TL;DR
I'm Bruno Gola, a sound and code artist from Brazil based in Berlin. I work with sound and code creating participative performances and installations.
I have studied Computer Science back in Brazil, and more recently got my Absolvent (2020) and Meisterschüler (2022) degrees from the Berlin University of the Arts (UDK Berlin).
I like to build software and hardware that create, process and stream sound in real time, helping me to create narratives, tell stories and explore auditory and spatial perception. For most of my work I rely on the Linux audio tools such as JACK and SuperCollider, occasionally contributing with SuperCollider development. Free Software is and has always been a big part of my work and ethics.
Most of my work is inspired directly or indirectly by the sociopolitical events that affect me and my peers as a latin american artist living in Europe.
My work has been shown at K3 – Zentrum für Choreographie Hamburg, Dystopie Sound Art Festival, Network Music Festival, Silent Green, ACUD MACHT NEU, Spektrum, and others
In 2021 I took part of the CTM Festival 2021 in Berlin, together with S4NTP in the Kontinumm call and also of the CTM MusicMakers Hacklab program.
I also participated of the on-the-fly project, promoting Live Coding practices and doing a residency with Ljudmila Lab in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
My latest release is c0l1v3, an experimental collaborative plataform for live coding and distributed performances.
You can find some of my works or follow me at, bgola@mastodon.muito.top, youtube, soundcloud vimeo, github, instagram.
Contact me via me@bgo.la.
BIOGRAPHY
Hacking
I was born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1987. At around 12 years old I had the privilege of having access to a computer connected to the internet in my house, and I was the only one who knew how to use it. Quickly enough I entered the world of IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Around the same time I started learning to play the guitar.
Using IRC I began writing my own mIRC scripts and later, learning about Free/Libre/Open Source Software, I decided to install GNU/Linux and get into hacking. Around 2004 I was searching for new programming tutorials and found a strange one that teached programming for beginners in both BASIC and Python. Luckly I decided to follow the Python path. At the same time I was studying to get a Linux Professional Institute certification, which I got when I turned 17 and at the time was considered the youngest person to be certified.
I got deeply involved with the brazilian Python community, organizing many events like an edition of FLISOL (Festival Latinoamericano de Instalacion de Software Libre), and helping to start the São Paulo Python Usergroup (GruPy-SP), the first Python user group in Brazil, presenting at and attending many editions of the Forum Internacional de Software Livre. I made many good friends for life because of my involvment with the hacking and free software scene and it has definetly shaped me as a programmer as well as an artist.
In 2005 I joined the Computer Science program at SENAC University in São Paulo, studying for 3 years and a half but never finishing my graduation mostly because I was already working a lot. I worked as a software developer and systems administrator until 2016. During this time I worked for the Cultura Digital project by the brazilian Ministry of Culture, helping to develop/maintain estudiolivre.org and other websites/infrastructure part of an important network of initiatives providing access and knowledge to Free Software in all of Brazil.After the Cultura Digital project was over, was still in university and took part at the Google Summer of Code project porting PyPy from Python version 2.3 to 2.5 which was an incredible opportunity for me to look deeper into the working programming languages, a topic that fascinated me.
I also joined the brazilian Critical Mass movement, Bicicletada, and was very active both online as on the streets. In the same way as with the Free Software community, Bicicletada brought me many inspiring friends. For me free software, critical mass, hacking and art are all very related. Most of the things that inspire me to create until today have its roots in those mixed years of online and street activism.
Still in Brazil I helped conceptualize and build the MOD Quadra and MOD Duo products with MOD Devices. I also hosted creative coding meetings called Weekly Synesthesia at the first Brazilian Hackerspace, Garoa Hacker Clube. With the MOD team I had the pleasure to present at the Linux Audio Conference 2014 in Graz, and the opportunity to visit Berlin for the first time.
Art
While hacking and activism have played an important role in my life, the same is true for music. I had many different bands through those years, and between 2012 and 2015 I organized many events and played at different festivals. Part of it was connected with my actvism as well, such as reclaiming public spaces and supporting political acts carrying loud speakers, mixers and other equipments around.
In 2014 was when I consciously started mixing both my programming skills and my impulse to make art, and started noticing that I was more interested in pursuing an artistic career.
Together with the MOD team I moved to Berlin in 2015 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. I started to look for alternatives, on how to live of this mix of hacking and art skills. In the first year I was in Berlin I helped to organize the mini-Linux Audio Conference at C-Base.
In 2017 I joined the Art and Media program at the Universität der Künste Berlin, stuyding in the classes of Generative / Computational Arts, where I was tutor for one year, and New Media. There I had the opportunity to combine my experience of Linux and programming with my interest in art, and especially sound. I developed my artistic practice building installations and live audiovisual performances. I got my Art and Media Absolvent degree in the summer semester of 2020 and currently I'm part of their Meisterschüler program.
At UdK I also host the Coding Rehearsal meetings, inspired by the Coding Dojo practice from my Computer Science studies. The goal of Coding Rehersal is to provide a safer space for artists to experiment and practice their coding thought, using code to express our art.
Recently I have been working a lot with network tools for sound and visuals, especially for collaborative live coding over the internet in SuperCollider, sending and receiving OSC messages and streaming audio over WebRTC. I presented some of this work at the Network Music Festival 2020. Check my github for more.
With my alias n0p I produce and perform live electronic music, using machines and different live coding tools as Hydra and TidalCycles. I have released an EP in 2017 via the Chippanze label.
Sometimes I collaborate with other artists finding technical solutions or developing tools accordingly to the needs of the projects. If you need technical help with a project don't hesitate to contact me :-)
Currently I also work for the Sentire project at the Humboldt University doing audio programming and design in SuperCollider and Python.
January, 2021