Music, Movement and Magic
Richard Hoadley and Sam Aaron
Date: Thursday 31 March 2011
Time: 19.00 - 21.00
Venue: Helmore 201, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
Transducers for converting physical data into digital data and algorithmic procedures for generating and controlling audio have existed for many years, but it has been only recently that affordable systems and products able to unite the two have become widely accessible. This paper examined the development of hardware and software systems designed to explore the nature of movement and gesture in musical creation, performance and expression.
Our experience suggests that when we move, any resulting actions will reflect that behaviour. In digital systems that can detect these actions there is no direct causal link between event and action: any mapping has to be specifically implemented and might therefore be referred to as OEmetaphoricalą. Such implementations can include desirable features that would be difficult or impossible to implement in reality. Such features have been described as OEmagicalą.
This paper described and analysed work seeking to investigate the amalgamation of these two areas in practice-led activities, where 'magic' and 'delight' equate with musical qualities usual considered to be aesthetic rather than technical. Music performance in particular uses unique methods of articulating and implementing expressive gesture through physical interaction with objects. Similar undertakings by other performers (such as dancers) and fine artists are also considered.
Richard Hoadley is a composer affiliated to the Digital Performance Laboratory and the Cultures of the Digital Economy Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University.
Sam Aaron leads Improcess, a collaborative research project exploring the combination of powerful sound synthesis techniques with tactile and linguistic user interfaces to build new forms of musical device with a high capacity for improvisation. His current main avenue of exploration is through the use of the monome, a grid of backlit buttons capable of bi-directional communication and Overtone, a novel Clojure front-end to SuperCollider server.
Date: Thursday 31 March 2011
Time: 19.00 - 21.00
Venue: Helmore 201, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
Transducers for converting physical data into digital data and algorithmic procedures for generating and controlling audio have existed for many years, but it has been only recently that affordable systems and products able to unite the two have become widely accessible. This paper examined the development of hardware and software systems designed to explore the nature of movement and gesture in musical creation, performance and expression.
Our experience suggests that when we move, any resulting actions will reflect that behaviour. In digital systems that can detect these actions there is no direct causal link between event and action: any mapping has to be specifically implemented and might therefore be referred to as OEmetaphoricalą. Such implementations can include desirable features that would be difficult or impossible to implement in reality. Such features have been described as OEmagicalą.
This paper described and analysed work seeking to investigate the amalgamation of these two areas in practice-led activities, where 'magic' and 'delight' equate with musical qualities usual considered to be aesthetic rather than technical. Music performance in particular uses unique methods of articulating and implementing expressive gesture through physical interaction with objects. Similar undertakings by other performers (such as dancers) and fine artists are also considered.
Richard Hoadley is a composer affiliated to the Digital Performance Laboratory and the Cultures of the Digital Economy Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University.
Sam Aaron leads Improcess, a collaborative research project exploring the combination of powerful sound synthesis techniques with tactile and linguistic user interfaces to build new forms of musical device with a high capacity for improvisation. His current main avenue of exploration is through the use of the monome, a grid of backlit buttons capable of bi-directional communication and Overtone, a novel Clojure front-end to SuperCollider server.
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