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Don Buchla (1937–2016) to develop a new electronic musi- signals in response to manual ges- cal instrument. This would become tures, which were tracked by infrared Donald Buchla, a pioneer of syn- the 100 series Modular Electronic light emitted by a pair of hand-held thesizer and electronic musical in- Music System, comprising discrete, wands. The Marimba Lumina used strument design, died 14 September interconnecting modules for each of a marimba-like surface to detect the 2016 at the age of 79. Buchla was its musical and synthesis functions. movement and strikes of four radio born in South Gate, California, on These modules included sequencers wave-emitting batons wielded by a 17 April 1937, and, after growing and touch-sensitive plates for trig- performer.

up in California and New Jersey, he gering and modifying sounds, and Like many of Buchla’s ideas and Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/40/4/7/1856391/comj_e_00391.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 received a degree in physics from the notably omitted a conventional key- products, these instruments both University of California, Berkeley, in board. Subotnick developed his major drew influence from earlier musi- 1959. At Berkeley, he began working electronic work Silver Apples of the cal controllers and inspired those on a series of research projects for Moon (1967) with a 100 series syn- to come, shaping the musical cul- the National Aeronautics and Space thesizer, and three of the instruments tures of both the avant-garde and the Administration (NASA) while also were built for and installed at the mainstream. Constantly rethinking composing electronic music. He be- Columbia-Princeton Electronic Mu- the conventions of electronic mu- came involved with the San Francisco sic Center in New York City. Buchla’s sic and pushing his instruments to Tape Music Center, and in 1963 two instrument also became ingrained in embrace the distinct musical capa- of its affiliates, and the 1960s California counterculture, bilities enabled by new technologies, , commissioned Buchla providing sounds for Ken Kesey’s Acid Buchla’s contributions to the practice Tests, the Trips Festival in San Fran- and thought of electronic music res- cisco, and Grateful Dead concerts. onate to this day. A documentary on doi:10.1162/COMJ e 00391 Buchla continued to develop new Buchla’s life, inventions, and influ- electronic musical instruments over ence, produced by Clarity Films, has the next five decades. The Buchla 500 been in development since 2013. series, released in 1971, enabled dig- ital control of its underlying analog architecture. The Music Easel inte- DAFx 2016 grated several of Buchla’s 200 series modules into a portable briefcase- The 19th International Conference like box. The 300 series introduced on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx) was computer-based sequencing and pro- held 5–9 September 2016 at Brno Uni- gramming of analog modules. Buchla versity of Technology in Brno, Czech expanded on these ideas in the late Republic. The conference included 1970s and early 1980s with the paper presentations, keynote lectures, Touche´ and with the 400 series, and workshops related to a range of forgoing a modular design in both audio signal processing, synthesis, instruments while augmenting their and analysis topics, as well as a con- capabilities for control via computer cert. The keynotes were given by programming. The all-in-one design Peter Balazs, who discussed the use of of the Touche´ included a conventional frames in audio processing, Michael keyboard. Hlatky, who gave an insider’s look In the 1990s, Buchla’s focus turned at product development at Native explicitly towards interaction with Instruments, and Sakari Tervo, who digital musical instruments, design- examined parametric room impulse ing and developing a series of novel response analysis and synthesis. A MIDI interfaces. The Buchla Thunder set of workshop sessions focused on Figure 1. Don Buchla. assembled a number of his signa- analog effects modeling, room acous- (Photo: Brandon Daniel, ture capacitive touch-plates into a tics analysis, and building hybrid licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0; non-traditional arrangement for con- systems from interconnected digital, https://creativecommons trolling an external . The analog, and mechanical parts. The .org/licenses/by-sa/2.0.) Lightning produced MIDI control conference awarded the best paper

News 7 Figure 2. Modality performs at the Cube Fest. (Photo: Willie Caldwell.) Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/40/4/7/1856391/comj_e_00391.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021

prize to “Non-Linear Identification Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia, or- a number of international composers. of an Electric Guitar Pickup,” by An- ganized by the Virginia Tech Institute One concert consisted of a perfor- tonin Novak et al. Additional awards for Creativity, Arts, and Technology mance by Modality, a telematic synth were given to “Directivity Patterns (ICAT). The festival’s five concerts rock band. The “Dark Side of the Controlling the Auditory Source Dis- were held at the Cube, ICAT’s four- Cube” concert featured a 148-channel tance,” ”The Fender Bassman 5F6-A story, multiscreen, 148-loudspeaker rendition of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Family of Preamplifier Circuits—A multimedia facility. Each concert Side of the Moon. An immersive Wave Digital Filter Case Study,” “A presented a diverse assortment of im- installation by Miya Masaoka ex- Real-Time Synthesis Oriented Tan- mersive sound works. The festival’s plored frequencies in various forms of pura Model,” and “Signal-Matched opening concert presented six works spatialized motion. Power-Complementary Cross-Fading composed specifically for the Cube’s Web: icat.vt.edu/content/cube and Dry-Wet Mixing.” distinctive sonic capabilities, includ- -fest-2016 Web: dafx16.vutbr.cz ing music by Neal Farwell, Elizabeth Hoffman, Dale Parson, and Leah Reid. In Eli Stine’s Flare, sweeping bursts of NoiseGate Festival Cube Fest sound and insect-like chirps morphed into an enveloping harmony. A pair The inaugural NoiseGate Festival The Cube Fest took place 5–7 Au- of concerts titled “Sounds in Space” took place 20–25 September 2016 gust 2016 at the Virginia Polytechnic brought together spatial works from in New York City, hosted by New

8 Computer Music Journal Figure 3. Olga Oseth discusses her work Shapes of Each Other, realized with wireless gesture sensors, at the Kyma International Sound Symposium. (Photo: .)

York University. According to the festival’s organizers, noise pollu- tion is the number-one complaint in New York City, with relentless honking, constant loud talking, and the ubiquity of noise from machines. This form of pollution can cause auditory health risks, impact general Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/40/4/7/1856391/comj_e_00391.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 physiological and mental health, and create negative effects in social be- havior. Through panel discussions, concerts, installations, a hackathon, and a workshop, the festival aimed to bring awareness to these issues of spatial and urban noise pollution. The inaugural concert of the festival, “Music for a Sustainable Planet,” was held in collaboration with the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network and featured per- formances by AEON Music Ensemble and the group Net, multimedia artist Tony Lim, and conductor Ruth Rein- hardt, along with special guest DJ Spooky (Paul D. Miller). In addition to electroacoustic works, the concert featured a presentation of the City- gram sonic mapping system. Among the diverse events taking place within the festival were a screening of the film Sonic Sea, a documentary ex- amining the impact of industrial and military ocean noise on marine life, a University in Leicester, UK. The sym- ing with analog , and 10-hour Noise Music Hackathon, and posium included concerts, technical the digital programming of uncon- a workshop on sonifying real-time presentations, and workshops related ventional rhythms. One presenter data from the Citygram system. A to sound design and music compo- discussed using an electric bass gui- panel discussion explored the com- sition in the Kyma sound design tar as a controller for the frequency plexities and opportunities of using programming language. Its theme, and envelope of a generic synthesis technology, art, public policy, and “Emergence,” was intended to evoke patch, and another explored tools community to improve environmen- the distinctive properties that arise for working with “swarm synthesis” tal sustainability. from creative collaborations, complex and fractal noise. One of the con- Web: steinhardt.nyu.edu/music systems, and performers interacting certs showcased the symposium’s /technology/iaps with each other in real time. The Emergent Ensemble. Members of the symposium also had a subtheme, ensemble had described a new digi- “Crossing Boundaries,” drawing cre- tal musical instrument they would Kyma International Sound ative influence from geographical, perform as part of the symposium’s Symposium cultural, disciplinary, and temporal call for proposals, but otherwise had boundaries ingrained in the host city not performed or collaborated as a The eighth annual Kyma Interna- of Leicester. Technical presentations group in the past. A concert of spatial- tional Sound Symposium occurred at the symposium covered topics ized music positioned a set of short, 7–10 September 2016 at De Montfort such as instrument design, interfac- self-contained musical narratives as

News 9 constructing a larger whole based on event brought together researchers, notation, historical preservation, their shared characteristics. scientists, and other computer and digital musicology. A keynote Web: kiss2016.symbolicsound music practitioners to present and talk by Shlomo Dubnov approached .com discuss current research and artis- creativity from the perspective of tic projects using new technologies. information theory and optimizing The theme of the conference was musical automata. Research pre- Les Journees´ d’Informatique “Writing of Time and of Interac- sented at the symposium included

Musicale tivity,” targeting issues related to a system for improvisation between Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/40/4/7/1856391/comj_e_00391.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 scoring and other written repre- human performer and computer, Les Journees´ d’Informatique Musi- sentations of music and the per- generation of music using mathe- cale, a symposium of computer music formance thereof. This theme was matical constraints, and a proposed research, took place 31 March–2 explored through several broad top- notation system for electroacoustic April 2016 in Albi, France, hosted ics, including information systems, works involving explicit gesture and by the Groupe de Musique Electro- computer-assisted creation, technol- movement. acoustique d’Albi-Tarn (GMEA). The ogy and performance arts, musical Web: jim2016.gmea.net

10 Computer Music Journal