In the article “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” (1948) the “father” of information theory Claude E. Shannon famously said that “every transmission comes with noise”. For Shannon it was the ideal to reduce the noise in order to achieve as effective a transmission of information as possible. Not so for the artists Junko (Japan) and Mattin (Spain). On their collaborative album Pinknoise (named after a signal where the energy per Hz is inversely proportional to the frequency) they engage in half an hour of non-verbal screaming (Junko) and computer feedback (Mattin). Extreme physical performativity (it’s a one take recording!) and cool digital manipulation generate an intense hybrid of human and machine noise. Hard to listen to? Sure!

Image: Junko and Mattin