Seis8s is a web-based computer language that allows real-time interaction with digital audio and localized musical knowledge. Seis8s revolves around Spanish-language commands related to Latin dance music such as Cumbia and Salsa. This music is a 20th-century derivation of Afro-Caribbean rhythms for social dancing that developed in the Hispanic Caribbean.
Seis8s is meant to connect the users (i.e. performer and audience) with cultural layers influencing computer-music languages. This project explores 1) a computer-music language to be derived from Spanish; 2) to appeal to an imagined community in/from Latin America; and 3) to explore how sociocultural commonalities of that community intersect with music software.
Special thanks to Drs. David Ogborn, Christina Baade, and Rossana Lara. Thanks to the Mexican Fund for Culture and Arts (FONCA), the Mexican Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), and Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Luis is currently a Hamilton-based audiovisual interdisciplinary artist. His interests revolve around critical code studies, new interfaces for musical expression, live coding, Latin American musicology, and participatory action research. Luis is a member of the live coding collectives RGGTRN, the Cybernetic Orchestra and Grupo D’Binis.