Joo Won Park
Large Intestine
for no-input mixer and computer
In no-input mixing, a performer controls an audio mixer by creating and manipulating a feedback loop without an external sound source. With proper patching and some practice, the no-input mixer becomes a powerful and expressive electronic instrument. Large Intestine uses such an instrument to narrate the following story: I am a taco on a journey in a man’s digestive system, and this is what I heard inside the bowel.
Ted Moore
still motion b
or things a mouth does (for mouth and live video sampling)
Viola Yip
Vibrations Vivantes III
for a performer, on lightbulbs, microcontrollers and interactive electronics
Vibrations vivantes is a series of audiovisual pieces that explores the creative possibilities from the intersection between light and sounds in musical works. In this third installation, it aims to explore how light can be used as: (1) an instrumental interface, (2) a visual element for the performance, (3) shadows generator that creates theatricality in the piece, and (4) a music medium.
As an instrumental interface, its function is twofold. In the beginning of the piece, the light switches on the socket are performed as instrument. While the performers create percussive sounds through the light switches, the light (when it is in the “on” state) triggers electronic sounds through the light sensor and micro-controller and the pitch changes according to the light intensity and proximity of the light.
Moreover, the on and off states of lights generate various color affect and shadows of the performers, which adds an extra performative layer to the function of lights. Sounds and lights are often tied together in most of the piece, until after the climax. It is when the sounds are gone, but the light echoes the rhythm of the sounds from the climax. Light, then, act as a musical medium. Despite of the absence of sounds, the light stimulates our eyes in a similar way to sonic stimulations to our ears. By creating this multi-sensorial work, where sounds and light are incorporated in musical terms, it enriches our musical experience by demanding both our eyes and ears to engage.
Von Hansen
Maturin by Nicholas Elert
Bass Drum and Electronics
In the Steven King Dark Tower Series Maturin is the turtle on which the whole world rests.
Robin Cox
Dirt
processed amplified violin/electronics
Relying upon the performer’s use of bone conduction click track monitoring to execute tightly integrated relationships with electronic playback, Dirt is an exploration of grit and tension in an expansive soundscape coupled with a massive violin presence. The violin eventually emerges as a melodic and musically idiomatic character, but remaining juxtaposed to a menacing electronic container.
Biographies
Robin Cox is a composer, violinist, and collaborator known for performance of his own works and that of other contemporary artists. With the Robin Cox Ensemble, he led over 170 performances, produced three critically acclaimed CD recordings, and premiered works by over eighty composers. He also led a mixed-media performance series as Executive Director of Iridian Arts, Inc. His latest large scale ventures are the community participation event HOURGLASS and the immersive performance environment BIG TENT. Cox has received numerous awards, including multiple Lester Horton Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Music for Dance and an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for the founding of Iridian Radio. He holds degrees from the Univ. of Texas at Austin, Univ. of Michigan, and the Univ. of Miami, and after many years on faculty at California St. Univ. Long Beach Bob Cole Conservatory and California Institute of the Arts, Dr. Cox joined the Music and Arts Technology faculty at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in fall of 2013.
Von Hansen is an active performer, composer and educator of percussion music. A native of Topeka, Kansas, Dr. Hansen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Washburn University, a double Master’s in Music Composition and Percussion Performance from Central Michigan University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Percussion from the University of Kansas. He is currently the Adjunct professor of Percussion at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, The President of the Kansas Percussive Arts Society and is an in demand clinician and private instructor. Von has performed throughout the United States, including in Carnegie Hall with The University of Kansas Wind Ensemble, at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, Electronic Music Midwest, The Society of Composers, Inc. Regional Conference and with the Kansas City Electronic Music Alliance. He specializes in works combining percussion and electronics, performing his own compositions, premiering several works by other composers and presenting paper presentations, clinics and masterclasses on the subject. Von actively performs with the Wichita Symphony, Wichita Chamber Chorale, The Wichita Grand Opera, The Great Plains Percussion Group and various jazz and theatre gigs. As a composer, Dr. Hansen was named the winner of the 2009 Central Michigan Orchestral Composition Contest, and his works have been selected for performance at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States’ National Convention, The Society of Composers, Inc. Regional Conference and Electronic Music Midwest. He has earned commissions from The Washburn Percussion Collective, Skiatook High School Percussion Ensemble, Washburn Rural High School Percussion Ensemble, Ross Elementary Band, Royal Valley Middle School band, percussionist John Brown, and pianist Emily Grabinski. His compositions have been performed all over the world by artists such as Dr. Andrew Spencer, Kivie Cahn-Lipman, and the Kansas City Electronic Music Alliance.
Ted Moore is a composer, sound designer, multimedia artist, and music educator living in Chicago, currently as a doctoral fellow of music composition at the University of Chicago. His work has been reviewed as “an impressive achievement both artistically and technically” (Jay Gabler, VitaMN), “wonderfully creepy” (Matthew Everett, TC Daily Planet), and “epic” (Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press). Ted’s work focuses on live electronic processing with live performers using the digital signal processing programming language SuperCollider. His music has been premiered by the International Contemporary Ensemble, Spektral Quartet, Yarn/Wire, Splinter Reeds, Quince Vocal Ensemble, AVIDduo, Firebird Ensemble, RenegadeEnsemble, and the Enkidu Quartet, and has been performed across the country including Spectrum (NYC), Root Signals Electronic Music Festival (Statesboro, GA), Electroacoustic Barn Dance (Fredericksburg, VA), Iowa Composers Forum (Decorah, IA), Eastern Kentucky University (Richmond, KY), Festival of Contemporary Music (Berkeley, CA), The Walden School (Dublin, NH), Access Contemporary Music (Chicago, IL), North American Saxophone Alliance (Champaign-Urbana, IL, Lubbock, TX), New Horizons Music Festival (Kirksville, MO), MusicNOW (Univ. of Northern Texas, Denton, TX), La Crosse New Music Festival (La Crosse, WI), and Cedar Cultural Center (Minneapolis, MN). Ted has also been featured as a sound installation artist by the St. Paul Public Library, TC Make, and notably at the 2014 Northern Spark Festival in Minneapolis. He is one half of Binary Canary, a woodwinds-laptop improvisation duo. As a sound designer, Ted has worked with many independent companies, notably on Savage Umbrella’s original productions, Care Enough, Emma Woodhouse is Not a Bitch, Rain Follows the Plow, Leaves, and Rapture. He has taught music in a variety of capacities, including at McNally Smith College of Music (St. Paul), MacPhail Center for Music (Minneapolis), The Walden School’s Young Musicians Program and Creative Musicians Retreat (Dublin, NH), and Slam Academy (Minneapolis).
Joo Won Park (joowonpark.net) wants to make everyday sound beautiful and strange so that everyday becomes beautiful and strange. He performs live with toys, consumer electronics, kitchenware, vegetables, and other non-musical objects by digitally processing their sounds. He also makes pieces with field recordings, sine waves, and any other sources that he can record or synthesize. Joo Won draws inspirations from Florida swamps, Philadelphia skyscrapers, his two sons, and other soundscapes surrounding him. He has studied at Berklee College of Music and the University of Florida, and currently teaches Music Technology at the Wayne State University. Joo Won’s music and writings are available on ICMC DVD, Spectrum Press, MIT Press, PARMA, Visceral Media, MCSD, SEAMUS, and No Remixes labels.
A Native of Hong Kong, Viola Yip is a New York-based experimental composer, performer and curator. Her recent interests fall on exploring unconventional musical instrumental setups as well as various ways to transform musicians’ musicality into a unique experiences beyond music. Her works and performances have appeared in places such as Women Composers Festival of Hartford, Ravinia Festival, University of Florida, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, NASA saxophone conference, PAUSA Art House in Buffalo, Hong Kong Cultural Center, Hong Kong City Hall and Radio 4 at Radio and Television Hong Kong, Abrons Arts Center, DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Secret Theater and Flushing Town Hall in NYC. Her compositions has been presented by Talea Ensemble and ICE ensemble, and she has worked with JACK quartet, Yarn/Wire, Marco Fusi and Lauren DeBoer among others. She is currently pursuing her PhD in music composition at Graduate School of Arts and Science of New York University.