Every year at Mills College in Oakland, California, an event
entitled Signal Flow, is held by the
music department. Mills College is a small Liberal Art College with a very diverse
history. Their music department is home to the Center for Contemporary Music
(CCM) which is made up of the original San Francisco Tape Music Center. The San
Francisco Tape Music Center was founded in 1962. The center uses new technologies
and offers a place to learn work within the medium of tape music. The medium of
tape/ electronic music is a thriving art form. The yearly festival Signal Flow showcases new works both
live and display forms from the MFA Electronic Music and Recording Media
students. The pieces presented used medias such as analog technology, digital
audio programs, video, Max/MSP, and interactive displays. The students at Mills
are forced to think outside the box and be as original as possible in their
works.
Vantage
Live Laptop
By Nick Henry
Vantage By Nick Henry is a minimal electronic music piece performed on Laptop using the program Max/MSP. Max/MSP is a visual programming language. You start off with a blank slate and using the verity of tools and patches different effects can be created. The program can also be used to control video. UNR Music Professor Jean-Paul Perrotte has used Max/MSP for a video piece Villareal Improvisation. Villareal Improvisation was a featured piece at Electronic Music Midwest, a festival that all Mills MFA Electronic Music and Recording Media hopes to attend as a performer.
The piece forces the listener to hear fields of minimal actively as they shift and intermingle. The basses of the piece are field recordings taken form all over Mills campus and the surrounding areas. By using a verity of options in Max/MSP, the performer Nick Henry is able to bring in and out a number of sounds. The tools of the program allow for a sound to be changed. Because of the options of the program, each live performance can be different. A minimal sound piece just like minimal art requires the viewer to look deeper and fully take in the piece.
Dust to Dust
Installation
By Shanna Sordahl
Dust to Dust is an installation piece made up of twenty light bulbs. Each light bulb has a different recorded soundscape playing thought it. Shanna Sordahl’s intent is to create a new environment consisting of filtered elements of the original recording. The bulbs are powered by an amplifier going to the filaments with audio signals and sound filtered by the light bulbs. The timing of the light and sound are randomized making the interactions unpredictable. The display was built in the balcony of an old theater. The balcony has all the chairs removed and is not very large. When walking through the display it is hard to focus on a single sound. The bulbs are hung fairly close together from the ceiling. The randomizing mix of sound and light was not overbearing. I visited this display a number of times during my stay. Each time had a different feel and I was forced to forget the feeling from last time. Things in this display change just like in any natural environment. The use of light combined with the different soundscapes gives the viewer a different experience.
The Signal Flow 2013 Music & Sound Art Festival at Mills College in Oakland showcases a number of new works combining visual and audio forms. Both forms go hand in hand to created new and exiting works of art.
Vantage
Live Laptop
By Nick Henry
Vantage By Nick Henry is a minimal electronic music piece performed on Laptop using the program Max/MSP. Max/MSP is a visual programming language. You start off with a blank slate and using the verity of tools and patches different effects can be created. The program can also be used to control video. UNR Music Professor Jean-Paul Perrotte has used Max/MSP for a video piece Villareal Improvisation. Villareal Improvisation was a featured piece at Electronic Music Midwest, a festival that all Mills MFA Electronic Music and Recording Media hopes to attend as a performer.
The piece forces the listener to hear fields of minimal actively as they shift and intermingle. The basses of the piece are field recordings taken form all over Mills campus and the surrounding areas. By using a verity of options in Max/MSP, the performer Nick Henry is able to bring in and out a number of sounds. The tools of the program allow for a sound to be changed. Because of the options of the program, each live performance can be different. A minimal sound piece just like minimal art requires the viewer to look deeper and fully take in the piece.
Dust to Dust
Installation
By Shanna Sordahl
Dust to Dust is an installation piece made up of twenty light bulbs. Each light bulb has a different recorded soundscape playing thought it. Shanna Sordahl’s intent is to create a new environment consisting of filtered elements of the original recording. The bulbs are powered by an amplifier going to the filaments with audio signals and sound filtered by the light bulbs. The timing of the light and sound are randomized making the interactions unpredictable. The display was built in the balcony of an old theater. The balcony has all the chairs removed and is not very large. When walking through the display it is hard to focus on a single sound. The bulbs are hung fairly close together from the ceiling. The randomizing mix of sound and light was not overbearing. I visited this display a number of times during my stay. Each time had a different feel and I was forced to forget the feeling from last time. Things in this display change just like in any natural environment. The use of light combined with the different soundscapes gives the viewer a different experience.
The Signal Flow 2013 Music & Sound Art Festival at Mills College in Oakland showcases a number of new works combining visual and audio forms. Both forms go hand in hand to created new and exiting works of art.
No comments:
Post a Comment