I was interviewed for IGI Global’s Newsroom, discussing the role of interfaces in productivity, creativity, and technology, in anticipation of the upcoming Academy of Management conference in Atlanta.
Category Archives: Writing
Sound and Music Computing Conference in Helsinki
I was excited to return to greater Helsinki to present my work at the Sound and Music Computing conference at Aalto University. I also got to record with some more of the terrific improvisers in the area! I performed Shankcraft with Sergio Castrillón, presented Raveshift (installation), and a paper on Ferin Martino.
Weblogmusic: Taking the Mediatized Stage
While modern citizens are busy keeping up with communications technology, they are missing out on many human elements in communication like presence and authenticity. While some say we will get used to life mediated by screens and some prefer to wait for technology to get fast enough so we can recreate some of those human elements, there is value for artists in exploring the expressive potential of liveness as a unique dimension in a performance. Aesthetic concepts are established to show what is lost when a performance Continue reading
Collaborating with Machines: Hybrid Performances Allow a Different Perspective on Generative Art
Generative Art International Conference Continue reading
Structure in the Dimension of Liveness and Mediation
Leonardo Music Journal, vol. 18. While technological developments can replace some aspects of live performance, they have also opened a new dimension of musical structure: that of liveness and mediation, which requires live performance in order to be meaningful. Liveness itself can be used and manipulated as a distinct musical element. The author describes these concepts at work in his compositions that explore mediatization as a device of intermedial imitative counterpoint and formal structure.
Ontological Substance and Meaning in Live Electroacoustic Music
In Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval: Genesis of Meaning in Sound and Music. Philosopher Stephen Davies has used the terms “ontologically thin” and “ontologically thick” to describe compositions with varying amounts of flexibility under interpretation. Placing these two poles on a continuum of ontological substance, I extend Davies’s ideas to shed light on issues concerning meaning in live electroacoustic music. I demonstrate that algorithmic and interactive elements lend an extra dimension to the existence of the musical work and that the apparent obsolescence of live performance
Embracing a Mediat[is]ed Modernity: An Approach to Exploring Humanity in Posthuman Music
Performance Paradigm, vol. 4. In the nineteenth century, the reputation of Beethoven’s music persisted long after his death, causing younger composers to feel as if they were competing against the “flood” of Beethoven’s influence. Many composers like Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler reconciled themselves in this situation by referring to or adapting materials of Beethoven’s but using them in their own ways. The advent of recording technology extended this effect to every composer that could be recorded, without relying solely on history to recognise Continue reading
Feedback Instruments: Generating Musical Sounds, Gestures, and Textures in Real Time with Complex Feedback Systems
International Computer Music Conference
Live sampling in improvised musical performance: Three approaches and a discussion of aesthetics
DMA Dissertation. A discussion of issues raised by these works includes aesthetics, ontology, performance, and the role of the composer. Non-interactive indeterminate compositions are ontologically thin, because some composerly agency is required of the performer. An interactive work can be ontologically substantial if it makes distinct and significant contributions to performance, even though it may not make sound on its own. Although reproducibility reduces ontology and eliminates aura, live sampling within a performance can deepen the ontology of the Continue reading
A Dynamic Model of Metric Rhythm in Electroacoustic Music
International Computer Music Conference. The possibilities offered by electronic composition tools, while liberating, make difficult the dynamic use of organized rhythm in electroacoustic music. This paper explores a model stemming from interactive electroacoustic work by the author that adapts aspects of the hocketed, disjunct rhythmic textures of funk styles for use as a developmental musical parameter. These methods for generating rhythm that facilitate transformation in ways more naturally manipulated by computer-based tools are demonstrated in theory and in use by