The Sophtar is a networkable feedback string instrument with embedded machine learning

The Sophtar has been selected as one the ten finalists in this year’s Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. Together with Sukandar Kartadinata, we will bring the instrument to the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta (US) to present it to the competition’s judges and participate in a public performance involving local Atlanta musicians. I designed the Sophtar and built it in collaboration with Kartadinata.

Back in April I did the second artistic research residency of the Co-Improvising with the Non-human project, this time at IRCAM. During the residency period I worked closely with Marco Fiorini of the REACH team to integrate Somax2 — an AI-based multi-agent system for human–machine co-improvisation — into my custom instrument, the Sophtar. Here is a Sophtar + Somax2 improvisation I did the night before leaving Paris.

YouTube video by Georgia Tech School of Music

Back in November I performed and presented the Sophtar at Most Wanted: Music Berlin (MW:M). The event that took place at the Kulturbrauerei, a multicultural centre created after the fall of the Berlin Wall in a converted 19th century brewery. My contribution was part of the Hybrid Music Lab, a platform within MW:M for exploring new forms of musical expression.

Next week is NIME week! This year I am not going – Canberra is way too far from Berlin – but I finally got around uploading my presentation from last year's conference though, which took place in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Features the Sophtar and a somewhat pretentious digression about magic, ergodynamics, and a quote from a book by Benjamin Labatut I was reading on my way there.

Next week I will take part in the Wilding AI Lab: this four-day lab will assemble a group of participants selected via open call to learn about the application of generative AI in spatial audio, and collectively explore the wilder territories of AI. Shaped as a mix of theoretical and hands-on components, the lab runs 23 – 25 January, and culminates with a public presentation session Sunday 26 January.

TCP/IP live at Studio Acusticum 2025. Photo: Petter Sundkvist On Monday 9 June 2025 the TCP/Indeterminate Place quartet performed Reconciliation, a piece we composed in 2024 for a special double duo telematic performance in which two of us performed at the Kapelle der Versöhnung in Berlin and the other two at the Orgelpark in Amsterdam. This time we were all at the Studio Acusticum main concert hall, playing our instruments and interacting with the massive Acusticum/University pipe organ in several ways.

Video of the performance at the 2025 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, Georgia Tech Ferst Center For The Arts, 8 March 2025. Jeff Albert: trombone; Sukandar Kartadinata & Federico Visi: Sophtar

230 Posts, 307 Following, 237 Followers · Musician and researcher in musical interactions, #embodiment , post-digital instrument design, networked music performance, and interactive machine learning. I designed an instrument called the Sophtar. Currently at the Intelligent Instrument Lab in Iceland. Also at Luleå University of Technology where I am doing research on #hyperogans and Berlin University of the Arts where I am part of the #wearablecomputing group. Based in #Berlin.