Ben Globerman’s Hum’s Codex is an experimental audio project exploring the intersection of mysticism and technology, developed through an Artengine artist residency. Drawing on machine learning models to generate MIDI compositions across six channels, Globerman investigates artificial intelligence as a site of devotional practice, weaving together coding, multi-channel audio experimentation, and conceptual research to develop a performance methodology that treats technology as scripture.
The residency culminated in a 4-hour live performance featuring visuals by Arturo Brisindi, inviting the public into a meditative, shamanic collective experience. Through Artengine’s long-term residency program, which provides Ottawa artists with full facility access, technical resources, and dedicated staff support, Globerman was able to deepen both the conceptual and technical dimensions of this ambitious work.
Hum’s Codex is a multi-hour, multi-speaker immersive performance-installation that explores the confluence of mysticism, artificial intelligence, and devotional practice through generative music and spatial audio. Drawing on his background in Religious Studies, Ben’s project reframes society’s relationship with technology as a site of mystic focus.
At the project’s heart is a custom Python-based generative musical notation system developed through collaboration with AI chatbots, working over 50+ hours to code an originally conceived program using Open AI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. The generative system produces four-voice polyphonic compositions, designed with key musical elements: mood-influenced phrase structures, advanced harmonic systems, and over fifty controllable parameters including humanization, articulation variations, and a “negative space engine” for dynamic sparsity control. This program creates the musical notation that drives the performance.
Presented and performed in the round over multiple hours, the work references devotional religious traditions. The generative engine provides the ‘text’ – musical notation created by the program – which is interpreted by the performer through its triggering of synthesizers, samplers, and acoustic instruments. Embodying a “hermeneutics of sound” analogous to mystic interpretation of sacred texts, the performer becomes a living reader of algorithmic scripture.
The piece is performed with a custom-built hardware controller, co-designed and built by Arturo Brisindi, featuring multiple joysticks that spatialize sound in real time. This allows the performer to move each musical voice fluidly through a multi-speaker surround system.
Hum’s Codex positions emerging technology as contemporary sacred text: complex, wondrous, and demanding critical interpretation. It invites audiences to freely enter and exit, experiencing the piece longitudinally throughout Pique. The sonic landscape shifts between meditative drones, frenetic counterpoint, and immersive spatial movement.
Ben Globerman
Ben is a musician, sound designer, and multimedia artist. He has composed works for film, theatre, and specializes in developing multi-channel audio installations – working on projects for hospitals, fashion shows, and public transit. He produces conceptually driven audio and video installations in three, five, and eight speaker arrangements. His works have been shown throughout Canada in City Halls and private galleries alike, and his installations have tackled themes of religious pluralism, bleeding-edge technology, and the therapeutic qualities of sound.
Under his Cabaal and eponymous monikers, he has performed throughout North America, and released six LP/EPs. Ben holds an MA in European Studies (Carleton University) with a focus on international migration, and a BA in Religious Studies (Carleton University), and is a graduate from the Red Bull Music Academy (New York, USA).
Arturo Brisindi (Hardware Design and VJ):
Arturo Brisindi is an interdisciplinary artist whose work bridges music, technology, and visual art. With a background in Electrical Engineering from Carleton University, he draws inspiration from 1980s electronics to create performances and instruments that merge technical precision with experimental expression.
Known in Ottawa’s music scene for his real-time video synthesis and live collaborations, Brisindi combines analog synthesis, gesture-based control systems, and custom-built instruments to explore the boundaries between sound, movement, and visual form.
