Mr Funn

Write a reflection on your collaboration with your team throughout the semester. Address questions such as:

* What did you learn from observing or crossing over into your collaborators' disciplinary practices? 

I learned the most about listening to others and how to balance wants, needs and desires to fit into the composition. To listen I found where I could fit in my skill sets to offer a dialogue from the palate of which i had to offer

* What was surprising about the collaborative process? 

For us it was how close our ideas over lapped of wanting to use our work to speak to social awareness of the things that are currently facing out world and communities. 

* Identify any hurdles you overcame that might have been created by disciplinary expectations or norms.

 I think time management was key to us pulling off our project. We all had busy schedule being grad students. We had a chance to really figure out what the other persons thought process was not even being in the studio. We were able to check out other arts that helped tease out ideas for ourselves.

* What insights did you take away that might inform future interdisciplinary collaborations?

I think to remain open to ideas and not to get to attached to anything in the process. We can set things aside for a version 2-3 or 4. Another take away is that there is no thing such as perfection in some of these processes. It is about making work that fits that circumstance and space.  I think that is a great way to manage expectations. This also gives room for others to explore past their norms.

BPM YO

               This semester I learned that collaborations are extremely important and allow you to create things that you probably never would have made before. I also learned that I am not the best communicator and that I need to be more assertive. 

               Our creative process was quite slow. I feel as though we knew our goal: electronic dance music and flute. Unfortunately, that gave us a wide variety of options, and without a clear leader in the group we were quite stagnant in ideas. I feel as though the amount of options we had combined with our group lack of experience in dance music made all of us nervous about what exactly we should work towards within the classroom. For a while, Paige and I were mostly worried about how to make “dance music and flute” a cool and exciting project while keeping it challenging enough to give us a good grade in the classroom.

               I felt the pressure of making sure our project was “PAT” enough, and I feel like Paige thought that too; half the time I was wondering how to throw MAX at our project without really any creative experience in MAX at all. To be frank, I looked at all the other groups with a Kiran, a Sam, a Peter and so on and was concerned about how our group would be graded if we didn’t make our finished project complicated enough in comparison what the heck others did.

               In hindsight, Paige and I love to compose. Meryl is a great improviser. We should have jammed out. Our minds took ourselves out of our own strengths and tried to force us into a technician space that we aren’t that strong in.

               With all of that happening, I eventually freaked out about making sure we made progress and started to bulldoze the group. The first track we had was basically me making a bunch of decisions without asking for too much input. We threw Purplopia together and that felt good, but then I got worried about the tech of it all again and most of the work we did was focused on Listen to The Rhythm.

               Our progression was terrible, and eventually we had two weeks to learn to perform well two unfinished songs live and somehow make the sound travel around in a circle in a room and I took over because I was stressed out about failure. I stopped asking for input and just started doing. I could feel Paige feeling frustrated with our process. There were so many tech problems combined with our time limit and I lost trust in any hands that weren’t mine.

               The tracks turned out great in my opinion, but I feel like we could have done better working as a unit. I think we could have done a lot more if we got another shot at it. All in all, I learned so much about Ableton and the challenges of performing live.

BPM 4EVA

The end!

What an incredible ride this course and semester has been! I have to say, I feel extremely fortunate to have been in a group with AJ and Carlos. Not only am I happy about the work we achieved together, but I am so grateful that the three of us created bonds together throughout this process. 

There were many experiences throughout that assisted in uncovering more about my artistic practice and my attitudes in collaboration. One of the greatest parts of this collaboration was re-learning how to let go and embrace every moment. During my music degree, this was something that was really hard to uncover- especially during practice sessions or performing. I've definitely gotten better throughout the years, however, being around other individuals who practice this (like my team) reaffirms this approach. 

I think just the general notion of being/staying CHILL no matter what technological mishaps during collaborations can be a bit tricky  - especially as a techy PAT major - who has to make sure that everything is working and developing with the larger technological framework.. this was definitely challenging during "the Dante sessions". Shout out to Leith for all his help on this :) 

Another aspect of our performance that I am really happy about is how we utilized this space. I remember when I first went to the Davis studio, I was looking around the beams and speakers, and was brainstorming about the performance possibilities of the space. It was really cool designing the staging with my teammates - this is something that I think we could expand on. Installations always feel so rewarding because of the transformation of the physical space and how it informs a performance and/or social interactions. It was really cool to see AJ and the dancers do just that during the performance. It was also really rewarding learning how to build the projector mounts and screens. 

It was such a unique opportunity to take a brand new collaborative course, and I would definitely suggest everyone to take a course like this at some point during their degree, because you get to experiment and play with incredible resources including the space and other talented individuals. 

Go Team Pineal Gland!

On Collaboration

What an interesting experience.  Looking back, this couldn't have gone more differently than I imagined.  The process that Sydney, Spencer and I developed was very fruitful for our personal practice and the project we were developing.  I gained a lot for what I do individually in many of my projects, and I also grew into a better understanding of how to be a better collaborator in a personal sense, and in a practical sense.

The outcome of our final performance was very fulfilling mostly because of this unique practice.  I do not believe our intention was to end up with a product that we would have found such confirmation and fulfillment from like one might feel after composing a very detailed work, our intention was to create something that was informed from our practice that felt natural, honest, and authentic.  I am pleased to say that I do love our piece, and I find great satisfaction in what it became.  To me, that is an incredible bonus because we didn't want spend much energy on "making a piece", as opposed to making a collaboration.

I learned a lot about structure.  We spent a lot of time trying different forms of improvisation.  Using simple prompts and constraints informed me in new ways about how and what form and structure can exist in a improvised work.  We didn't dance as much as I would have assumed in the beginning, but many of these ideas about form and structure came from Sydney and my time in a performance improvisation class we were taking this semester.  In that class, we spent our time moving and dancing, but the concepts were universal to whatever we chose to apply them to.

In any future collaboration I think I have realized the value in talking about perspective.  For example, talking about how an idea looks and feels to different audiences really matters.   Something I am familiar with may look and feel different to someone that isn't familiar with it like I am.  This concept might seem obvious, but this was a hurdle we had to overcome together and I learned a lot from it.

I am so glad to have taken this course.  I loved the opportunity to take a collaborative class with my brother and Sydney.  I know we will continue to make more projects together in the future and this class was what brought us together.

THIS CLASS MADE ME THINK ON A PSYCHOLOGICAL LEVEL ABOUT SO MANY IMPORTANT THINGS AND I LOVE STUDENT PARTNERSHIPS

This semester was unpredictable and made me realize many positives and negatives faced while collaborating. 

I realized what little time it takes for Merryl to come up with something genius. Guess that's what happens when you play your primary instruments for hours upon hours every day. Computers take much longer to figure out. Problems happen. Things crash. Flutes don't crash unless you drop them. Often times Merryl would be very unoccupied while Ben and I trouble-shooted. 

Toward the end of the semester, Ben and I started having separate meeting times to do trouble-shooting. This does not mean Merryl did not help us with “tech.” Merryl helped compose our track Purplopia in the MTL with Ben. She also learned how to set up and strike a lot of our gear. She also wrote every flute part.

I was surprised by how SUCCESSFUL all three of us were. At the beginning, I wasn’t sure if our music would be “academic” enough, “fun” enough, “technical” enough, or “creative” enough. You would think that after taking ECM I would be way over that hurdle, but academia is terrifying.

MANY unfortunate situations occurred throughout our collaborative process. My interface broke on the same day Ben’s keys broke. I erased a day’s worth of work in Ableton. Nights were spent in Davis until 2AM. Even during the show itself, things somehow got unmapped, and Ben had to map in Ableton during the show. But it all came together in the end. It always does.

I took this class to better myself in collaborative situations. I do fine as a solo worker, but I struggle to voice ideas and opinions if others are involved. Unfortunately, thoughts such as their ideas are better than mine constantly flood my head. I have been told this fact about myself by many others. They have criticized me for letting people unintentionally step all over me in creative settings. This semester I continued to struggle with this problem. Even when I didn’t like something we were doing, I assumed I was wrong to think so. 

Toward the end of the semester, I felt comfortable pointing out what I didn’t think was working, but I still struggled to voice new ideas. What I did feel comfortable doing was experimenting with Max patches / Ableton plugins, designing cool sounds, and commenting on the mix. What?! The mix?! Also known as subjects I'm NOT good at! But what I specialize in, composing and performing, felt super scary to talk about with my group. This class now has me thinking. Am I scared that if people shoot down my ideas regarding composition, that means I'm a bad composer? Because if people shoot down my ideas regarding mixing, I won't care. I don't want to be a mixer for a living. (Does anyone?) The mind is really weird. 

I view myself as a composer and a performer, but I feel like because of this weird mind concept, I didn't do much of either of those. I updated the blog, set up equipment, provided software, designed plugins, booked rooms, scheduled things, recorded things, wrote lyrics, held onto all of the files, etc etc etc. I didn't do much composition.

Because of the type of collaborative work my group was doing, most of the action was happening on one computer. Ben ended up programming the sends because both of us couldn’t do it at the same time. I ended up sitting in the middle of Davis listening to the mix and throwing out suggestions every once in a while. This made me feel extremely guilty and useless. I felt like Ben was doing all of the work, but there was nothing I could do to help him. I would resort to updating our blog or setting up equipment / striking what we didn’t need anymore. 

Ben is fantastic at drums and bass. I am not. Because of this, Ben would work at home and complete portions of our songs. Sometimes he would continue to write even more on top of that. I constantly felt guilty throughout this process. At the same time, I was battling that dumb thought: their ideas are better than mine. Ben did not ask for my input, so I didn't want to bother him with my ideas. His were "better." It was not Ben's job to ask for my input. It was my job to shout out my ideas the way Ben did.

All right, I contributed compositional ideas sometimes, but they were always ideas that I was 100% confident about. They were ideas that I knew everyone would like. Any risky ideas I conjured up, I kept inside of my head. And if someone else ever had another idea in relationship to mine, I automatically assumed their idea was better and did not consider if I even liked it or not. (I'm sure I did though. Our group is crazy talented. I mean was talented. So sad!)

If I took a class already knowing how to do everything I was going to learn while taking it, then what was the point of taking it? I wasn't supposed to know how to collaborate with others before this class started. While in college, we're allowed to fail. That's not going to happen outside of this safe space. We can stay cooped up in our rooms for weeks, trying our  working on one school project, trying our hardest, and end up not doing the best but OUR BEST, and still learn SO much. Can I get a round of applause, PAT451? 

Thanks everyone. Student Partnerships rules. I hope to see this class continue for many more years.

Closing thoughts

What an incredible experience.  In the beginning of the semester, I was excited to work with Performing Arts Technologists because I felt free to come up with wild ideas and they kept telling me "sure, that can be done."  They did magic and all I could see was the illusion.  I was lucky to be in my group as Sam, Spencer and I all agreed from the beginning that we would allow ourselves to throw all of our wild ideas into the pot, let them cook for a bit, and then pick out just the pieces we wanted to use to express something poetic.  We spent a lot of time paring away accoutrements and delving deeply into a meditative practice together, allowing rehearsals to be spaces for inquiry, being and discovery.  As we neared the last few weeks of class, we looked back over the work we had done to identify what we cared about, ultimately discovering the work was about our identities and memories as artists.  

In my attempt to step outside my comfort zone, I found myself stepping outside of dance for much of the process.  Our big breakthrough rehearsal happened when we set up our gear in a dance studio and tasked ourselves with creating a dance using the same rules that govern the Ableton launchpad: introduce a movement and choose to repeat it, cut it short, pause it, or make a new one, thus building a personal set of movement samples.  But truly bridging the the three disciplines took a contact microphone and a piece of plywood.  By amplifying and sampling the sounds I made naturally as I walked, slid and spun across the board, my body literally became an instrument whose output could be looped just like Spencer's French Horn.  I wouldn't have thought of this in the beginning of the semester as it took an understanding of the technology and signal processing pathways that were available in order to get there as well as to make conscious choices about the way I moved and why.  In the end, the technology we used was there precisely because it was needed to express our ideas, no more and no less.

I'm very happy with how the piece turned out.  It is a perfect repertory piece as it is completely portable, even down to the lighting and cuing.  We could easily expand it into an evening length work if we wished, as the piece itself was structured to keep moving on a strict 2-3 minute per section schedule, just giving the audience a taste of what we discovered, however I don't believe we need to.  We are already working on new projects and I look forward to seeing where we grow from here.

Spencer.... Out.

Yoooo team!

First off, great job to everyone. It seems like a recurring theme for all; but it is truly amazing to see how different each project was from each other as well as how much they've changed for each group throughout the semester. You all were very inspiring to me.

  While reflecting over this semester I am realizing how scary yet beautiful this opportunity was. Speaking for myself, it was kinda of a huge risk to walk into a project with hardly ever collaborating or even knowing your group but by the end of the semester both were accomplished.

The word trust; is a huge thought for me. This semester challenged me to trust myself, my group, and the process. I am still being challenged but this class was definitely a giant stepping stone closer to the river. I came in not trusting myself as an artist, and i've realized so much about my potential. As long as you trust that your idea is valid you will succeed.

One thing that was surprising about our collaborative process was that we didn't have a "set" piece until the last few weeks. I wouldn't have asked for it any other way. For a majority of the semester we were experimenting and chasing ideas. It was amazing. I really enjoyed this compared to orchestra world where its set rehearsals, set schedule, etc.

Some goals or hurdles I over came, where learning how to express ideas and concepts to others in a collaborative setting, as well as breaking out from just being a French Horn player. Although I would still consider Horn player as a title I possess, I made it a goal to get away from that in this class. I also realized in this process how valuable and unique me being a Horn player really is.

Thank you again, to all of you. It was an awesome semester. I am open and look forward to any future collaborations we may have together.

Much love,
Spence

BPM 4EVA

I learned so much from this collaboration! I'm very lucky to have gotten to work with Ben and Paige.
They put a lot of work into our two tracks. My favorite session was the one in class where the three of us sat down and wrote Purplopia together. It really felt like each of us had a voice in the music that we came up with.

I learned the language of collaborating and finding ways to talk about sections in the music that we could all understand. I also learned that it takes a lot of inspiration/work/frustration/figuring things out to create a track using Ableton. Most of which Ben and Paige, as the PAT majors took on. I do feel a lot more ready, now at the end of the course, to give somewhat meaningful input on the production side of things and wish I could have been more helpful in that way. BUT now I know more about the process, and the collaboration has definitely  given me the understanding I need to continue along this path.

What was surprising about the process was that in the beginning, although I confidently put out there that I want to do flute + EDM,  I wasn't sure that I could pull off playing flute over a beat and still be able to feel ok about myself as a musician. And I absolutely can! And I feel that this is something I definitely want to pursue further. Thanks to this course I will now follow a more daring path than I might have were this idea still only just an idea.

Hurdles I overcame.... same as above I guess, the fear of being a joke as a musician by not doing serious classical music. That fear is gone now.

The insights that I am taking away are that a collaboration is an AMAZING, wonderful thing, and while sometimes it's not easy to articulate to your team mates what you're envisioning, as the process goes and you each get the chance to show each other what you can bring to the project, the mutual excitement about the end result grows. You can feel really proud as a team knowing that what you've accomplished together is way cooler than what you ever could have done alone.

Last dance... I mean post.

I am really grateful for my collaboration with Jeff and Daphna throughout this semester. I think we worked well together in a casual yet productive way. It left space for trying things but also a focus on where we wanted to be heading. I got to see how Daphna and Jeff built off of one another musically while they improvised, it reminded me of what I go through when I'm working with another dancer. They could hear and sense things that I couldn't and it reminded me that I may see and sense things physically that others are less attuned to.

All of my teaching and sensibilities toward individual movement (as opposed to trying to make everyone look alike) I think were useful. The surprising thing was that we ended up making a dance! I didn't know what we were going to make. I didn't even know if they were enjoying the improvisation I led them through the day they put down their instruments until it ended and they reacted so positivity. I was nervous! And also I noticed by the end I started to feel a little more agency to offer thoughts about the musical end of what we were creating. Not a lot, as Daphna and Jeff figured stuff out really quickly. But when questions came up about overall trajectory, or is this working or not, I felt I could input my thoughts more - or that I actually had some thoughts to share. I think this process made me a better listener.

One thing I'm happy we did early on what choose a path. I can spend a lot of time in the "discovery" phase, and working with Daphna and Jeff pushed me to move forward with a plan more quickly than I think I normally would. I think this was good. Sometimes the words "make something!" resonate in my head, as meaning and understanding about what you are creating can be expanded on in further iterations. I also liked that we went back to improvising as a useful tool later in the process for creating material when we got to our final section. I am looking forward to working more with Jeff and Daphna on my thesis performance and am happy that our collaboration was grounded in honest communication and a solid work ethic. 

Facebook event link for the final showing:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1069213663187695/

Description Across Discipline

As a tech major, I’ve noticed that the daily work of a performance major is very accommodating. Often times Ben and I will throw Merryl a new track idea, and within a matter of seconds Merryl will have the key and general vibe of the song down, soloing to her heart’s content. Ben and I struggle to do this in reverse, when Merryl has a track for us, because we have to build patches, place notes in a piano roll, and make loops instead of just being able to play right then and there. I can imagine that this might be frustrating for Merryl when she is ready to go but has to sit around and watch us on our computers. I always knew that set-up is a long process for tech people, but now that our time is being compared to a performer which is not nearly as long, I see even more clearly now how long we really take! Ben and I have started attending outside rehearsals about 30 minutes to an hour before Merryl comes so that we are all ready at the same time.

Performance

When my group performed in front of an audience for the first time, we were as prepared as we wanted to be musically but not technically. We performed in ways that we understood were not ideal nor productive, and because of this I felt much of our feedback from the audience focused on that. Many people suggested things we already planned on doing and did not focus much on the things we wanted feedback on, such as how our piece worked musically or what we could do to improve our use of techno with the flute. Even still our group benefitted from performing in front of an audience, for we needed to get together a cohesive idea to present. Before that class period we were still dealing with many hypotheticals and “what if’s”. I think we are all glad to have contributed something cohesive and somewhat “final product”. So far I have contributed many compositional ideas but have not been able to perform too much because we did not have clock at the time. Now that should no longer be a problem. Moving forward, my group needs to focus on getting our technical stuff down so that our feedback isn’t almost 100% about things we already are aware of. 

Performance Reflection

Even though we just gave a presentation on Tuesday, I thought it was so helpful to finally present a concrete idea and have feedback from our peers. I really liked Sydney's idea of using my cello to create the synthesized natural sounds, instead of using a computer to do so. That idea had never hit me until she mentioned it and she was totally right-- I do have a treasure trove of sounds that I could create. I can mimic chirping birds, seagulls, squeaking mice, firetrucks, and the sound of me chomping away at my cello (though neither of the last two would probably fit in with the "nature" sound).

The presentation was also a wake up call because it made me realize how much time we lost experimenting and how little of this project we actually have. I was also a little embarrassed for my group/disappointed in myself when Professor Gurevich asked if I felt like I had a voice in this project because I honestly thought I did since we did come up with this project together as a group but it clearly didn't seem so from an outsider's perspective. It really made me rethink my role in my group and rethink what I have/want to invest into this project. But I think following Sydney's advice of incorporating my cello into the mix is a great start to making my voice more present.

Performance Reflection

Tuesday's performance felt a little awkward for me. We've been working really hard on our piece, and it felt strange to finally show it to people. I caught myself feeling a bit self-conscious at times (as a mover, not as a violinist). I am really relieved that people seemed to enjoy it, and understand the basic message that we are going for. I thought the feedback we got was very respectfully phrased, and helpful.

I know that the more we perform this piece, the better our communication will become. I feel like I can contribute more in terms of communicating/communing with Jeff and Molly when we  perform. I think one way we can improve is to simply run the piece a lot more. As we move ahead in the upcoming weeks, I think we will focus on expanding our beginning section, as there seemed to be a general agreement that it was a bit short. We also have to plan out the end of the piece, as we were improvising on Tuesday.

Performance reflection

After Tuesday's performance, I felt that there was much more room for growth in each section of our project. Collectively, a lot of time was spent experimenting with movement and to come up with a routine that would allow everyone to contribute from a dance and musical perspective but in the performance space, time went by much more quickly than we had felt even in rehearsals of the performed material. That said, I think it was a fair assessment to say that the opening material could be expanded upon from a perspective of choreography and from a musical standpoint in terms of the backing track.

The feedback about researching what musician/movers do in their performance was a great idea and I think that will supplement further development of our movement vocabulary, especially for Daphna and myself.

Overall, I think everyone's contributions to the group were valued and were well represented in the presentation. There is obviously more to come - we didn't want to reveal everything right away!

Performance Reflection

Yesterday was your groups first opportunity to coalesce your piece into a coherent whole. What did you learn bringing all of the parts together and forming them into something concrete? Reflect on your individual contribution; what did you contribute that was unique? Did you feel your contribution was valuable to the whole? What do you and your group need to focus on going forward? Due by Friday at 11:59pm.

Setting up is the thing that I notice most about what techs have to do. The prep that Kiran has to go though with patching and connecting. To get the process of her Tech to the speakers. With AJ, I think that we go through things that are similar in regards to the physicality.  The repeated use of the body. The sway and process of start, stop and listen are a necessity. We are have come to a big picture of what we want and see our process of micro to macro. We feel as though there is still room for exploration out of what would be our norm. This is where a happy place is forming. Have you have been on a journey and know the destination is just up around the bend? That is where we are in the process. Like any good stew it starts out with a rue. Then you add the trinity. After that you have a good stew a brewing.

Description Across Discipline

I haven't actually seen Jonathan perform with anything other than a couple rocks and a bowl of water yet, but the fact that I have seen him play a couple rocks and a bowl of water is enough to have learned something about the performance practice of a percussionist. I've come to realize how versatile percussionists can be and how many types of instruments and sounds they are able to master. It seems like our piece is heading in the direction of using nothing but natural objects as instruments, so Jonathan will have to learn entirely new instruments within a relatively short period of time.

I have made Kiran furrow her brow a few times when making aesthetic or textural requests when she is in the middle of something else. Of course there is never any actual tension caused by this, but it has happened enough times for me to notice. To me, there is very little separation between having the idea for something and hearing that idea come out; I pretty much just play the sounds I want to hear and it happens instantaneously. However, there are multiple steps in making small adjustments on the tech side of things, which really intrigued me. This small separation leaves a tiny, but powerful space for infinite questions, considerations, and thoughts to have before making an adjustment.

"abracadabra" isn't a PAT term

The more I work with Sam, the more I appreciate the work that goes into both carting gear around, hooking up all the parts, setting up the computer processing program and making sure everything works.  While I am having a blast experimenting with instruments I have no idea how to play, discovering sounds I can make with objects in my backpack as if no one's done it before, and regulating the playback of various streams of conscious thought I record, I definitely feel like a bulk of an interdisciplinary rehearsal with a PAT major falls on the PAT major, at least to someone who can walk into a room, lie down on the floor, wiggle around for a little while and then hop up ready to work.  As our rehearsal process continues, I'm getting a better sense of what tasks are part of standard practices and what tasks are significant undertakings, something that will hopefully benefit me as a participant in future collaborations involving performing arts technologists.

Embarrassingly enough, I can't say that I really know what it is that Connor and Peter do before rehearsals start. All I can see is that there's always so much setting up that needs to be done-- they need to plug in this pedal, turn on that machine, plug in the mic, etc. etc. It's really impressive how much equipment they need and how they can handle it all. Even when Peter and Connor bring just the bare necessities to school, set up still takes around 15 min because there's just so much to configure.

Blog assignment for SSS

In my group,

Spencer is primarily a french horn player.
Sydney is primarily a dancer and choreographer.

 Spencer uses his time to work on warming up is lips and practices his breathing.  He has been using his french horn in sort of a unrefined way, trying to "not make a good sound"  and also learn what is needed and appropriate for audio processing.   Sydney spends time stretching if she is going to move in rehearsal, and for most things she creates stimulating conversation about what we are practicing to help focus herself on the idea and point for whatever we might be working on at any given time.  We havent done much movement, so she has been hugely supporting our group in constructive and reflective conversation after we work on something, or experiment with an idea.

Across Disciplines

I see myself as a performer - in fact I have much more experience as a performer than as a music technician. What I've learned from Molly in Jeff isn't so much related to the general idea of performance, but rather specific details of their disciplines within performance. Jeff constantly blows me away with the incredible range of sounds he can produce on his instrument. He is also one of the most open minded performers I've ever worked with. Jeff thinks a lot like a composer, which is why he is such an incredible improviser. 

As Jeff stated in an earlier post, we are both really impressed by the sheer physical power that Molly exerts while performing. It's one thing to see this power from the audience, but it's even more impressive when you are right next to it. However, there are actually a lot of similarities between dance and playing a musical instrument. There is a certain level of body control and awareness that we all need! This is why both in music performance and dance, the concept of "warming up" into your body or instrument is so important. It's a step that can't be skipped!

Across Pineal Gland

If you're a tech major, describe to the best of your ability the nuts and bolts of the practice of the performers in your group; what is something about the daily work of a performance major that you didn't know about? Similarly, for the performers, what do you see that makes the tech person 'furrow their brow', what is the basic procedures that they go through every rehearsal that you didn't realize were such an important and time consuming part of their practice? Due Sunday Morning at 10:00 am

Being a tech major that also comes from a classical music background has been very unique in that I have an understanding on what it means to be a performer. Although I have never practiced percussion or dance,  all three of us can relate to warm ups, technique, form...and injuries. It's easy to forget how fragile the human form is, and if there is an off-balance, this can result in having to back away, rest and then get back on your feet. 
That being said, I am amazed by the versatility of both Carlos and AJ. Im amazed when I see AJ improvising on miscellaneous percussive instruments with perfect timing, and Carlos not only utilizing dance movement, but also integrating voice and percussion into his performance practice. 

Description across Discipline

This semester's work with the a Molly and Daphna have been incredibly insightful in their worlds. It's very easy to take what they do for granted in their respective art forms especially when I am unfamiliar with their preparation processes. 

For one thing, we all knew the Molly's dancing would require much more energy but we didn't realize how much time was needed for her to prepare her body for movement so she'd be able to safely participate in and contribute to rehearsals. She has incredible stamina and Daphna and I are always really appreciative of all of the extra physical energy she needs to exert in our rehearsals.

On the tech and composition side of things, Daphna has a clear idea of what is possible with technology as it relates to our specific project and talks on her philosophy of composition ties in deeply with her skills as an improviser. In many ways, she describes composition as improvisation that is slowed down, meticulously refined and then notated. This process has helped generate materials in which we continue to refine the choreographed and musically notated material in our project.

Molly has, on several occasions, expressed tremendous excitement when she hears new things from the violin and saxophone that she hasn't heard before. The recording process for sound effects from the saxophone was also eye-opening to those who hadn't heard some of the extended techniques (multiphonics, harmonics scans, multiple tonguing etc) employed in Jeffrey's improvisations. 

Description Across Discipline

If you're a tech major, describe to the best of your ability the nuts and bolts of the practice of the performers in your group; what is something about the daily work of a performance major that you didn't know about? Similarly, for the performers, what do you see that makes the tech person 'furrow their brow', what is the basic procedures that they go through every rehearsal that you didn't realize were such an important and time consuming part of their practice? Due Sunday Morning at 10:00 am.

Performance Reflection

We didn't have our full group at Tuesday's meeting so we weren't able to coalesce as such. Paige and I talked about the individual ideas we have worked on and how we can incorporate the flute into the music in interesting ways. I am happy with the idea for one of compositions that I want to develop further - using the harmonies from a song by Tori Amos to create something new. I think that this idea is different in that Tori Amos is not associated with electronic dance music. Because her music inspires me, I find it very exciting to use it and evolve it into something new. I think that this contribution is useful in that it helps us as a team to define what the piece will eventually become. Going forward the three of us need to work together more. I know Ben and Paige met to solve some technical aspects dealing with speakers and Max; we now need to come together to create the music to perform with that technology. I am looking forward to our next meeting.

Performance Reflection

Yesterday was your groups first opportunity to coalesce your piece into a coherent whole. What did you learn bringing all of the parts together and forming them into something concrete? Reflect on your individual contribution; what did you contribute that was unique? Did you feel your contribution was valuable to the whole? What do you and your group need to focus on going forward? Due by Friday at 11:59pm.

Work in Progress

I think we have had great success. We have had a chance to really understand each others perspective and process.  The challenge or adventure that I have is to see how I can add more to the project by using my voice. While I feel comfortable using my voice I have not explored as much as I would like.

Some clips from works in progress. 

Some exciting developments

After our in-class presentation, Ben, Paige and I decided to focus more on the actual music than the technical side of things. We composed some music separately as a way to show each other our artistic vision so that we can build from there. I composed a short piece using my basic knowledge of Logic and this is what I came up with. I'm excited for the possibility of using the flute to generate the melody line and make it sound like a different instrument. Our team process is very open and encouraging. We could improve upon executing our ideas, but I am sure this will start to snowball as ideas flow. Our process is informed by our charter in as much as we agree that we are each equally invested in the project and want to produce a great end result.
My inspiration for this composition and others in the future is the music of activists.
This one is based on Baker Baker by Tori Amos:

Creative Process

I have been really enjoying myself, Carlos' and AJ's approach to developing our work together. Before we start experimenting, we've been discussing our personal practice strategies and philosophies on our art (why we do what we do, how do we process our own art making? What are we influenced by?). This has been very engaging because it allows us to get to know each other not only through our physical collaboration, but also on a more personal level, which informs our experimental proccess.
From there, we have been taking turns adding elements of our thoughts and influences by directing each other on what we are envisioning, and adjusting on hand based on feedback we give to one another.
At this point, we've been primarily focusing on the sonic components of our piece, by improvising with laptop, voice and percussion. I think that this has been a great start because it allows ourselves to just think about one medium before we dive into adding other elements that will be incorporated into our work (movement and visuals). We are working on a structural form and narrative of our work,  and we look forward to adding the other the modalities into our piece in the up and coming weeks.

During our first couple of rehearsals, we almost always jumped right into improv without any guidelines just to see what kind of sounds we could get. That seemed to lead us to several dead ends so in the most recent rehearsals, we've been giving ourselves more guidelines, which seems to have been helping tremendously. We also haven't been pressuring ourselves to come up with a concrete idea for a project as much but instead, we've just been experimenting with anything and everything-- in one rehearsal, we played In C, discussed what we liked/didn't like, and extracted ideas from that. In another, we all switched instruments, made sounds (which actually really helped me relax and be more confident with improv), and reflected. In the most recent one, we did something similar but this time, Peter brought out more instruments so there were more sounds we could play with. Having a theme to each rehearsal has definitely been effective because it really seems to have inspired more ideas. As for improvements (this one is really mostly for myself), I think I could be more proactive and energetic in rehearsals. I feel like I'm always waiting for something to happen or am waiting for someone to come up with an idea and lead rehearsals. I think the most important component to this whole process is creating a positive group energy. In the first couple of rehearsals when I was admittedly very indifferent and passive to everything, we weren't going anywhere at all. But the last few rehearsals have gone a lot smoother because I think I've been trying harder to give more opinions/ideas and just generally contributing more positively. 

Group Process

This assignment is making me appreciate how easily our groups rehearsal process has flowed! Up till now, we have really enjoyed exploring the discipline of dance/movement, and improvising quite a bit.  I don't think we have spent much time talking about the collaborative process itself. However, I think our method is going to have to change. At a certain point, we need to start actually fleshing out our concept. As we mentioned in our presentation last week, Jeff and I are just not skilled enough movers just yet to be able to improvise on movement in a compelling way. I'm looking forward to the process of composing music and choreographing movement completely in tandem. As a side note, one thing that I'm really enjoying  about our collaboration is how easygoing we are with each other, while still having artistic opinions. We are all willing to try anything at least once!

Creative Process of DMJ

From the beginning, Daphna, Molly and I were interested in looking at how of our respective disciplines could work together in a single performance. Naturally, we began experimenting with improvisations using a number of exercises and prompts we had used in our own practices. As we continued doing this, we thought documenting the process (with the videos we presented in class) would give us further points of discussion and ultimately reflection on the work that we continually hope to improve.

Daphna took the lead on structuring rehearsals by making sure we improvised at least a few at the beginning of rehearsal. This served as our "warmups" for the session and would often lead to items we would discuss: what worked, what didn't work, and what could potentially go into the final project?

I like that this experimentation process has yielded some very interesting ideas. However, we need to begin to form a more concrete form or structure to out final project's composition. We need to find time to sit down and "compose" a structure for which we can base off our improvisations and to tie everything into our artistic statement of "arriving in time".

The addition of the video camera has been a useful tool for evaluation and reflection for us. The charter we created has also allowed everyone to equally contribute to these rehearsals that have been productive but ultimately, a lot of fun and very informative.

Now here is some collaboration between technologists and performers...

Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the YouTube symphony orchestra (I didn't even know there was such a thing...)  Like it or not, it is definitely over the top!

Thus far, we've done a lot of talking...

Thus far, we've done a lot of talking.  Some of that talking has included recording and making sound scores out of it, but mostly it's been conceptual.  The first rehearsal we jumped in and made stuff together as a PAT major, musician and dancer, and it didn't feel connected.  Personally I felt like I wasn't being challenged via this process as it is something I have done a lot over the years; I can make experimental dance in the same time and space as experimental music in my sleep.  What I'm afraid of is being a musician in performance, and thus it is what I am most excited about in this collaboration.  The opportunity to play together with technology is fun, but I am interested in getting to a place where I can engage with it with my own language (that of dance performance and choreography).  At our next rehearsal we're going to start making stuff again and I'm excited to see how our experiments will change.

As for improvement, I know we are expected to do more and talk less, however I think this time was important.  I know most of my most satisfying and productive collaborative rehearsals for previous projects involve more talking than dancing/music making, as that is the most obvious/initial common language, and by extension I trust and value this process as a way to build community among the group.  I do appreciate the value of making stuff too... really ;-)

Mechanics of your Process

Rehearsals have been in the studios, but not just the audio studios. We have been branching out into Merryl’s world and have scheduled time to work in the flute studio. So far there hasn’t been much discussion prior to starting rehearsals, but now that we are composing specific pieces we will need to take time to talk beforehand and also reflect later on what worked and what didn’t. Our team strength is agreeing to work when we set plans and getting stuff done. Deadlines haven’t been an issue yet. We could improve upon not being afraid to bring crazy whacky ideas to the table. We need to take more risks, compositionally and technologically. Our process is only informed by your charter when discussing deadlines. 

Potpourri for Shu, Jonathan and Mac

We missed Aesthetic Potpourri for the last group!  Here's my suggestion:


a sudden change in the consistency of snow from Peter Swendsen on Vimeo.

Mixing Max, Abelton and Live Performance

I know some of you may be using MaxMSP software, and some of you may be using Ableton and Max4Live.  Just thought you should know about some free Max4Live packs that could be very helpful in this situation.  In case you didn't know they were there, Ableton hosts a huge repository of add-ons for both Ableton and Max4Live, and many of them are free. Here is the main page:

https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/#

The ones I am thinking about particularly for our application are the Max for Live Essentials and the M4L Building Tools.  Both are free and are located here:

Essentials:
https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/max-live-essentials/#?item_type=max_for_live

and Building Tools:

https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/max-live-building-tools/#?item_type=max_for_live

Particularly, I'm thinking of the Envelope Follower in the Essentials that will allow you to take incoming audio from an acoustic instrument and convert it into control data.  If you have any questions, please ask!

Describe the Mechanics of your Process

Describe your view of the mechanics of your teams creative process. This is the nuts and bolts of the interaction, not so much the conceptual but the actual things you do. For example, how are the rehearsals structured? Is there a warmup, or do you begin with a discussion, or do you jump right in and reflect later? What do you find to be most effective about your teams process? What could be improved upon? What components if any (besides your instruments) do you find to be absolutely necessary to the process? Do you find your process to be informed by your charter? And as usual, keep posting weekly updates to your team's pages.

Compositional Strategy.

Yoooo,

So far for our group the rehearsals consist of a lot of try at first then discussion afterwards. Mainly for now our compositional strategy is based off improvising but as we began to develop a piece our goal is to incorporate a piece of structure and improvisation both.

Our last rehearsal consisted of taking audio samples we recorded and cued them on a Launch Pad which then we played at random creating a piece of almost motives like 'In C'. This is a idea we very much enjoyed and will be using further in our piece.

Compositional Strategy

Our group is focusing a lot on improv. We first started with pure improv but that seemed to lack direction and focus so we tried to improv over a composed bass line and around a specific chord progression, which seemed to work a lot better. We're still in the experimenting phase so we haven't developed a certain sound quite yet since each time has sounded slightly different, depending on what instrumentation we decided on that day (Peter so far has played on acoustic guitar, piano, and some sort of harp...?)

I actually went to the Composer's Concert over the weekend and there was a piece for film (more like slideshow) and music and I thought that might be something I'd be interested in trying. I think having a visual focal point will make it easier to improv since we'll have more cues to play off of and maybe gain a better idea of what kind of sound we want to achieve.

Compositional Strategy?????

Our group is definitely improvising and composing under the humble inspiration of Cage, Cunningham, Brown, Varese, Luicier... and many more.

We talk a lot before and after we work on something.  We make rules, then we see how well we follow them.  After a sketch or two, we talk about how we felt it went and what we found surprising or interesting.

We seem to be not super focused on exactly what we are making, but more so mindful and considerate of what we have made.

We will see where this takes us as we continue practicing it!

Hey All,

Just wanted to share my favorite internet find of the week.  This is a radio work by the legendary Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop from 1964.  You may know one of Delia's pieces: she was one of the creators of the original Dr. Who theme music.  This work is a little more esoteric...



WikiDelia! http://wikidelia.net/wiki/The_Dreams

Compositional Strategy

I have always used emotion as a strong guide for composing rather than anything intellectual. I would sit at the piano and play things until I liked an idea and then the words would flow out of that and be to do with whatever I was going through at the time. Or many times an entire song would just come to me while out in nature riding my bicycle for example. So coming up with a compositional strategy is hard for me know as it has always been intuitive. And I have spent many years as an orchestral musician, not composing for some time. I am drawn to music that says something emotionally, like the songs ofTori Amos. I am interested in the research done by Adrienne Trier-Bieniek on the reason Tori Amos' fans feel a sense of healing through her songs. It would be great to use her songs as a model for my own compositions. I would love for my music to have meaning for other people on such a level. Tori Amos is an activist on feminist issues. I'm toying with the idea of using motifs from songs by activists as a framework for composition. Other such artists who inspire me are Peter Gabriel and Nina Simone. Arranging some of these songs for flute and electronics could be a good guide for the creative flow and also help create meaningful music with some sort of social impact.

Compositional Strategy+1

Elsewhere (tentative)

In this piece we would like to develop 4 different sound images-water, stone, wind and sand, to use both images as the background of electronics. The expected length of this piece could be approximately 6 minutes.

Instrumentation: Bass drum, bongos, snare drum, woodblocks, gongs, cymbal, triangle, maracas, ocean drum, bottles

Sketch:

1) Water 90’’ A(30’’)+B(30’’)+C(30’’)

A(30’’)  

percussion: woodblocks+gongs

B(30’’)

electronics: comes the sound of water in electronics;

percussion: the material of woodblocks becomes intensive and dense

C(30’’)

electronics: water sound gradually becomes water drops, and fade away;

percussion: add triangle and keep the sound of woodblock and gongs

2) Stone 90’’

percussion: sound of drums(bass drum; tom; bongos; snare)

electronics: sound of rocks(maybe 4 voices coming from different positions of speakers), interacting with percussion

3) Wind 90’’ A(30’’)+B(60’’)

A(30’’)

percussion: gongs, cymbals, bass drum

electronics: record the sound of blowing on a flute

B(60’’)

percussion: fixed rhythm

electronics: song of female voice

4) Sand 90’’

percussion: woodblocks, maracas, ocean drum, bottles,

electronics: sound of waves

"Comprovisational" Thoughts

Although we have yet to sit down together and experiment, compose, and improvise, I know that each of our creative methods will intersect in a very interesting way. We have discussed the term "comprovisation" in our group chats, which is the process of composing through improvising. I'd like to outline a small window into my improvisational practice and what "comprovisation" means to me, and I'm curious to read what my teammates share on this topic (whether on the blog or in our later discussions), because the collision of our creative processes will be at least half of the experience!

When I improvise on any instrument, I like to start very simply; in a way, I like to create the canvas for which I will paint. Whatever I come up with will influence what paint I will use to construct the musical thoughts, although sometimes the "canvas" itself becomes the focus of the improvisation because I find things worth exploring in this first creative step. I always record my improvisations, because when I do come across something I want to recreate, analyze, or explore further, it is important to have record of it for referencing purposes. I know some people prefer not to record themselves and live in the moment for each of their improvisations, and I can certainly understand that.

While we have not discussed any parameters for our first comprovisational session, I have started to spend some time with Carlos in his dance studio to get a feel for his connection to art, and this has already broadened my world in a huge way. He is inspiring to watch, and this experience has affected the way I have been improvising and experimenting lately. We are planning on checking out an art installation show in Detroit later this month, and I think a window into Kiran's world will be just as valuable as the time I have spent with Carlos.

Compositional strategy

For me personally, the most important part of composing is having a clear vision of what I want to express. After that I spend a lot of time improvising, coming up with small ideas that support the emotional content that I want to create. I also start to think a lot about the overall form of the piece, which is again connected with the emotional ideas that are being developed. After that, there is a lot of slow progress, inch by inch, until I feel like I have something that comes close to what I want. I have to admit that composing is an incredibly time consuming and slow process for me.

Compositional Strategy

For compositional strategy, I depend on teamwork. My main process will be coming up with thorough composed material, then having Merryl, create the main idea through improvisation on her flute. I am looking forward to doing more improvisation with others in a school setting because I do not get that opportunity often. When Ben, Merryl, and I improvise a piece, we use Ableton so that Ben and I can be on midi keyboards and mess with the plugins on her track live. Ben and I will hopefully experiment with more electronics other than keyboards soon.

Improvisational strategy for DMJ

In the Daphna, Molly and Jeffrey team, we have been working with group improvisations at the dance building and experimenting with different prompts like key words, electronic media and just responding to each other's ideas. Molly posted a short excerpt of one of our recorded improvisations over "pink noise" in our team page on the blog - check it out!

In terms of what we will use for the final project, we will base our improvisations and the overall form of our piece based on texts that Molly recited in one of our initial meetings. My personal favorite was "Landing... time to be still" (I can't remember the name of the author - Molly, help??) about coming from a place of chaos and "arriving" into your body. I don't want to give too much away too soon so stay tuned!

Compositional Strategy

For the Sydney, Sam, Spencer group, the last rehearsal was our breakthrough.  We started out with two crates of cables, instruments, half a dozen or more different colored boxes with various knobs and buttons (not sure how guitarists use them as pedals, but perhaps they have unusually dextrous toes), and upon encountering a technical impasse proceeded to spend the next hour recording really random stuff (speaking nonchalantly about mundane things, vocalizing wordlessly, clicking pens, knocking metal water bottles, inviting faculty cameos) and sampling it in real time using the Ableton square board thingy.

Methodologically, we didn't have one beyond the rules governing how to use the board (add new tracks one at a time in a grid, play at most one sample from each row at a time, and stop adding new tracks when the visible board is full, although that last one seems to be a matter of convenience and not an actual rule) and simple directives such as only sample mundane text with no tone, only sounds but no words, or anything goes.  At this stage we are following our individual impulses and seem to be pretty good at riffing off and collaborating with each other.

As rehearsals continue, we will be able to codify our choices, but it's too early in the process to start editing.  By the end of October we are hoping to be able to sample motion captured in real time using the video equivalent of the Abelton thingy, thus allowing dancers to interact with their past actions selected and replayed by other people.

Once the media are in place, we'll be able to curate the content and create a work that transcends the cool things we can do as a team.

Organizational , Choreographic and Compositional Strategies, Blog Assignment Due 10/8

As you are developing your works, you must be noticing a style beginning to surface. What is your compositional strategy? Are you improvising? If so what sort of framework are you improvising in? Or will you be using through composed material? Or maybe something in between? (I'm thinking of pieces like Riley's 'In C' where motives are provided but how they are played is decided by the musician, or pieces like these using an interpretive style of notation)  Is there a particular style of composition/choreography that you are interested in or you think may be useful, but you don't know enough about?

Let us know your thoughts by Saturday night at 11:59:59.999.  Late blog entries are being noted.

A reinterpretation of the Elgar "Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85" for Peter, Cecilia and Connor

New Inspriations

I am amazed by the ideas and what it takes to pull off something like this with all parties involved

https://youtu.be/rv3KpEbhCCM

This is another amazing work

https://vimeo.com/amcb/air
I am not sure if there is any chance to get to this kind of production but it does serve as inspiration.

Morton Feldman - Violin and String Quartet

We've been discussing minimalism and repetition, and the concept of what makes a "compelling" work. I remember hearing about this piece many years ago, and I was inspired to look it up again after our rehearsal last week. The whole piece is over 2 hours. It evolves almost imperceptibly, but it holds the listener's attention at every moment - at least this listener's! I am awed by the skill it takes to craft a work of this scale. If even a small part of our final product can display this level of patience, I will be really happy.

Three-Dimensional Soundscapes? Three-Dimensional Soundscapes.

Since Shu has posted a video of music representative of our project, and Mac has posted a soundscape representative of our project, I hope to provide a video showcasing a different side of the project: the actual three-dimensional element with which I will be performing.

The video I posted is of Nathaniel Bartlett, an amazing percussionist that creates what he calls "real-time three-dimensional, high-definition, computer-generated sound; and real-time computer notation processing." I have a hard time telling you exactly what that means, but here is my attempt at a summary of his work.

As an audience member, you sit in a small group of chairs surrounded by eight speakers: four above you aimed downward at an angle, and four below you angled upward. As Bartlett performs, a motion tracker records his motions and activates certain recorded sounds or alters performed sounds. This allows him to interact with these sounds he has created. The sounds are then played back through the speakers, which are panned not only left-to-right, but up-and-down as well. This simulates a three-dimensional audio playback for the listener.

I attended a clinic in which he discussed this process, but everything he talked about was extremely over my head. The main point I took from this was the idea of 3D sound. At the clinic, he diffused a Stockhausen electronic work, and I remember being amazed by the way the sound seemed to come out of one speaker, circle around you, and disappear into another speaker. It was simply breathtaking.

I hope that as we begin working with and developing the electronic aspects of our piece, that we can somewhat recreate this style of ambisonic soundscape effectively; therefore allowing the listener to feel as if the audio were alive and actively engaging with both the performer and the audience. I do hope that we create something more accessible to an average concert audience than TIMESPACEPLACE though.

And at the risk of being crude, here is a meme created by another person that attended the clinic I mentioned in my post. I thought it was too funny not to post. (This was only made because the topics discussed were so over our heads.)

Here is a mix of music that Carlos sent to me before I played in his dance class. I don't listen to music like this very often, but there are so many aspects of it that relate to stylistic considerations I make on a daily basis: how to fill space with a slow tempo, how rhythm and groove affect the larger aesthetic, relating the lyrics of music to how you will perform the accompanying music, etc. Without even going that far out of my comfort zone, I have already broadened my musical horizons. This makes me so excited for the ways I will grow in this project.

This is a song that either Peter or Connor shared and I really liked it because of its simplicity. It's actually quite repetitive but I think it's texturally interesting enough to keep the listener engaged. This is something I'd like to explore with my group because we discussed the idea of playing with all types of machines, pedals, etc. to create varied textures. We also discussed the idea of having each person switch between melodic, harmonic, and bass roles, which I think would also contribute to the goal of creating different textures.

Paige suggested this video as an example of a way we could use the flute and layer sounds on top of each other to make a chord or a flute choir sound. I hadn't heard this song before and really liked her idea. I think this is a good example of something that we are going to experiment with in using the flute in our electronic composition and in interacting with the media in a performance setting. We are going to play around with recording my playing and creating layers to then play over. I am excited about the possibilities and the ideas this will generate. 

Flute Flute Flute

Merryl explained to Ben and I the different ways you can make sounds with flute other than pitches and notes. For example, using key clicks, tongue stops, breath sounds, etc.. Merryl showed us one artist in particular named Matthias Ziegler who displays many of these concepts. We are experimenting with these sounds in EMSB next week!

 Salutations, so we are trying to make some dope tunes with the flute and we've been looking at stuff done already online. I randomly remembered a track that me, Connor and other PATs worked on in a class and started listening to it and I totally forgot that it had flute in it. So here is a little something dope with flute, we put a tape delay on the flute and an insane amount of reverb and delay on the vocals and then played with the tape delay in real time.

Davis Studio Manual

Thanks to Leith, we have an initial version of a manual for the Davis Technology Studio. It will live in Google Drive, and this link will always point to the most current version.

Post 3

My group has decided to create a piece for percussion that is mostly based on nature and natural elements. In addition to percussion, we've decided to use field recordings as a major part of the piece. This video is a great example of a soundscape piece created with field recordings.

3D printing magic

Spencer, Sam and I have been discussing ways to use 3D printing technology to be able to physically patch a classical instrument to a computer (I hope I used that correctly, PAT majors).  The idea that one can dream up an idea, program it, and print it inside a box is, to me, pure magic.  While we aren't looking to print entire instruments, as the composer in the following video did, we are able to modify what we already have in a way that lets us realize some pretty neat ideas.  Looking forward to working with you guys!

The typical structure version

Gunter Hampel Music & Dance Improvisation - Black Box Theater

This video presents one musician and one dancer working in a black box space. The reason I'm posting it is because 1) we have used this structure (with two musicians, one dancer) to experiment inside and have considered including it as part of our final offering, 2) I found it really difficult to find videos to go beyond this mold into some of the things we also talked about, including shifting roles, playing with text, audience participation, and presenting what happens during the "warm-up" period typically prior to a performance as part of the performance. So this video represents a more typical structure of how musicians and dancers improvise together.

Team PinealGland's inspo

https://vimeo.com/69152711


Having discussed possible ideas, we came across this video which inspires our future setup with floor projections and utilizing blob tracking to create an interactive visual environment.

Silence Video

This video is by a dear friend of mine, Jonathan Hulting-Cohen. He is UM alumni and took part in a wide array of collaborations during his time at UM for his undergraduate and graduate degrees. This video brings together several art forms that I hope to be presenting with my group with Molly and Daphna this semester. Dance, PAT and music are brought together quite elegantly here as the performers travel through a mix of composed and improvised material and proves to be quite the journey!

Blog Assignment

This week's Blog assignment, two parts:  Part one, you now have a team and a bit of an idea of where you're headed.  Search out some examples of work you didn't know about before that relates to the direction your team is headed.  Feel free to take suggestions from your teammates in your search.  Post the example with some substantive comment.  Part two, Welcome to your team blog!  As stated in the syllabus (feel free to review), it's time to start updating your project's progress on your team's page.  For the first week present some of your initial ideas and a tentative schedule for completion.  This is not binding, but it should be realistic.  Please have it in by the usual time, Friday 11:59:59, and be sure and comment on something a classmate posted.

What is PAT?

Destroy

I have destroyed many things during my three years of being in the PAT department, intentionally and accidentally. I have made waterproof microphones, then shattered their casings while drilling into them. I have saved over a final composition Logic document with a blank one. I have purposely chopped up samples and recordings until they don’t sound to their original form in the slightest, and then I have accidentally done the same thing. I have also accidentally ripped out a joystick from a Gamecube controller while mapping parameters in Max/MSP.

And that’s fine. When everything leaves me and ultimately becomes destroyed, my brain restarts, my originality snaps back, and my outlook about my project changes typically for the better (after crying). 

“Think BIGGER”

A phrase I often hear. Can you expand on that? How can you turn this into a bigger concept? Etc.

When an individual comes up with an idea in the PAT department, everyone says that it’s great. But the PAT department also values one another SO much that we all know everyone can do better than great. Professors push us toward being the best we can be as creative souls, and us students labor to think up ideas that are past the obvious, the easy, and the “done before”. We always strive to  complete something original, which is my next word. Let’s talk about that.

Originality

Similarly to “think bigger,” no one ever wants to see a project that’s been done before. A fellow friend of mine in the PAT department once created an instrument that appeared to be made out of a human ribcage. Another created a tiny water display that, when interacted with, would trigger the projection of his own face on the wall to react in different ways. Personally, I find the pressure to be original daunting, but at the same time I value this concept more than most things the PAT Department has to offer.

Assumptions

We make beats. We make electronic music. We make dubstep, maybe? We hide like vampires in the basement. We do sound for the performing arts, which is theatre. Only theatre. 

PAT is diverse. I have never met two people in the department who wish to follow the same exact path after graduation.