by Mara Helmuth, Owen Hopper, Zhixin Xu, Shawn Milloway, and Yunze Mu
Five Worlds is a virtual reality environment in which audience members experience interlocking virtual worlds, each with its own unique sound components. By using the Unity 3D engine with RTcmix programming for sound, the worlds were created by Mara Helmuth (Tranquilarea), Owen Hopper (Woods Sounds World), Zhixin Xu (Idiophone), Shawn Milloway (Visualizer Cave), and Yunze Mu (Sky World). The various worlds are entered by touching a particular sphere.
*In addition to the ArtTalk, this installation is available in Coleman from 10:00 am - 7:00 pm on October 3rd & 4th
by Cecilia Suhr, artist and violinist/cellist
This performance and presentation explores a conceptual framework and inspiration behind “I, You, We,” highlighting four major aspects of interactions: 1) real-time audience interactions with the camera installation; 2) interactions between acoustics music and electronic sounds; 3) real-time interactions between visual and sound; 4) interaction between performer and audience.
Cecilia Suhr is an award winning interdisciplinary artist and researcher, multi-instrumentalist (violin/cello/voice/piano), author, performer, and improviser, who is working at the intersection between art, music, sound design, and digital technology. Her work has been performed and exhibited in various galleries, festivals, biennials, conferences and museums nationally and internationally. She is currently an Associate Professor of Humanities and Creative Arts, as well as an Affiliate Professor of Art at Miami University, Ohio.
by Joel Matthys, composer and B.J. Best, poet
Torch Sung is a collaboration between poet B.J. Best and composer Joel Matthys, involving a machine learning algorithm, torchrnn, which generates original poetry based on the works of B.J. Best. The poem in turn generates original images using AttnGAN, another machine learning algorithm. The image is used to create generative music, and the music data is used to generate a 3D sculpture. Torch Sung consists of five pieces, each consisting of a poem printed on vinyl scrim, an image on canvas, a headphone station playing generated music, and sculpture.
Seven Broken Mysteries, also a collaboration by Best and Matthys, combines the old and the new, exploiting the tension between them. The piece involves a 1949 Silvertone radio, which has been modified to house a microcomputer inside it which supplies digital data from three of the radio’s knobs. These knobs control words on a screen that create brief two-line poems, which are then sent to AttnGAN, and after about thirty seconds the corresponding art is shown. The words selected also guide the soundscape created via the Freesound project, an online repository of creative-commons licensed sounds. The sounds, of course, are played back through the radio’s original speaker.
Joel Matthys composes acoustic, electroacoustic, and interactive music and media which explore language, meaning, structure, and our relationship to the modern world. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI.
B.J. Best holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, and he is the author of three books of poetry: But Our Princess Is in Another Castle (Rose Metal Press, 2013), Birds of Wisconsin (New Rivers Press, 2010), and State Sonnets (sunnyoutside, 2009).
by Eric Lyon, composer
Sound design is increasingly moving from a purely manual process to a computer assisted process, with such examples as timbre designed by machine learning, and automated mastering. This talk will provide a few other programmatic approaches to sound design, with an emphasis on unpredictable results.
Eric Lyon’s work focuses on articulated noise, chaos music, spatial orchestration, and computer chamber music. He is the author of Designing Audio Objects for Max/MSP and Pd. His publicly released software includes FFTease and LyonPotpourri, collections of externals for Max/MSP and Pd. His music has been recognized with a Giga-Hertz prize, MUSLAB award, the League ISCM World Music Days program, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He currently teaches at Virginia Tech, where he is a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology.
by John Meister, artist and game developer
John Meister presents a behind the scenes look at the projects developed at Super Soul, an indie video game studio located in Lexington, KY. Along the way attendees will learn about the tools and techniques used to make commercial games, interactive art, augmented reality, and virtual reality experiences.
John Meister is the owner and studio director of Super Soul, an award-winning digital arts studio with a diverse portfolio that includes PC, console, and mobile video games. With over twenty years of software development experience, he has contributed to several innovative education projects using virtual and augmented reality. John is also co-founder and president of RunJumpDev, a non-profit organization that supports technical education and the growth of the game industry in Kentucky. John has a passion for teaching, leading teams, and making ideas become a reality.
by Cecilia Suhr, artist and violinist/cellist
This performance and presentation explores a conceptual framework and inspiration behind “I, You, We,” highlighting four major aspects of interactions: 1) real-time audience interactions with the camera installation; 2) interactions between acoustic music and electronic sounds; 3) real-time interactions between visual and sound; 4) interaction between performer and audience.
Cecilia Suhr is an award winning interdisciplinary artist and researcher, multi-instrumentalist (violin/cello/voice/piano), author, performer, and improviser, who is working at the intersection between art, music, sound design, and digital technology. Her work has been performed and exhibited in various galleries, festivals, biennials, conferences and museums nationally and internationally. She is currently an Associate Professor of Humanities and Creative Arts, as well as an Affiliate Professor of Art at Miami University, Ohio.
by Jacob Sandridge, artist and composer
Each Step is an interactive sound installation that allows for user agency and discovery. Participants are given a map to the space and are encouraged to observe how their interactions with the space affect the algorithms creating the sound. The symbols are clues to the effect each square has on the sound. There are two synthesizers, one activated by stepping anywhere in the blue squares, the other by stepping in the orange squares (see diagram in link). Each square affects one of the parameters of these two synthesizers. The center square affects the fundamental of both synths.
As a composer, sound artist, and performer of contemporary art music, Jacob Sandridge is interested in both adaptable-length and traditional fixed-length works for acoustic and electronic media. Sandridge creates music as a method of expressing themes of memory, transformation, nature, and comfort. He understands and experiences art as a unique space that allows for the suspension of disbelief where audience and performers can experiment with the juxtaposition of ideas that might originate from dissimilar places. Jacob Sandridge is a DMA student at Rice University, after serving as an adjunct instructor at West Virginia University.
by Esther Lamneck, clarinetist and Mara Helmuth, composer
This talk will cover a brief description of the Hungarian Tárogató musical instrument and its applicability to electronic music. Esther Lamneck and Mara Helmuth have used two very different approaches in collaborating on scores for Irresistible Flux and Sound Dunes, and they will discuss and demonstrate the performance and composition of these works.
Mara Helmuth composes music often involving the computer, focusing recently on environmental issues and wildlife. Recordings are on Esther Lamneck’s Tarogato Constructions (Innova), Open Space CD 33, Sounding Out! (Everglade), Sound Collaborations (Centaur). Her music has been performed internationally at conferences and festivals. Her research has involved granular synthesis software, wireless sensor networks, and Internet2 performance. She is a Professor at CCM, University of Cincinnati, holds a DMA from Columbia University, and MM and BA from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She served as President of the International Computer Music Association.
The New York Times calls Esther Lamneck “an astonishing virtuoso". She has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras, with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, with renowned chamber music artists and an international roster of musicians from the new music improvisation scene. A versatile performer and an advocate of contemporary music, she is known for her work with electronic media including interactive arts, movement, dance and improvisation. Ms. Lamneck makes frequent solo appearances on clarinet and the tárogató worldwide, and she is a Professor at NYU.
by Zoé Strecker, artist
Forest Portals: Pine Mountain (Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall) is a 4-channel video sculpture that invites contemplation of the spectacular biodiversity in Kentucky’s old growth forests and the soil that supports them. The cracked screens are porcelain clay. Clay is dirt. Dirt is a foundation for terrestrial life, the shared site of the living and the transformed, home to human and non-human beings. This is a special Studio 300 exhibition located in Morlan Gallery’s side gallery. A reception for the artist will be Thursday, Oct. 3, 5-7 pm in Morlan Gallery.
Zoé Strecker is a visual artist, writer and studio art professor at Transylvania University where she teaches ceramics, contemporary concepts, advanced studio practices and a range of special topic courses at the intersection of art and ecological issues. She also directs the university’s Creative Intelligence Program. Her commissioned sculptures, public and private, are located across the United States. She has published poetry, essays, and a travel book. She is the founding director of Wild Places Creative, an art and curatorial organization and is an advisor to the Board of the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust (KNLT).
by Joel Matthys, composer and B.J. Best, poet
Details about these installations are listed above : see ArtTalk 3.
by Dan Solberg, artist
The Horizons video series is an exploration into video game environments across 12 scenes, seeking depth within surface where photo-realistic wilderness is rendered as a spectacle of visual effects. The videos depict abstract animations, based around simple craning and rotational camera movements within the game's photo mode. All footage was shot and captured using stock PlayStation 4 hardware and software.
Dan Solberg is an interdisciplinary artist, freelance writer, arts educator, and occasional DJ, producing works about video games, music, and art. He currently works as the Education Coordinator at the University of Kentucky Art Museum. Dan DJs under the Gold Skulltulla moniker, and you can follow him on Twitter @Dan_Solberg.
by Mara Helmuth, Owen Hopper, Zhixin Xu, Shawn Milloway, and Yunze Mu
Details about this installation is listed above : see ArtTalk 1.
by Jacob Sandridge, artist and composer
Details about this installation is listed above : see ArtTalk 7.
by RunJumpDev and Super Soul
Installed in Coleman:
"Pig Eat Ball" - Mommy's Best Games and Super Soul
"TI-83D" - Matt Hudgins
"On The Way" - Matt Hudgins
"The Illuminators" - Zachary Hunt, John Meister, Shea Rembold
"Unichrome" - Super8bitRafa
"The Marvelous Electro-Visual Wondergraph" - Adam Schroeder
"Garden Creatures" - Shea Rembold
Installed in Haggin Auditorium Lobby:
"Kentucky Dash" - Super Soul
"Centennable" - Amanda Hudgins
"Weird Windows" - Sam Morris, Zachary Hunt
RunJumpDev is a people-powered nonprofit created to grow and cultivate the local game development community in Kentucky. Seeded with raw passion for creating games, we host meetups, talks, and game jams to bolster our skills and connections. RunJumpDev strives to raise local awareness of game industry concerns. We are committed to educating, promoting, and retaining local talent, as well as bringing new talent to the area, in an effort to strengthen the bonds between game developers. Our mission is to create strong developers who will then build strong games and create successful companies in Kentucky.
by Forest Kelley, artist
Kelley repurposes software developed for online image and audio display, transforming them into immersive audiovisual installations by stripping and transforming their intended function and, instead, revealing, fracturing, and retooling their underlying form. He is interested in software as an audiovisual tool with the ability to infinitely generate nonlinear media, allowing the work to assume an animated intelligence and a psychological relationship with the viewer. This sound installation is continuously live-rendered from code that probabilistically executes discrete sounds and video.
Using everything from documentary photography to installations based in video and web code, Forest Kelley's work examines the ways by which personal psychology lives within a social ecology. Kelley is currently an Assistant Professor of Photography at the University of Kentucky. He received a BA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He was formerly the Photography Fellow at the University of Georgia.
by artists and composers from around the world
Works by digital artist and composers from around the world chosen for Studio 300 Digital Art and Music Festival are streamed and accessible to internet users around the world from the Studio 300 website.
Evan Jones, cello and live electronics
Metamorphoses is a three-part canon for solo cello and real-time computer processing that explores the simultaneous presentation of multiple independent accelerandos and ritardandos. The solo cello and two “virtual” cellos begin at the same time and in the same tempo. During the first half of the piece the virtual cellos gradually decelerate independently and then return to the original tempo, lagging behind the solo cello by four and eight beats. The second half of the piece inverts this process so that the piece concludes with all three voices ending at the same time and in the same tempo.
Clifton Callender is Professor of Composition at Florida State University and was in residence at the Copland House in Fall 2018. His works are recorded on the Capstone, New Ariel, and Navona labels. Recent commissions include Chain Reactions, for the 75th commemoration of Chicago Pile 1 (the first nuclear reactor), Canonic Offerings and Hungarian Jazz, for the Bridges Conference on the Arts and Mathematics, gegenschein, for Piotr Szewczyk’s Violin Futura project, and Reasons to Learne to Sing, for the 50th Anniversary of the College Music Society.
Evan A. Jones holds the D.M.A. in cello performance and the Ph.D. in music theory from the Eastman School of Music. On faculty at the Florida State University College of Music since 2001, he has given the world premieres of solo works by Clifton Callender, Robert Morris, and Ciro Scotto, the North American premieres of solo and chamber works by Iannis Xenakis, and the New York City premieres of works by Christopher Auerbach-Brown and Dexter Morrill (in Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Hall, respectively). He currently performs as Assistant Principal Cellist in the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra.
Jonathan Sharp, snare drum and live electronics
Written in 2013 by Australian born percussionist composer, Jeremy Barnett, ‘(white noise machine)’ is a contemporary snare drum solo that fuses the acoustic and electronic sound palates through live electronic processing. A wide variety of sounds from the drum are processed through Ableton Live software, and the performer then interacts with the resultant ambiences and atmospheres. A variety of cues to modify the electronic processing are sent via a midi foot controller during performance. No two performances are exactly alike, due to the improvisatory responses to the electronic feedback.
Currently based in London (UK), Jeremy Barnett’s musical world crosses all genres from classical to pop, electro-acoustic solo projects to dance, and everything in between. In Australia, he was a member of bands including PROP, CODA, Petulant Frenzy, and the Daryl Pratt Sextet, and he regularly performed with the Sydney Symphony, Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, and Synergy Percussion. Jeremy is featured as marimba soloist on the soundtrack to the major motion picture ‘The Black Balloon" and has presented marimba and electro-acoustic percussion recitals in Australia and the USA.
Dr. Jonathan Sharp is a highly regarded percussion artist and educator with a diverse teaching and performance background. He is currently Assistant Professor of Percussion at Iowa State University and has performed concerts throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. His performing credits include the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and the Sinfonia Da Camera among many others. He frequently presents recitals, workshops, and clinics on contemporary and electro-acoustic percussion.
Matthew Polashek, soprano saxophone and live electronics
Meteors is a collaborative work by Timothy and Matthew Polashek. Tim composed, performed, and recorded music on his two Moog Mother-32 analog synthesizers using computer music algorithms that he created for this project. It was designed to be an accompaniment for a saxophone part composed and/or improvised by Matt. Matt composed and rehearsed improvisational strategies for performances, which also include some real-time signal processing of the soprano saxophone.
Matthew Polashek is a saxophonist and audio engineer living in Lexington, Kentucky. His work focuses on the development of a fusion of modern jazz and contemporary art music composition techniques. He holds an MFA in Music Composition from The Vermont College of Fine Arts, M.A. in Teaching Music from the City University of New York, and a B.A. in Jazz Studies from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay, where he studied saxophone with John Salerno. He also performs and teaches sax, flute, and clarinet in a multitude of genres. He has performed and recorded with internationally renowned artists including David Liebman and Bryan Lynch.
Timothy Polashek produces works in a variety of styles, including vocal, instrumental, interactive, electro-acoustic, multimedia, and text/sound music and poetry. He authored The Word Rhythm Dictionary: A Resource for Writers, Rappers, Poets, and Lyricists. Prior to earning a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from Columbia University, Polashek earned a M.A. in Electro-Acoustic Music from Dartmouth College, and a B.A. with honors in Music from Grinnell College. He is the Music Technology Studies Coordinator, Associate Professor of Music, and Digital Arts and Media Program Director at Transylvania University, as well as Co-Director of the Transylvania Digital Liberal Arts Initiative.
Peter Hulen, iPad and live electronics
Born of the endeavor to develop wireless controllers for a laptop ensemble, this multilayered piece for laptop soloist uses an OSC-Touch interface developed for the iPad. Data are transmitted to control live synthesis parameters, sample playback, and panning by the axial motion of the iPad, and the touching of its screen interface to wirelessly control a Max patch on the laptop. The patch controls the parameters of various subtractive synthesis processes, audio signals, and the playback of a samples.
Peter Hulen is a composer whose works are heard at conferences and festivals across the USA and abroad. Appointed Professor of Music Emeritus at Wabash College in Indiana, USA where he taught theory, composition, and electronic music, he now lives in St. Louis, and teaches theory and computer music courses at Webster University. He received a B.M. from the University of Tulsa, an M.M. from Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. He composes, sings in a choir, gardens, cooks, and tries to maintain some kind of contemplative practice.
Jacob Sandridge, digital piano and live electronics
Garden of our own draws inspiration from an anonymous 14th-century French text that describes a garden with unattainable and perplexing beauty. Aware of the unworldly nature of the scene, the protagonist in the text dissolves in this imaginary world, in denial of some other reality. Today, the boundaries between our digital lives and our real lives are increasingly blurred. Garden of our own creates a new world blurring the sounds of the piano with real-time manipulations of that sound.
As a composer, sound artist, and performer of contemporary art music, Jacob Sandridge is interested in both adaptable-length and traditional fixed-length works for acoustic and electronic media. Sandridge creates music as a method of expressing themes of memory, transformation, nature, and comfort. He understands and experiences art as a unique space that allows for the suspension of disbelief where audience and performers can experiment with the juxtaposition of ideas that might originate from dissimilar places. Jacob Sandridge is a DMA student at Rice University, after serving as an adjunct instructor at West Virginia University.
Ryan Ingebritsen, x-box kinect controller and live electronics
And She Will Sound the Alarm is a piece for movement controlled sample player and sound system. Using an x-box kinect controller, the human body itself becomes a controller evoking sampled and looped sound. The player is able to literally punch their way through different sample banks creating a musical arc that travels from ecstatic religious chant all the way to a climax of religious extremist speech which gives way to raw fear and emotion. This arc, invoked by the body itself creates a powerful metaphor for religion's potential for beauty and ecstasy as well as hysteria.
Composer, sound artist, and electronic performer Ryan Ingebritsen’s work focus on the multi-dimensional aspects of sound while attaining a degree of clarity and lyricism to permeate and reveal the musical structures he creates. Though grounded with an education of the musical cannon of the 20th century, Ingebritsen’s music stands with both feet firmly planted in the 21st. Challenging performers and audiences to extend beyond themselves into the realm of interaction with visual, electronic, and natural experience, his music provides audiences a window to observe our multi-dimensional reality.
Erica Mott is a choreographer, sculptural object designer, and cultural organizer utilizing body based sculptural forms (mask/costume/object) to transform discarded materials and disregarded spaces. Using the tools of humor and surprise, she captures and heightens the magic and mystery of the mundane and invites communities to re-view and re-envision shared spaces and practices. She has been called “ingenious” by the Chicago Reader’s Laura Molzahn, and “a vibrant performance-maker, installationist and choreographer engaged with distinctive creative research and methodology, effectively complimented by articulate and generous teaching skills, mentoring, community and audience building, and public discussion about her work” by CJ Mitchell, Deputy Director, Live Arts Development Agency, UK.
8-channel surround sound fixed media
in excess explores the vast amounts of waste humans produce on a daily basis. This general observation was magnified during my time living/working in China. Excessive packaging accompanied nearly all products in a vain attempt to elicit a feeling of luxury in the consumer. This plastic packaging served as the primary sound producing material. This work was written in conjunction with the oboe solo, "struggling". The two pieces can be performed simultaneously under the title, "struggling, in excess". Taking cues from the oboe solo, balloons were used to simulate multiphonics.
Robert McClure’s music attempts to discover beauty in unconventional places using non-traditional means. Visual art, poetry, the natural world, neurological and mathematical concepts are elements that influence McClure’s works. His work has been featured at festivals including NYCEMF, the Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music, the Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium, The Intimacy of Creativity, the Beijing Modern Music Festival, SEAMUS, and ICMC. He is currently Assistant Professor of Composition/Theory at Ohio University. More information may be found at www.robertwmcclure.com
Esther Lamneck, tárogató and live electronics
Irresistible Flux (2014) was inspired by Hungarian folk music as played on the rich-sounding Tárogató, digitally manipulated to create an expanded sonic environment. Mara Helmuth and Esther Lamneck collaboratively created the work as it evolved over several years. The composer used granular synthesis software and MaxMSP patches with RTcmix scripts to create diverse transformations of the source sounds in real time. Delays, reverberation, granulation and complex windowings expand the already powerful and expansive tárogató’s sound into dynamic and timbrally-defined environments.
Mara Helmuth composes music often involving the computer, focusing recently on environmental issues and wildlife. Recordings are on Esther Lamneck’s Tarogato Constructions (Innova), Open Space CD 33, Sounding Out! (Everglade), Sound Collaborations (Centaur). Her music has been performed internationally at conferences and festivals. Her research has involved granular synthesis software, wireless sensor networks, and Internet2 performance. She is a Professor at CCM, University of Cincinnati, holds a DMA from Columbia University, and MM and BA from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She served as President of the International Computer Music Association.
The New York Times calls Esther Lamneck “an astonishing virtuoso.” She has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras, with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, with renowned chamber music artists and an international roster of musicians from the new music improvisation scene. A versatile performer and an advocate of contemporary music, she is known for her work with electronic media including interactive arts, movement, dance and improvisation. Ms. Lamneck makes frequent solo appearances on clarinet and the tárogató worldwide, and she is a Professor at NYU.
Lauren Sarah Hayes, hybrid analogue/digital live electronics
Exploring instability, vulnerability, and unpredictability, this performance is the latest in a series of improvisations formed out of playful and tactile explorations of my most recent hybrid analogue/digital performance system, which comprises bespoke software, voice processing, drum machines, and repurposed controllers. An excessive number of components, of which the space, audience, and performer are all part, mutually affect each other through a network of sound analysis and digital signal processes.
Lauren Sarah Hayes is a Scottish musician and sound artist who builds and performs with hybrid analogue/digital instruments. She is a “positively ferocious improvisor” (Cycling ‘74), and over the last decade she has developed a deliberately challenging and unpredictable performance system that explores the relationships between bodies, sound, environments, and technology. She is a member of the New BBC Radiophonic Workshop, director-at-large of the ICMA, and is currently Assistant Professor at Arizona State University where she leads Practice and Research in Enactive Sonic Art (pariesa.com).
Ruth Choate, Adam Dees, Austin Lamb, Peyton Netherton, John Payne, Timothy Polashek, Hunter Salada, and Jake Schmidt
Transylvania University's Interactive Music and Multimedia class, taught by Timothy Polashek, takes the stage as the Transylvania Interactive Technology Ensemble (TITE) to debut their latest digital light compositions and collaborative performance works.
Adam Dees, live electronics
Taking a song he created in collaboration with a friend, Adam now brings you a new twist on it, especially made for live performances. The calmer synthpop sounds of his original works collides with the electro infused energy of his live performances to add a new dimension to his track.
Adam Dees is a composer, DJ, Audio Engineer, and Music Technology student at Transylvania University. Growing up just south of Nashville, he listened to music of all ages and genres growing up and desired to learn how to make his own. Teaching himself composition and audio engineering before coming to study at Transylvania, he has published his music both independently and on compilation albums before leaving High School.
Larry Barnes, piano and live electronics
Sound Mirrors now exists in a version for piano and MAX/msp programming. The bows are constructed of 20-pound-test fishing line, strung across a four-foot length six to eight times, and cut to attach to the lid of the piano with poster putty to grab when needed. The piece is constructed with several canons, alternating with solo sections. When combined with delay, the resulting intermixing of keyboard and bowed sounds creates something of a keyboard orchestra.
Larry Barnes is currently professor of music at Transylvania University. His music has presented worldwide, most recently on the May 2019 Dot the Line Festival in Seoul. Honors include an NEA Composer Fellowship, Al Smith Fellowship, Ohio and Kentucky Arts Council Awards and 33 ASCAP Awards. The New York Times described his music as “showing a fine sensitivity” and the Village Voice called it “lovely, intriguing and remarkably controlled in his performance." Find his music on Amazon, ITunes, Napster, and EClassical. Hear other original works at https://soundcloud.com/larry-barnes-608234425.
4-channel surround sound fixed media
In this sound machine, the flywheel is an unchanging, very fast metapulse, from which all of the various tempi and tuplets are derived. The machine approaches the listener, its various processes coordinated. It attempts to shift itself into a high gear, but the strain causes the pin to shear, wrecking the pulse and disturbing the balance. Gradually the machine rights itself, gathers momentum and continues on its way.
Joel Matthys composes acoustic, electroacoustic, and interactive music and media which explore language, meaning, structure, and our relationship to the modern world. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI. Matthys earned his DMA at University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), and is the founder of CiCLOP and CLIME.
Esther Lamneck, tárogató and live electronics
Sound Dunes, for Tárogató and stereo fixed media, is the third collaboration composed by Esther Lamneck (tárogató) and Mara Helmuth (computer music) It was inspired by exploration of the tárogató sound world, and its digital transformations. The piece has resonances with the natural environment of a sand dune, with its curving contours and granular texture. It was premiered at the Diffrazione Multimedia Festival in Florence Italy in March, 2019.
Mara Helmuth composes music often involving the computer, focusing recently on environmental issues and wildlife. Recordings are on Esther Lamneck’s Tarogato Constructions (Innova), Open Space CD 33, Sounding Out! (Everglade), Sound Collaborations (Centaur). Her music has been performed internationally at conferences and festivals. Her research has involved granular synthesis software, wireless sensor networks, and Internet2 performance. She is a Professor at CCM, University of Cincinnati, holds a DMA from Columbia University, and MM and BA from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She served as President of the International Computer Music Association.
The New York Times calls Esther Lamneck “an astonishing virtuoso.” She has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras, with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, with renowned chamber music artists and an international roster of musicians from the new music improvisation scene. A versatile performer and an advocate of contemporary music, she is known for her work with electronic media including interactive arts, movement, dance and improvisation. Ms. Lamneck makes frequent solo appearances on clarinet and the tárogató worldwide, and she is a Professor at NYU.
8-channel surround sound fixed media
Coagulate is part I of the Rotten Milk Trilogy, a series of three pieces which refer to the various states milk can take as it goes “off.” These pieces have the shared common factor of using aspects of recognizable popular culture to access memories and feelings within the listener. The naming of these pieces illustrates the relatively lighthearted and comical nature of the work. Coagulate utilizes sounds from the original 1940s era Warner Bros. Cartoons. As with all of the pieces in the trilogy, nostalgia and evoking memories (both good and bad) of one’s past are central themes of the piece. The movements and trajectories of the sounds are extremely chaotic and over-exaggerated. This extreme energy and absurdity within the spatialization of the sounds represents these traits found within the sound materials themselves. The original qualities and “age” of the sounds have been preserved. The lack of fidelity and the fact that the sounds are all mono places the piece in a specific point in time.
Timothy Moyers Jr. is a composer and audio-visual artist originally from Chicago. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the University of Kentucky and is the head of the Electroacoustic Music Studio. Prior to joining the University of Kentucky, Timothy was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design at IIIT-D (Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology), Delhi, India where he was the Founder & Director of ILIAD, Interdisciplinary Lab for Interactive Audiovisual Development, and GDD Lab, Game Design and Development Lab. He completed his PhD in Electroacoustic Composition from the University of Birmingham (England), an MM in New Media Technology from Northern Illinois University (USA), a BA in Jazz Performance and a BA in Philosophy from North Central College (USA).
Joo Won Park, drum machine
Cobalt Vase is a solo piece for a drum machine. The drum machine (and other electronic instruments) is a musical instrument, and therefore one gets better at playing it with more practice. I did not want to operate Korg Volca Beats to record a drum track in a DAW. Instead, I wanted to become good enough to improvise, adapt, and perform with features unique to the instrument. I think I can "play the scales without looking at my fingers" on Volca Beat at this point.
Joo Won Park is an Assistant Professor of Music Technology at the Wayne State University. He studied at Berklee College of Music and University of Florida and has previously taught in Oberlin Conservatory, Temple University, Rutgers University Camden, and Community College of Philadelphia. Dr. Park's music and writings are available on MIT Press, Parma Recordings, ICMC, Spectrum Press, Visceral Media, SEAMUS, and No Remixes labels. He also directs Electronic Music Ensemble of Wayne State (EMEWS).
2-channel fixed media
A journey to Atlantis, the mythological continent that featured the most advanced civilization the world had known, but which was ravaged by natural disaster. Against all reason, this piece travels to that famed utopia, and aims to convince the listener that maybe something so perfect really can exist, and even thrive.
Caleb Ritchie is a composer and pianist working in Lexington, Kentucky. He is currently at work on an album, "Seaside," to be released later this year.
Video and 4-channel sound electro-acoustic music
Letter writing has nearly been lost to e-mail, texts, and emojis. Additionally, cursive handwriting is continually being dropped from curricula across this country. I speak for myself on this, but I keep most forms of hand-written letters, notes, and cards simply for the thoughtfulness and time that it takes to write something by hand. Re:cursive explores this nearly lost form of communication. The video follows an abstract narrative of a person writing a letter to a non-descriptive recipient. The cursive text is transformed into new worlds using 3D animation.
Phillip received bachelor’s degrees in music composition/theory and music education from Appalachian State University and master’s degrees in music composition and music theory pedagogy from Michigan State University. Phillip was a doctoral fellow at the Jacobs School of Music where he earned a doctoral degree (DM) in music composition. He held a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Missouri and served as Assistant Professor at Northern Illinois University. He is now Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.
Kyle Hutchins, tenor saxophone
Loose Canon is an articulated noise composition for improvising performer. Noise generates structures of improvisatory guidance, and assembles DSP configurations to process the performer. A second “ghost” performer is assembled from samples recorded earlier in the improvisation, and sent through further random DSP processing. The contingent and immediate nature of the software interface prevents the performer from comprehending the large-scale form, but inspires the performer’s playing with the intensity of the computerized enhancements, creating a sense of surprise and apprehension.
Eric Lyon’s work focuses on articulated noise, chaos music, spatial orchestration, and computer chamber music. He is the author of “Designing Audio Objects for Max/MSP and Pd.” His publicly released software includes FFTease and LyonPotpourri, collections of externals for Max/MSP and Pd. His music has been recognized with a Giga-Hertz prize, MUSLAB award, the League ISCM World Music Days program, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He currently teaches at Virginia Tech, where he is a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology.
Kyle Hutchins is a performing artist, improviser, chamber musician, and educator. His work focuses on the creation and promotion of experimental art music, both as a soloist and in close collaboration with composers, performers, and interdisciplinary artists. He often makes sound wielding a saxophone, his voice, and technology. Kyle has performed across Asia, Europe and North America, has been recorded on over ten albums, and has participated in the creation of more than 150 new works. He currently serves as Artist/Teacher of Saxophone at Virginia Tech. www.jefferykylehutchins.com
Yaroslav Borisov, piano and synthesizers
I. Precise Time demonstrates a very precise working with time, using parallel tied with each other rhythmic structures. The composer having the knowledge that many old-school people have a strong tendency to consider an electronic culture as a "dead," "cold," or "soulless", he entitled the second movement II. Cold Things to emphasise its dedication to rave culture of 90's.
Yaroslav Borisov (Russian composer, poet, and bandleader) plays a wide spectrum of styles from chamber and avant garde to art pop. After moving to the U.S. in 2017, he has participated in the Cape Fear New Music Festival (2018, 2019), presenting piano solo and electroacoustic works; Sao Paulo (Brazil) Contemporary Composers Festival in September 2018, presenting solo piano and orchestra works; SCI VI Regional Conference (2019) at A&M University; and the 2019 New York City Electroacoustic Festival.
