As an artist focused on experimental electronics, visuals, AI and augmented reality, Portrait XO is used to thinking in a multidisciplinary approach. Whether developing sound installations, musical dining experiences or audiovisual albums, the Berlin-based creator consistently intertwines music, art and immersive technologies.
This integrative way of working stems from the artist's synesthesia, a neurological condition in which people experience one sense through another. "It's like a cross wiring of senses," Portrait XO explains on this episode of the Exchange. Exploring synaesthetic reactions between sound, taste and sight is now a major element of her work. One project involved her performing music based on sounds that she experienced from flavours.
Most of her productions are centred around human-machine collaboration. Her 2020 album, WIRE, used machine learning to generate ten hours of new audio from just hour of her recorded vocals. Working with AI "feels like a 50/50 collaboration, at least when it comes to melodies," she describes. While AI isn't smart enough to create full lyrics and melodies, it's "a really great idea sparker and something I’ll hear will then inspire me to write the rest of the melodic phrase or the best lyrical idea that I get out of it," she continues.
For more details on how synesthesia and machine learning influence her creative process, listen to the full conversation.