Composer and instrument builder Trevor Van de Velde discusses his current research concerning food, technology, sound, and performs on some custom hacked rice cooker synthesizers.
DATE: Monday October 3, 2022. CANCELLED
TIME: 6 pm
LOCATION: Harvestworks Studios 596 Broadway, New York, NY 10012
FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
This presentation will discuss his current project, titled “Hacking Grains” in which the rice cooker is investigated as a cultural technology in order to explore the web of relations between ritual, technology, and asianness. Rice Cookers are “modified” and hacked into musical synthesizers via embedded Arduinos, turning them into noise machines. These machines become capable of simultaneously cooking rice and producing electronic music – in a way of sonifying the process of ritual.
The presentation will delve into the specific themes and inspirations for the project, technical aspects of the instruments, and culminate in an improvised performance with them. Audience members are welcomed to try these instruments out afterwards!
Bio:
Trevor Van de Velde (he/him) is an experimental composer, sound artist, instrument builder, and creative programmer based in Brooklyn.
His practice is oriented toward exploring the relationship between technology, play, and hybridity through electroacoustic composition, custom-built electronics, and mixed-media.
He is the recipient of the 2018 Nicola De Lorenzo Prize in Music Composition, 2020 Eisner Prize for the Creative Arts, 2021 Guarini Alumni Award, and Hopkins Center for the Arts Art+Technology grant. He presented work at festivals such as New Music On the Point (2021), The Summer Institute of Contemporary Performance (2021), Labo Montreal (2021), Yarn/Wire Institute (2022) and Ensemble Evolution (2022) and has worked with a variety ensembles such as JACK Quartet, The Living Earth Show, and Chromic Duo.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degrees in Computer Science and Music Composition from UC Berkeley and a Master of Arts in Digital Music from Dartmouth College. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Music Composition at NYU GSAS.
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