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.