PerfTech students presented new compositions for live electronics with a 3D surround sound system in TAMU’s Fallout Theatre. The concert featured a performance by the TAMU Laptet, TAMU’s freshman laptop ensemble, one by guest artist Ivica Ico Bukvic (Virginia Tech). Continue reading
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PopMusing: On Evil
Students and faculty met to discuss the notion of evil in music, from Paganini to Robert Johnson to the Rolling Stones to death metal. It was a great mixing of minds at all levels of academia to reflect on deeper issues between popular and classical music.
Third Prize in Music/Architecture Competition
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Research Embodied, a site-specific intermedia performance created for the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library with designer Autum Casey was selected as a finalist from 70 international submissions, performed on October 19, 2011, and awarded third prize in the Music in Architecture—Architecture in Music symposium in Austin, Texas.
Research Embodied: site-specific intermedia performance
Co-created with designer Autum Casey, Research Embodied is an intermedia performance designed for the Great Hall of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library with musicians performing with amplified books and QWERTY keyboard, footsteps, and movement (in front of a camera-triggered synthesized carillon), along with two large video projections and five actors.
Acoustically, we highlight how the Great Hall amplifies presence in the space. The reverberation preserves instants in time, mirroring the function of a library. Visually, we merge the view of the archives with a glimpse of their contents. Functionally, we scripted and made music form the activities of participants in the Great Hall and scholars in the stacks. Conceptually, we call attention to the union and separation of the public and scholars and the challenges of moderated access to information.
Third Prize in the Music in Architecture International Symposium
Research Embodied, a site-specific intermedia performance and installation created for the Great Hall of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum (Austin, Texas) was awarded Third Prize in the Music in Architecture—Architecture in Music International Symposium It was one of five finalists chosen from 74 entries (6.8% acceptance rate), from among international and Ivy League competitors. And it was performed by our students!
TAMU Faculty Recital with Mariana Gariazzo: Afterimages Premiere
Flutist Mariana Gariazzo premiered Afterimages for bass flute and live electronics.
Afterimages for bass flute and electronics
Afterimages is a solo work composed for bass flutist Mariana Gariazzo with live electronics. All sounds played by the computer are captured form the soloist live during the performance. It’s a study in counterpoint through live sampling.
PerfTech Presents: Electroacoustic Masterworks 2011
PerfTech students got hands-on experience performing classic electroacoustic literature by spatializing the recorded works live in a 11.2 channel, 3D surround sound system using a multitouch interface in TAMU’s Fallout Theatre.
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Using the structure of today’s screen-mediated communications, these performers contribute their parts one at a time, responding to what was played before, and together they build “born digital” performances that expose the delays and glitches of network communications and make something genuinely *human* with it. As the audience, we witness performances that only exist in our web browsers, in the moments we’re viewing it. There is no “definitive version” of the performance!
This isn’t “pop music.”
It’s not likely to be danceable or singable, so if that’s the only way you define music, then you can call this “sound art” or“performance art.” It’s free improvisation in the avant garde tradition: adventurous and skilled improvisers building a performance together spontaneously, without any pre-written melodies or chord charts. They’re simply having a conversationtogether in music, sound, visuals, and performance!
PerfTech Presents: InterMEDIA Performance 2011
PerfTech students presented intermedia performances in TAMU’s Fallout Theatre.
Professor Morris led his students in devising a performance titled Soccer Mom, which played on giallo horror film, using everyday experiences to generate a chilling musical score and sound effects. Students made sounds by preparing dinner (spaghetti and a cocktail for dad), using a power drill, and a Nintendo Wii Remote embedded in a soccer ball. Offstage performers controlled the processing of the video footage and chose pitches to be played each time our “boy” on stage hit the soccer ball. Other students contributed by preparing the vintage lo-fi looking projections.
Another notable performance was Black Hole for audio and video feedback. One student’s instrument was a microphone running through guitar effects pedals and a guitar amp, and the other student performed with a video camera focused on the projected image from its output, in addition to various light sources. The result was a surprisingly rich and organic performance.