Images

Digital Art, Video, Experimental Software

Parking Ramp Project

Aniccha Arts premieres a performance installation inside a seven-level parking garage. The project asks questions about transience, migration, and stability in a space that temporarily stores cars and is home to nothing. Performers pervade the parking structure with their bodies, working against the visible slant of the ramp to find their individual verticality. Questions we asked in creating the work: How do we find softness in a landscape of concrete? What anchors us on these alternating planes? How do we connect across such a complex landscape? video by: Cully Gallagher

This video by Cully Gallagher is 3 minutes and 30 seconds of fragments from the approximately 44 minute long Parking Ramp Project. Composing music for this performance installation showed me how far it is still possible to explore improvised music through experimental processes. Considering the acoustics of the parking ramp was a critical consideration within the musical scope. One approach to this was rests coded into the algorithms that allowed for the music to decay during long pauses while the ambient sound of the space inserted itself as an unintentional “performer”.

I am humbled by the willingness of Pramila Vasudevan and other collaborators to humor my scheme to compose the work using Javascript. This language allowed me to quickly produce animated, generative, graphic scores. It was also a privilege to perform the music with Peter Hennig (drums) and Cody McKinney (bass/electronics) who effortlessly interpreted the graphic scores. You can read and hear more about the project or continue for a gallery of screen grabs from the animated graphic scores. Continue reading

Video of Performance at ISSTA, Ireland

Last September 2017 I performed at the Irish Sound in Science Technology and the Arts Conference (ISSTA.ie) in Dundalk, Ireland (video by Daryl Feehely). The performance makes use of a custom Max patch controlled by an iPad, a Novation Circuit, a KeyStep, and a Minifooger Delay pedal. It occurred to me that it might be interesting to share the roots and evolution of this piece, so here goes. Continue reading

Un:heard Resonance at Northern Spark, June 10, 2017

Saturday, June10, 2017 I participated for the sixth time in Northern Spark. The project I directed was called Un:heard Resonance. Also involved were artists Mike Hodnick AKA Kindohm (music), Chris LeBlanc (visuals), Lucas Melchior AKA MKR (music), and Aaron Marx (design). I was also fortunate to have the help of several student / former student volunteers inlcuding: Mike Miller, Meg Gauthier, and Justin Maki. The piece was be performed at the Weisman Art Museum from 8:59pm to 5:26am.
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Instant Composer: Mad-libbed Music

On June 13, 2015 I collaborated with a team of nine students and nine musicians on a project I directed for Northern Spark, an annual, all-night, art festival In Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. We titled the project, Instant Composer: Mad-libbed Music and the intent was to engage the audience into instantly writing musical compositions for an ensemble of improvising musicians.
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