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Ambient X 808
This piece is my first dive into using Tidal Cycles in conjunction with SuperCollider and the “SuperDirt” quark to perform live coding. I decided to experiment with live coding in the Electronic Ensemble course I teach at Georgia Southern. We began by using Estuary and explored collaborative live coding using Troop. For my own work, I found the constraints of Estuary to be too limiting, so I decided to use Tidal Cycles with SuperCollider (and SuperDirt) directly. Being very familiar with SuperCollider, I was pretty comfortable understanding what was happening.
Into the rarefied air
Into The Rarefied Air marked a return to instrument and electronics after a few years of fixed audiovisual work. Before this piece was written, I purchased a Godin guitar with a 13-pin MIDI output. I have never been very impressed with the MIDI capabilities of guitar, mainly due to the lack of sophistication or inventiveness in its use. Disregarding the MIDI capabilities, the guitar is a great guitar to play and well-constructed. In addition to two humbucker pickups, which are kind of standard electric guitar fare, it has piezo pickups built into the bridge (one for each string). You can combine the piezo and humbucker pickups into a a single output. Add in the MIDI output and this guitar has some unique features. While Into The Rarefied Air can be modified to accommodate any electric guitar, it is written specifically for this Godin guitar, for better or for worse!
Lissajous experiments (a la Putnam)
I was looking at Lance Putnam’s “S Phase” work from the 2000s. https://w2.mat.ucsb.edu/l.putnam/s_phase/index.html In this work, Putnam is directly driving the visual material from the sonic material using 3D lissajous techniques. In short, this is where the amplitudes of audio signals are used to inform the positions of (x,y,z) vertices in a virtual space.
Stream stone surface
Stream Stone Surface was written in 2013. It is the first of a series of works exploring audiovisual composition. During this time I was beginning to formalize ideas about audiovisual composition in order to teach them in the graduate program. I was examining the work of Jordan Belson, who said the following:
Electrotactile maps
Electrotactile Maps is the 3rd in a series of audiovisual works. I gathered the inspiration for this piece when listening to a podcast. The podcast spoke about a technology that allowed profoundly blind people to “see” using sensory substitution. A pair of sunglasses has a camera attached. The camera sends its signal to an array of 144 electrodes that are placed on the tongue. Details about this can be found at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5523951/
Chasing Alse Young
Chasing Alse Young was written for Matt Fallin. It was performed in 2018 at the SEAMUS conference at the University of Oregon. It was also played at the 2018 Root Signals Festival.
Accretion flows
Accretion flows is the second in a series of works exploring audiovisual composition. I was interested in creating an underlying system to drive both visual and musical material in the piece. I imagined a data stream from which different modalities could grow, creating an ecosystem of experiential results that were grounded in the invisible.
Shift-13
I enjoy collaborating with friends and Shift-13 was the second collaboration with my friend Matt Fallin. Shift-13 began as an improvisational study that involved the arpeggiator of a keyboard in conjunction with a sampler loaded with percussive sounds.
Diffraction: a ballet for light
In the spring of 2021, we were still in pandemic mode although vaccines were rolling out. During that time, I worked with Ryan Devens on the creation of Diffration: a ballet for light. Ryan creates the audio and I create the video for this work.
The changing light
In the fall of 2021, Martin Gendelman contacted me about his plan to invite violinist Adrianne Munden-Dixon for a performance at the Savannah Cultural Arts Center as part of the On the Verge concert series. Martin mentioned that Adrianne was interested in performing works by Martin, Peter Van Zandt Lane, and myself at the Savannah concert and a concert to be held at the University of Georgia where Peter was faculty. Martin and I both wrote new works for violin and electronics.
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