Portrait XO (she/they) is an independent researcher and multimodal artist.  Recently awarded jazzki award by ELBJAZZ (June 2023), the first German human-AI jazz prize, she’s been recognized over the years for her work in sonic innovation with AI audio pioneers Dadabots.  They won ‘Best Experiment’ award at VUT Indie Awards 2021, and Eurovision AI Song Contest Jury Vote for ‘most creative use of AI’ in 2020.  Her development into AI audiovisual art evolved through several artist residencies from NEW NOW FESTIVAL and BBA Gallery in 2022, and Factory Berlin x Sonar+D in 2020.  She researches computational creativity, human-machine collaboration, and explores new formats & applications for forward-thinking art and sound.  She holds a monthly radio residency with her art & activism collective CO:QUO (CO-CREATE STATUS-QUO) on Refuge Worldwide Radio, and is a founding member of The IASAS (International Association of Synaesthetes, Artists, and Scientists) and Refraction Festival DAO.  To expand the community of sound artists and creative technologists, she founded SOUND OBSESSED - sonic innovation archive, celebrating the journey and milestones of new innovation in sound.  Her debut research-based AI audiovisual album 'WIRE' released on December 9th 2022 as a first of its kind on chain to Vinyl release on music polygon marketplace twelve x twelve.  The core of her works address bias in society, translate speculative opinions about AI, and critique the impact of AI on creativity, identity, underrepresented cultures and society.     She has performed, presented, and exhibited at The UN AI for Good Summit, SXSW, Ars Electronica, MONOM, Reeperbahn Festival, International Music Summit, Amsterdam Dance Event, BBA Gallery, RE:PUBLICA, Sonar+D, Factory Berlin, Tech Open Air, Redbull Music, Future Forum by BMW Welt, KIKK Festival, Github, and more.   “Portrait XO's album is a sonic journey. Never dull and always intriguing, she manages to defy genres while delivering songs that are memorable on the first listen.” Erik Alcock - Songwriter, Composer, Musician (Eminem, DJ Khalil, P!nk, Celine Dion, Pitbull, Tyga, Royce da 5'9", Professor Green, Guess Who)   During the AI Song Contest 2021, Imogen Heap made an honorable mention of Portrait XO’s approach to combining 2 voices for AI audio training on the submitted song ‘Vessel’.  ‘Vessel’ was co-written and produced between Portrait XO and songwriter/producer Rezar.

MSHR is an art collective that collaboratively builds and explores sculptural electronic systems. Their performances and installations integrate electrical signals and human presence, weaving dense networks of causality to form audiovisual environments that babble with life-like current. They explore intuitive and technical gradients between sonic and sculptural forms, using analog circuitry and open-source software to sculpt mutually resonant hyperobjects. MSHR was founded by Brenna Murphy and Birch Cooper in 2011 in Portland, Oregon. The name MSHR is a modular acronym designed to hold varied ideas over time. It can be pronounced as an acronym or like one who meshes.

Douglas McCausland is a composer / performer, sound designer, and digital artist whose visceral and often chaotic works explore the extremes of sound, technology, and the digital medium. As an artist, he researches and leverages the intersections of numerous technologies and creative practices, such as real-time electronic music performance with purpose-built interfaces, spatial audio, interactive systems, intermedia art, musical applications of machine-learning, experimental sound design, and hardware-hacking. Described as “Tremendously powerful, dark, and sometimes terrifying…” (SEAMUS) and “Ruthlessly visceral…” (The Wire), his works have been performed internationally, including features at Sonorities, SEAMUS, the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, MISE-EN Music Festival, Klingt Gut!, Sounds Like THIS!, NYCEMF, Sonicscape, and Ars Electronica. Recent collaborations include artists such as bassist Aleksander Gabryś, cellist Seth Parker Woods, the Quasar Saxophone Quartet, the TAK Ensemble, and vocal ensemble Variant 6. His work is available through various online platforms, and on SEAMUS, Plyta Z Audiomatu, and Jikken Records. Recent honors include an award of distinction in the 2021 Prix Ars Electronica for his piece “Convergence”, winning 1st-Prize in the 2021 ASCAP/SEAMUS commission competition, the goldprize award for “contemporary computer music” in the Verband Deutscher Tonmeister Student 3D Audio Production Competition, and being awarded the runner-up nomination for the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music's 2019 CIME Prix. Douglas is currently the Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) Studio Manager at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He holds a DMA in music composition from Stanford University, where he studied with Chris Chafe, Patricia Alessandrini, Jaroslaw Kapuscinski, Fernando LopezLezcano, and Mark Applebaum. He additionally holds a MSc in Digital Composition and Performance from the University of Edinburgh, a MM in Music Composition from Michigan State University, and a BM in Music Composition,