performance

Singular Value Decomposition was presented by Cristin Tierney Gallery.
The Arts at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research)
and IARI at the Spencer Museum of Art (the Integrated Arts Research Initiative)

Collaboration includes:

Janet Biggs, New York-based artist
Agnieszka Miedlar, KU professor of mathematics
Daniel Tapia Takaki, high-energy nuclear physicist and KU professor of physics
Joey Orr, curator for research at KU’s Spencer Museum of Art
and IARI research fellows
Clint Hurshman, KU graduate student, philosophy
Olivia Johnson, KU undergraduate student, mathematics and dance

This work is part of our collaboration’s ongoing research and development. We ran the performance as two experiments, both using the Singular Value Decomposition, a mathematical technique broadly used in the sciences and particularly in quantum mechanics. It allows one to decompose a matrix into a sum of low-rank terms allowing compression of the original data into a lower dimensional representation. This technique can expose useful and interesting properties of the original data.

 For our first experiment, we began by recording musician, Earl Maneein and dancer Vinson Fraley’s short responses to several verbal prompts. Those video and audio recordings were then reduced to a low-dimension approximation using the singular value decomposition. In the performance, we physically separated Earl and Vinson. Each was presented with low-dimension versions of their own and each other’s responses. We asked them to improvise a higher-dimension version of what they had just seen and heard. We are
interested in how they construct a higher dimension structure, given a lower dimension projection, and if correlations and entanglements
occur between the two performers.

 For the second experiment, Vinson and string quartet Seven)Suns were be able to both hear and see each another. The quartet
performed Earl’s original composition, Trivisia while Vinson performed choreography, he had created for Earl’s music. They
then repeated the performances, deconstructed to the lowest possible dimension, that point just before the performance is no longer itself,
producing their interpretations of the  “optimal low-rank approximation”. We are interested in how they deconstruct a higher dimension to
find the “optimal basis”—the lower-dimension approximation that contains the essential features or information.

Performers:

                Vinson Fraley - dancer

                Earl Maneein - solo violin

Seven)Suns string quartet:

                Earl Maneein - violin

                Blanca Gonzalez - violin

                Fung Chern Hwei - viola

                Jennifer DeVore - cello