SIGGRAPH 2011, Vancouver, BC

SIGGRAPH 2011, Vancouver, BC

The second version of my installation, ItSpace, premiered at the SIGGRAPH 2011 Conference held at the Vancouver Convention Center in early August. I had spent the previous several months rebuilding the physical components of the piece from scratch. The original version was completed on a short deadline and used photos glued to paper-covered pieces of foam board. The new version was designed to handle more crowd traffic, as several thousand attendees were expected to file through the SIGGRAPH Art Gallery.

February (2011), sound for an installation by Jennifer Lauren Smith

February (2011), sound for an installation by Jennifer Lauren Smith

Earlier this year I had the great fortune to work with Jennifer Lauren Smith, a grad student in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Sculpture + Extended Media MFA program. February is a 10-minute film centered around the inflation and flight of a hot air balloon over the Central Virginia countryside. I was responsible for recording, creating, and synchronizing the sound world of the film (and I rode a hot air balloon in the process). The finished piece premiered on May 6, 2011

ItSpace at SIGGRAPH 2011

ItSpace at SIGGRAPH 2011

The physical version of ItSpace, my sound installation from 2007 – 2008 that was featured on NPR, has been accepted to the art gallery at SIGGRAPH 2011 in Vancouver, BC. SIGGRAPH is the major annual international conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques. This year’s theme, “Tracing Home”, is a great fit with the concepts behind ItSpace. I will be going to SIGGRAPH in early August to help install the piece at the Vancouver Convention Centre where it will be exhibited from August 9 – 11.

My Remote Lecture to Wits

My Remote Lecture to Wits

On October 27th I gave a remote lecture to students in the Digital Arts program at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. My parents both graduated from Wits and so I had a certain coming-full-circle feeling in giving the lecture there. We used a combination of Skype and native Mac screen sharing to do the talk. I remotely controlled the desktop of the Mac there to run Powerpoint and a Max/MSP example. The Youtube video here is

Curve

<i>Curve</i>

Curve is an installation for four speakers and a long curved wall. It was also the final work of my five-piece dissertation series exploring physical, virtual, and hybrid spaces as compositional tools. The balcony walkway at the rear of UVA’s Old Cabell Hall is bounded by a curved wall creating an intense, prolonged, and stunning echo that varies dramatically as one moves along the space. Curve played with this pronounced artifact along the wall’s 150 foot length. Using four speakers

Not to Scale: New Music for Hybrid Space

Not to Scale: New Music for Hybrid Space

On April 7th, 2010, I will premiere a new work performed by flutist Wayla Chambo – Passages and Recesses: for solo flute and hybrid space. This is the fourth piece in my dissertation series and is the result of a technical collaboration with Eric Montgomery, a recent graduate in computer science and music from UVA. Eric will also premiere a new piece for solo piano and hybrid space, called Sound Across Grounds, performed by pianist Benjamin Yobp. Each piece will

Chirp! : playing summer in winter

Chirp! : playing summer in winter

Chirp! was an evening I created for Audio March at The Bridge in Charlottesville on March 10, 2010. It was an experiment in effecting seasonal disorder. We raised the temperature inside the Bridge’s main gallery space up to 83F and added a little humidity. I created a continuous sound installation, Freesound Summer that surrounded the space with sounds of summer such as birds, cicadas, children playing, and fireworks. I also hung a 660 watt ‘sun’ that I constructed from clamp

Study No. 1 for Bodies, Metal, and Air premieres

<i>Study No. 1 for Bodies, Metal, and Air</i>  premieres

Get the Flash Player to see this content. After several months of work in the metal shop and rehearsals with my choreographer partner, Dinah Gray, and our dancers Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp, Lisa Eller, and Aaron Wine Goldman, our piece Study No. 1 for Bodies, Metal, and Air premiered at McGuffey Art Center in Charlottesville on March 5th, 2010. It was the third completed piece in my dissertation series. We did three performances over the evening, and each one was well-received.

Installing at the Center for the Study of the End of Things

Installing at the Center for the Study of the End of Things

In February of 2010, two local artists, Ashley Williams and Wes Milholen, organized an art show, The Center for the Study of the End of Things in a soon-to-be demolished former furniture store in Charlottesville, VA. The participants ranged from UVa students to established local artists. Sculptures, paintings, and installations were displayed in a variety of spaces. I was able to take over a small former office space near the center of the building that overlooked the showroom floor. I

ground loops at PASIC ’09

<i>ground loops</i> at PASIC ’09

My 2005 piece, ground loops: for solo percussion and internet feedback, got a really good performance by percussionist, Mike Schutz, at the PASIC 2009 Focus Day. After a few hitches during the sound check the night before, everything went fine during the performance and I was very happy with the way the piece turned out. The last half of the piece can vary significantly depending on the sounds contributed in the first half of the piece. The ‘tail’ of this