Sound and Video Anthology: Program Notes

Biophysical Music: Marco her gestural manipulation of digital thing that resonates with Terminal Donnarumma, Curator sound processing and matchless vocal Beach’s audiovisual orchestral work. skill. Their piece has no predetermined But what happens when the bioa- score, for this is composed in real Curator’s Note coustic sounds of multiple bodies time using the variations in the heart are networked into a large-scale rate of twelve musicians throughout It is with great delight that I intro- instrument? Heidi J. Boisvert and the performance. duce the reader to Computer Music colleagues feed the sound and data Their work allows us to intro- Journal’s 2015 Sound and Video An- from muscles and blood flow of five duce another area of investigation: thology. I have curated a series of dancers to genetic algorithms that, in the intermix of traditional and phys- diverse, yet interrelated, works on turn, produce organic, multilayered iologically informed performance the theme of biophysical music. With sonic and visual bodies. The result techniques. To explore this hybrid this term, I refer to live music pieces is a gracefully dark audio and video practice further, we look at the work based on a combination of physi- composition manifesting a creative by the influential BioMuse Trio, ological technology and markedly and physical tension between human where a violin player and a performer, physical, gestural performance. In and algorithmic agents. Shifting from the latter wearing the BioMuse bio- these works, the physical and physi- dance to body art, we see the con- electrical instrument, interact closely ological properties of the performers’ cept of the performer’s body as an with each other through sound and bodies are interlaced with the mate- instrument stretched to its limits. In programmatic actions. The musical rial and computational qualities of the the work by Marcel.lıAnt´ unez´ Roca experience they create demonstrates electronic instruments, with varying and his colleagues, pioneers of inter- a transporting power, which emerges degrees of mutual influence. Musical active audio and video performance, from an unlikely meeting between expression thus arises from an inti- audience members trigger physical human performers, traditional in- mate and, often, not fully predictable contractions of the performer’s body struments, and physiological instru- negotiation of human bodies, instru- by activating pneumatic devices at- ments. To bring this journey to an ments, and programmatic musical tached to the performer’s muscles and end, Atau Tanaka, a crucial figure in ideas. limbs. Each trigger initiates a tense the field of physiologically informed We begin with a rare audio record- series of rhythms, timbre variations, physical performance, offers us an ing of a solo improvisation by seminal and visual animations—and there is exclusive audiovisual recording of a composer Michel Waisvisz in which room for some fire, too. recent solo performance for a custom he creates rhythmic textures and Taking the cue from the dense bioelectrical musical instrument. As frantic glitches of analog electronic sound forms and intense gestural he performs gestures with varying sounds by altering, with the touch performance of Antunez´ Roca, we in- degrees of muscular force, multiple of his hands, the voltages of the troduce the practice of gestural music channels of raw electrical signals Crackle Synthesizer circuits. The performance with a piece by Miguel from his muscles are digitally soni- sonic aesthetic of Waisvisz’s piece Ortiz. By blending the processed fied into an increasingly dense sound resonates with the work by Shiori sounds of an electric viola with the composition; sound becomes a direct Usui, who, drawing on a similarly bioelectrical signals from his arms as externalization of the inner body granular sonic palette, presents an he performs, he constructs a complex mechanisms underlying the player’s enthralling composition for double and vivid musical composition that physical effort. bass, trombone, and the XTH Sense compellingly explores the auditory With this anthology, I intended to biophysical instrument. Here, two thresholds of human hearing. In my emphasize the broad range of strate- performers interact not only through performance for XTH Sense and light, gies and techniques that, during the the sound of their traditional instru- I share Ortiz’s interest in exciting past 30 years, have established the ments, but also by listening to the human auditory thresholds, but I do practice of biophysical music as an amplified and processed sounds of so by making the digital instrument expanding and heterogeneous field of their muscles. The idea of the body as accumulate the very low frequencies musical and technological investiga- a source of sonic material lies at the of muscle sounds and blood flow until tion; the collection therefore spans core of the performance by Pamela Z, an unstable mass of acoustic energy across music improvisation, algo- where grains of breath sounds mutate unfolds and explodes in my hands. It rithmic and traditional composition, into multiple virtual voices in a com- is an approach that emphasizes the sound-based body art performance, plex counterpoint, elegantly mixing expressive potential of the unbalance and interactive dance. At the same between control and emergence in time, I have envisioned this anthol- doi:10.1162/COMJ a 00333 bodily musical performance, some- ogy as a musical journey, rather than

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_a_00333 by guest on 24 September 2021 a chronological history; the aim is to the immediate musical pleasure of musicians’ muscle movements and to convey how idiosyncratic musical performed sound. the bioacoustic sound captured by ideas have echoed through diverse the XTH Sense from the performers’ decades, and thus how they have rein- Michel Waisvisz was a composer/ bodies as they play their instruments. forced, altered, or disrupted different performer of live electronic music conceptions of the intimate relation- who developed new ways to achieve Into the Flesh I ships between sound frequencies, physical touch with electronic music musical ideas, circuits, algorithms, instruments. Sometimes this was This first section explores some and human bodies. done by literally touching the elec- minute movements of muscles such tric circuits inside the instrument, as the light trembling of fingers and thereby becoming a thinking compo- arms. The data captured by the XTH 1. CrackleBox Solo Live in nent of the machine. He was among Sense triggers extremely high pitches Ottawa 1978—Michel the first play with synthesizers on that resonate at the beginning. The Waisvisz stage and very early on he developed sound increasingly becomes distorted and performed using gestural con- and there is the introduction of The Crackle Synthesizer consisted trollers. He also is the inventor of harsh inhaled vocals as the music of the components of three Crack- the Cracklebox, The Web, and other progresses. leboxes. These could be linked by instruments based on touch interac- tion. Together with Frank Baldehe´ touching special conductive pads. Into the Flesh II Potentiometers were used to con- designed live performance software trol the amount of controllability of such as LiSa and JunXion. Start- In this section, the original sounds this instrument. “Minimum control” ing in 1989 he directed the STEIM of the muscles captured by the XTH meant that the Crackle Synthesizer foundation in Amsterdam—where Sense are preserved as much as would easily play on its own for performance artists from music, possible, creating heartbeat-like ef- hours. Nowadays, many people re- theater, dance, and new media art, fects from the movements of the fer to the the Cracklebox as the together with DJs and VJs, work to musicians’ arms, combined with a archetype of “glitch” or “circuit develop personal electronic instru- percussive sound created by the dou- bending.” At some point I started ments. He advocated that artists, in ble bass. The piece ends by returning playing by placing my fingers on the order to not have their work polluted to the high resonant pitches heard at print board of a damaged electronic by the generic typicality of applied the beginning of section I. organ. By patching the different parts tools, should appropriate their tools Tenor trombone and XTH Sense: John of the circuit through my (conduc- and instruments by modification, Kenny tive) fingers and hands I became the or even complete custom builds—a thinking [wet] part of a electronic mindset summarized in his slogan, Double Bass and XTH Sense: Andres circuit and I started seeing my skin “If you don’t open it, you don’t own Kungla as a patchable cable, potentiometer, it.” This statement is at the root This work was produced as a part of and condensator. The great advantage of the work philosophy at STEIM: Inventor Composer Coaction (ICC) was that by intuitively touching the Music makers are encouraged to play project, Edinburgh, Scotland. electronics one could learn to play an important role in the design and this new instrument without having construction of their authentic live Originally from Japan, Shiori Usui is to have schematic knowledge about electronic performance instruments. described as a composer with “indi- the circuitry—very much like a tradi- vidual ears” (The Times). Her works tional music instrument. It could be have been performed in Japan, Eu- learned by playing by ear and devel- 2. Into the Flesh—Shiori Usui rope, and the USA by a diverse range oping experience and manual/mental of soloists, ensembles, and orches- skills instead of having to dive into The work was composed for the tras, including the pianist Rolf Hind, a world of logic, functions, inter- XTH Sense (a biophysical musical the Duke Quartet, BCMG, members action schemes, electronic circuit instrument), tenor trombone, and of Klangforum Wien, members of theory, and mathematical synthesis double bass. The piece consists of Scottish Chamber Orchestra, A Far methods. One could play an elec- two short sections, each of which Cry, Tokyo Philharmonic Orches- tronic instrument in direct relation explores different aspects of the tra, and BBC Scottish Symphony

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_a_00333 by guest on 24 September 2021 Orchestra, with conductors such as composed from fragments of sampled She holds a music degree from the Martyn Brabbins, Naoto Totsuka, text that I took from a recording of University of Colorado at Boulder. and Matthias Pintscher. In 2012, her my collaborator Christina McPhee orchestral piece Warai [Laughter] discussing respiration. My controller received the Toru Takemitsu Compo- (a component of the SensorPlay 4. [radical] signs of life—Heidi sition Award in Tokyo, Japan; in the gesture control system I developed J. Boisvert same year, the Civitella Ranieri Mu- with Donald Swearingen) tracks my sic Fellowship in conjunction with gestures via accelerometer and gyro, [radical] signs of life is a large- the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for allowing me to manipulate sonic scale multimedia experience using Artists Programme was awarded to elements in real time. biotechnology to integrate networked her. July 2015 saw the premiere` of bodies and interactive dance. The Shiori’s new work Ophiocordyceps Pamela Z is a composer/performer work externalizes the mind’s non- unilateralis s.l. at the BBC Proms, and media artist who works with hierarchical distribution of thought performed by BCMG with conduc- voice, live electronic processing, sam- through responsive, rule-based chore- tor Franck Ollu at Cadogan Hall in pled sound, and video. A pioneer of ography and a database of phrases. London. Shiori has produced works live looping techniques, she creates The choreography is composed in real in radical instrumental music and works combining extended vocal time by five dancers from a shared has worked with motion capturing techniques, operatic bel canto, found movement database in accordance sensors and biophysical technology. objects, text, processing, and wire- with pre-determined rules. Music is Many of her compositions are in- less MIDI controllers that allow her generated from the dancers’ muscles spired by the sounds of the human to manipulate sound with physical and blood flow via XTH Sense bio- body, the deep sea, and many other gestures. She has composed scores for physical sensors that capture sound weirdly wonderful living organisms dance, film, and new music cham- waves from the performers’ bodies. in the world. Shiori enjoys playing ber ensembles including the Kronos This data triggers complex neurobi- improvisation in the UK and abroad Quartet, the SF Contemporary Music ological algorithms to be projected as a “noise” vocalist and pianist, and Players, and the Ethel String Quartet. onto multiple screens as 3-D imagery. has performed with musicians such Her interdisciplinary performance As the audience interacts with the im- as Arve Henriksen, Ilan Volkov, Rie works have been presented at nu- ages produced, they enter into a dia- Nakajima, and Lee Patterson. merous venues in San Francisco, the logue with the dancers. Conceptually, KitcheninNewYork,andREDCAT the piece is an embodied examination in Los Angeles. Her installation works of the increasing disparity between 3. Breathing—Pamela Z have been shown in exhibitions at the the encroachment of bio-data and the Whitney Museum (New York), the quiet discord of bio-memory. ”Breathing” is the third movement Diozesanmuseum¨ (Cologne), and of Carbon Song Cycle, a 2013 inter- the Krannert Museum (Champaign, Heidi J. Boisvert is a new media artist, media chamber work that I created Illinois). Z has toured extensively creative technologist, experience de- in collaboration with visual artist throughout the USA, Europe, and signer, and writer. She founded and Christina McPhee. Structurally, this Japan—performing at numerous serves as the CEO and Creative Di- solo piece plays upon the idea of festivals including Bang on a Can rector of the futurePerfect Lab, a the natural exchange of elements (New York), Interlink (Japan), Other boutique creative agency that works by passing sonic material between Minds (San Francisco), La Biennale with nonprofits to develop imagina- the various instruments—including di Venezia (Italy), and Pina Bausch tive applications of integrated media my voice and live processing. In Tanztheater Festival (Germany). Her and emerging technology. Boisvert this particular movement, I sample awards include a Doris Duke Artist was formerly the Media Director at my live voice and process it in real Impact Award, a Guggenheim Fel- Breakthrough where she designed, time to create digitally delayed layers lowship, the Creative Capital Fund, developed, and promoted a range of and granulated flurries of my breath the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, viral, new media, and pop culture sounds and singing voice, which I the MAP Fund, the ASCAP Music campaigns that helped raise aware- then sculpt and control with hand and Award, an Ars Electronica honorable ness and instigate policy change on arm gestures. These live sounds are mention, and the NEA and Japan/US pressing social issues. She created the punctuated by the sparse tape part I Friendship Commission Fellowship. first 3-D social change game, ICED – I

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_a_00333 by guest on 24 September 2021 Can End Deportation, to shift the quences. Making heavy use of 1995’s movements with dresskeletons seen frame around unfair U.S. immigra- “high-end” technology—namely, a in the performances Afasia (1998) tion policies. Boisvert also designed Soundblaster AWE32 soundcard fit- and Pol (2002); or microbiological America2049, an alternative reality ted with 8MB of RAM—the music, transformations in the installations game on Facebook about pluralism, which favored timbral and rhythmic Rinodigestio (1987) and Agar (1999). which was nominated for Games for aspects over melodic ones, was in- He is currently working on the spatial Change and Katerva Awards. Most stead computed and triggered note by and utopian artwork Transpermia. recently, with Marco Donnarumma, note, control by control, according to He was also founding member of she co-founded XTH, an open-source the player inputs and the graphic ani- La Fura dels Baus, working in that creative biotechnology start-up, and mation’s rhythms. By using different company as art coordinator, musi- was named a Harvestworks Cre- mappings and different sounds, each cian, and performer from 1979 to ativity + Technology = Enterprise scene of the Epizoo’s game environ- 1989. Antunez´ Roca has received the Fellow. She received her PhD in Elec- ment behaves like a different musical following awards and distinctions: tronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic piece or improvisational framework First Prize at the Festival Etrange,´ Institute. in which the user can improvise, Paris 1994; Best New Media Noveaux controlling with the mouse not only Cinema´ Noveaux Medias,´ Montreal Choreography: Pauline Jennings the music, but also the development 1999; Max New Theatre Award, Music composition: Doug Van Nort of the animations and the actions of Spain 2001; FAD Award, Barcelona the exoskeleton on the performer’s 2001; Honorary Mention at Prix Ars XTH Sense biosensors interaction: body. Electronica 2003 and Premi Ciutat Marco Donnarumma Barcelona 2004. . Wireless biosensing system: MJ Idea and artwork: Marcel lıAnt´ unez´ Roca Caselden Sergi Jorda` holds a BS in Fundamental Visual composition: Raven Kwok Music, interaction design, and com- Physics (1986) and a PhD in Computer puter programming: Sergi Jorda` Science and Digital Communication Light design: Allen Hahn Mechatronics: Rolan Olbeter (2005). He is a senior researcher at the Costumes: Amy Nelson Music Technology Group of Universi- Infography: Marcel.lıAnt´ unez´ Roca tat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, where and Paco Corachan´ he directs the Music and Multimodal 5. Epizoo—Marcel.lıAnt´ unez´ Light Design: Ramon´ Rey Interaction Lab. During his under- Roca, Sergi Jorda,` and Rolan graduate years in the 1980s, after . Olbeter Produced by Marcel lıAnt´ unez´ Roca, discovering computer programming, Sergi Jorda,` Loma Productions, and he decided to fully devote himself to In the mid 1990s the performance the Festival SIGMA 1995, Bordeaux live computer music. Throughout the Epizoo caused a commotion in the (France) 1990s he conceived and developed international art scene. For the first award-winning interactive installa- time, a performer’s body movements Marcel.lıAnt´ unez´ Roca is well known tions and multimedia performances, could be controlled by the audience. in the international art scene for his in collaboration with internationally By operating a videogame-like envi- mechanotronic performances and renowned Catalan artists such as ronment, spectators interacted with robotic installations, which combine Marcel.lıAnt´ unez´ Roca and La Fura the bodybot worn by Antunez´ Roca, elements such as Bodybots (body- dels Baus. Back in academia since moving his buttocks, pectoral mus- controlled robots), Systematugy (in- the late 1990s, his current main re- cles, mouth, nose, and ears. This teractive narration with computers) search interests are in the confluence performance stresses the ironical, and dresskeleton (the exoskeleton of human–computer interaction and and even cruel, paradox rising from body interface). The themes explored tangible, musical, and physiological the coexistence of virtual digital in his work include the use of bio- interaction. He has received several iniquity and the performer’s physical logical materials in robotics, as in international awards, including the vulnerability. Joan l’home de carn (1992); telematic Ciutat de Barcelona (1999 and 2007) Epizoo’s music did not use pre- control on the part of a spectator and the prestigious Prix Ars Electron- rendered audio (hardly available in of an alien body in the performance ica Golden Nica (2008). He is one 1995), nor pre-programmed MIDI se- Epizoo (1994); the expansion of body of the inventors of the Reactable,

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_a_00333 by guest on 24 September 2021 a tabletop musical instrument that meat seems both unthinkable and un- processed, and played back by eight attained mass popularity after being bearable for these characters. I took subwoofer and loudspeakers. The adopted by Icelandic artist Bjork¨ in this idea of looking at the human natural sound of muscles and its 2007. Since 2009 he is one of the body simply as “meat” and imagining virtual counterpart blend together founding partners of the company all hand and finger movements as the into an unstable sonic object. This Reactable Systems. simple grinding and sliding of meat oscillates between a state of high pieces. density and one of violent release. Roland Olbeter is a scenographer As the listeners imagine the object’s and rob artist, living and working Miguel Ortiz is a Mexican composer shape by following my gesture, the in Barcelona since 1986. Formally and sound artist based in London. sonic stimuli induce a perceptual trained as a concert violinist and He has been involved in a vast coupling. The listeners see through naval constructor, he has worked range of activities related to mod- sound the sculpture which their sight extensively for the theatre, the opera, ern music and sound art. He has cannot perceive. as well as for sound and movement worked professionally as a composer, installations. His work focuses on sound engineer, lecturer, score editor, Where performance art and sound the creation of impossible artefacts promoter, and sound designer. Spo- art converge through technology, and shows a technical sophistication radically, he takes part as a performer here lies the work of performer, most uncommon in the visual art and in ensembles such as BLISS, Control artist, musician, and writer Marco theatre. He has collaborated in multi- Group, and M&B, where he explores Donnarumma. He uses biomedical ple scenographies, from the Barcelona a vast array of performing media and sound technologies, software Olympic games in 1992, the thematic ranging from traditional acoustic in- algorithms, actuators, and body sen- Pavillon OIKOS for EXPO 2008 in struments such as cello and trumpet, sors to create intensely physical Zaragoza, to collaborations with Bigas to laptop improvisation and perfor- live works. His performances, con- Luna, Jaume Plensa, Alfred Arribas, mance with bio-instruments and certs, and installations are renowned Enric Miralles, Xavier Mariscal, hyperinstruments. Ortiz graduated for combining a seemingly simple La Fura dels Baus, and Marcel.lı´ from the Conservatorio de las Rosas and minimalistic aesthetic, rigorous Antunez´ Roca, among others. He in Morelia, Mexico,´ before pursuing a science, technical sophistication, developed and directed the chamber Masters degree and PhD at the Sonic and strong critical concepts. He has opera Orlando Furioso for five music Arts Research Centre at Queen’s Uni- performed and spoken in over 50 robots and soprano with music by versity Belfast. He currently works as countries across North and South Michael Gross, and the designed the a research associate at Goldsmiths, America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. scenography for Richard Wagner’s University of London. His works have been presented at opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung, leading art and music events; digital together with Carlos Padrisa and art, sound art, and performance art Franc Aleu. He is currently preparing 7. Ominous—Marco festivals; research institutions; his- an automatic puppet theatre with Donnarumma torical music venues; and national music by Kats Chernin. museums. Among them are Sonar´ +D, Ominous is a sculpture of incarnated ISEA, Venice Biennale, BBC Music, sound. The performance embodies, CTM, transmediale, ISCM World Mu- 6. Carne—Miguel Ortiz before the audience, the metaphor sic Days, FILE, Panorama, NYEAF, of an invisible and unknown object Sound Art China, CYNETART, Pik- Carne is written for amplified (or elec- enclosed in my hands. This is made sel, EMPAC, Stanford CCRMA, tric) violoncello and EMG sensors. of malleable sonic matter. Similarly NYU, STEIM, IRCAM, FACT, Ex- The piece is loosely inspired by Terry to a mime, the performer models the perimental Intermedia, Spectrum Bison’s 1991 short story “They’re object in the empty space by means NYC, Cafe´ Oto, Mumuth Concert Made Out of Meat.” In Bison’s story, of whole-body gestures. By using the Hall, Hoerbar, Museo Reina Sofia, two apparently alien beings meet to visceral, new musical instrument CCCB Barcelona. He is a co-founder discuss a shocking discovery about XTH Sense (created by the author), with Heidi J. Boisvert of XTH, an the beings on planet Earth, the fact the bioacoustic sound produced by open-source creative biotechnology that they are made out of meat. The the contractions of the performer’s start-up, and is about to receive a idea of sentient, thinking, and singing muscle tissues is amplified, digitally PhD in Arts and Computational

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_a_00333 by guest on 24 September 2021 Technology at Goldsmiths, Univer- listener’s brains and bodies. He has puter into classical chamber music sity of London. over 30 physical and digital releases practice. Aspects of this practice that on labels such as Editions Mego as particularly interest me are precise BOLDER (with Martin Maischein), coordination between the musicians 8. Heart Chamber Orchestra— PURE, and ILSA GOLD; on Hinterz- in close quarters, and an emphasis TERMINALBEACH (PURE immer with his electronic percussion on expressive musical interpretation [Peter Votava] and Erich duo PRSZR (with Rafal Iwanski); and performance intimacy. Previous Berger) on Cronica,´ Praxis, Staalplaat, Drop works in this series have used the Bass Network, and many more. His laptop as the de facto interface for the The Heart Chamber Orchestra— early 1990s Rave prank-duo ILSA computer, accepting its many limita- HCO—is an audiovisual perfor- GOLD (together with Christopher tions as a performance instrument. mance. The orchestra consists of 12 Just) was the first internationally ac- The introduction of the BioMuse classical musicians and the artist knowledged Austrian techno act and allows for far more idiomatic musical duo TERMINALBEACH. Using their is still occasionally active. His cur- gestures than are possible on the lap- heartbeats to generate the musical rent Berlin-related activities include top. Equally important, the BioMuse score in real time, the musicians “Slowlands” (a monthly whisky-only presents the human body as musical control a computer composition and bar night) and the world’s first Whisky instrument. A performance with the visualization environment. They read & Doom Metal tasting series, “Taste BioMuse involves two sets of pros- and play this score from a computer The Doom” (with Lars Lundehave thetics: the hardware, which extends screen placed in front of them. HCO Hansen). He holds a Master degree in and projects the gestural expressiv- forms a structure where music lit- Computer Music from the University ity of the body, and the audio DSP erally “comes from the heart.” The of Plymouth (UK). software, which gives these gestures musicians are equipped with elec- “voice.” The violinist performs in a trocardiogram sensors. A computer Erich Berger is a visual artist and traditional manner, demanding close monitors and analyzes the state of curator trained in philosophy and musical interaction with the biomu- these 12 hearts in real time. The engineering. His interests lie in in- sician. The laptop performer manages acquired information is used to com- formation processes and feedback asynchronous aspects of the sound pose a musical score with the aid of structures, which he investigates processing; the direct generation and computer software. It is a living score through installations, situations, per- processing of the sound is under the dependent on the state of the hearts. formances, and interfaces; these have complete control of the biomusician. While the musicians are playing, been shown internationally since the As in my previous computer chamber their heartbeats influence and change mid 1990s. His current explorations music, all computer-generated sounds the composition and vice versa. The of deep time and hybrid ecology led are derived from samples of the acous- musicians and the electronic com- him to work with geological pro- tic instrumentalist, captured live in position are linked via the hearts cesses, radiogenic phenomena, and performance. The BioMuse Trio is in a circular motion—a feedback their sociopolitical implications in dedicated to Ben Knapp and Gas- structure. The emerging music thus the here and now. Berger is Director of cia Ouzounian, with whom it was evolves during the performance. the Bioartsociety in Helsinki/Finland composed. The resulting music is the ex- and is a Lecturer at the Fine Art pression of this process and of an Academy Vienna/Austria. Eric Lyon is a composer and computer organism forming itself from the music researcher. His work focuses on circular interplay of the individual articulated noise, spatial orchestra- musicians and the machine. 9. Trio for Violin, Biosensors, tion, and computer chamber music. and Computer—Eric Lyon, His software includes FFTease and PURE (Peter Votava) has been making Gascia Ouzonian, and Ben LyonPotpourri, written for Max/MSP uncompromising electronic music Knapp and Pd. He authored “Designing Au- since 1992. On stage he sculpts ab- dio Objects for Max/MSP and Pd”, stract sonic stories from evolving The BioMuse Trio is an extension of which explicates the process of de- textures, pulsating repetitions, and my computer chamber music compo- signing and implementing audio DSP dynamic breaks using both hardware sitions, a series of works intended to externals. In 2011, Lyon was awarded and software that equally affect the promote an integration of the com- a ZKM Giga-Hertz award, resulting

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_a_00333 by guest on 24 September 2021 in the 43-channel computer music Gascia Ouzonian’s work is focused on a ring on the left wall and a ring on composition Spirits. His 124-channel experimental traditions in music and the right wall. First, a direct audifica- composition The Cascades was pre- sound art after 1950. Her writing has tion of motor unit action potentials is miered in the Virginia Tech Cube, appeared in numerous peer-reviewed heard as spikes. This stochastic pulse and presented at BEAST FEaST 2015. journals and edited volumes includ- train reflects performer limb activity. Lyon has composed for such artists ing Music, Sound & Space (edited by The pure spikes then feed resonators as The BioMuse Trio, Margaret Lan- Georgina Born, Cambridge Univer- and filters, resulting in a sonification caster, The Noise Quartet, Ensemble sity Press). Particular areas of interest by sound synthesis that responds mise-en, String Noise, The Crash include sound installation art, site- to the musician’s gestural language. Ensemble, Esther Lamneck, Kathleen specific sound, spatial sound, and the This piece was created using custom Supove,´ and Marianne Gythfeldt. intersection of experimental music, biosignal hardware circuits by Mar- Lyon has taught computer music at visual art, and sound art. With archi- tin Klang, wearable design by Irene Keio University, IAMAS, Dartmouth tect Sarah Lappin, Gascia co-leads the Regueiro, and in musical collabora- College, Manchester University, research group Recomposing the City: tion with Miguel Ortiz. The research and Queen’s University Belfast. He Sonic Art & Urban Architectures. In leading to this work has received teaches in the School of Performing 2013 she founded Optophono, a label funding from the European Research Arts and is an ICAT Fellow at Virginia for interactive music and sound art. Council (ERC grant FP7-283771). Tech. As a violinist Gascia has performed internationally with ensembles that Atau Tanaka creates musical instru- R. Benjamin Knapp is the Director of have included Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk ments using sensing technology to the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Road Ensemble, Theatre of Eternal capture movements and gestures Technology (ICAT) and Professor of Music Strings Ensemble, Hutchins of musicians. Tanaka studied at Computer Science at Virginia Tech. Consort, and Sinfonia Toronto. She CCRMA Stanford, and conducted ICAT seeks to promote research and is a founding member of Bird On A research in Paris at IRCAM. His first education at the boundaries between Wire, BioMuse Trio, Pale Gates of inspirations came upon meeting John art, design, engineering, and science. Sunrise, and Hard Rain Ensemble. Cage during his Norton Lectures Knapp also leads the Music, Sensors, at Harvard and he would go to on and Emotion research group, with re- recreate Cage’s Variations VII with searchers in the UK and the USA. For 10. Myogram—Atau Tanaka Matt Wand and :zoviet*france:. In more than 20 years, Knapp has been the 1990s he formed Sensorband with working to create meaningful links Myogram is an eight-channel sonifi- Zbigniew Karkowski and Edwin van between human–computer interac- cation of muscular corporeal states. der Heide and worked in Japan, play- tion, universal design, and various By placing a ring of four electrode ing with Merzbow, Otomo, and KK forms of creativity. His research on channels on each forearm of the per- Null. His work has been presented at human–computer interaction has fo- former, we hear the neuron impulses the ICA, NTT/ICC, Palais de Tokyo, cused on the development and design of muscle exertion from the shoul- Ars Electronica, Transmediale, Eye- of user interfaces and software that der through the hand. The multiple beam, and SFMOMA. He has been allow both composers and performers electrodes on the forearm focus on researcher at Sony Computer Sci- to augment the physical control of specific muscle groups from flexor ence Laboratory Paris and Artistic a musical instrument with direct to extensor, the carpi ulnaris, bra- Co-Director of STEIM Amsterdam. sensory interaction. He holds twelve chioradialis, to palmaris longus. This He conducts research in music and patents and is the co-inventor of reports on voluntary muscle activ- gesture in the Embodied Audio Vi- the BioMuse system, which enables ity causing wrist rotation and finger sual Interaction (EAVI) research unit artists to use gesture, cognition, and movement. These rings of sensors on and is professor and Director of Re- emotional state to interact with audio each arm, left and right, are mapped search in Computing at Goldsmiths, and video media. to dual quadraphonic speaker spaces, University of London.

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