SOUND OBSESSED
6. Noah Pred
Basic Needs Guaranteed
From Basic Needs Guaranteed, 2024
Sonifying data sets extracted from widening global income gaps using custom tools developed by the artist, Basic Needs Guaranteed enlists an LLM to generate a series of increasingly radical solutions to poverty. Utilizing predictive text as an unrepentant mirror, the steadily intensifying soundtrack reflects the urgency of growing inequality. A building chorus of RAVE-encoded murmurs tracing the contours of wealth ratios gives voice to the those living below acceptable thresholds. Pred’s piece aims to expose poverty's persistence as a Gordian knot at the twisted heart of a tangled web of systemic issues. Expressed with familiar typefaces, the generated sloganeering makes a self-aware nod to propaganda, while raising the question: why do fundamental necessities seem beyond reach in our current era of techno-capitalist excess?
ARTIST BIO:
Noah Pred is an artist, educator, musician, producer, and developer currently based in Porto. He is the founder of Manifest Audio and developed the Sonification Tools used for much of this exhibition.