Judy Dunaway will give a presentation about her artificial intelligence that can extract and remember the semi-random pitches and rhythmic patterns of her “tenor balloon” instrument and provide improvisational interaction based on this data. The system was developed using Cycling 74’s Max. In 2014 she premiered the system at the Logos Foundation in Gent, Belgium and was awarded a residency at the official state Electronic Music Studios in Stockholm Sweden for further research and development.
Time: 7 pm July 16 2015
Run Time of Performance: 40 minutes
Location: Harvestworks 596 Broadway #602 New York NY 10012
Judy Dunaway describes her “tenor balloon” instrument as an “orb-shaped string” whereby she improvises with a rapid-fire arpeggiated harmonic series that constantly mutates due to the curved shape and extreme malleability of the surface. The tenor balloon instrument can pose a challenge for some improvising musicians in that they may hear the sounds as merely “noise” rather than noting the musical material. Using Cycling 74’s Max, Judy has developed an artificial intelligence that can extract and remember the semi-random pitches and rhythmic patterns of the tenor balloon and provide live improvisational interaction based on this data via MIDI or synthesis. In October 2014 she used this system to perform with Godfried Willem-Raes’ “Player Piano II” MIDI-based instrument at the Logos Foundation in Gent, Belgium. Subsequently she was awarded a one week residency at the official state Electronic Music Studios in Stockholm Sweden for further research and development of the interactive system. Judy Dunaway will give a talk about her system, followed by a short performance to demonstrate the system in action.
BIOS
For the past twenty years Judy Dunaway has primarily been known for her numerous works for latex balloons as sound producers, including free improvisations, electronic and multi-media works, sound installations, and compositions. She has presented these works throughout North America and Europe at many important venues, festivals, museums and galleries including the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (Germany), Alternative Museum (NYC), Bang on a Can Festival (NYC), Everson Art Museum (Syracuse), Frau Musica Nova (Germany), the Guelph Jazz Festival (Canada), Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors (NYC), the New Museum of Contemporary Art (NYC), Performance Space 122 (NYC), Podewil (Berlin), Roulette (NYC), the Roy and Edna Disney Center (Los Angeles), Seltsame Musik Festival (Austria) and STEIM (Netherlands). Her discography includes CDs on the CRI and Innova labels. Her awards/grants/residencies include the Electronic Music Studios Stockholm, New York State Music Fund. the Aaron Copland Fund Recording Grant, the merican Composers Forum’s Composers Commissioning Fund, ZKM, Harvestworks and the National Endowment for the Arts performance fund. She has given academic presentations about her works at many colleges and universities, including The Berlin University of the Arts, Cornell University, Rennselaer Polytechnic, Tufts University, Syracuse University, Juilliard School of Music, Musik Akademie Basel (Switzerland), University of Gothenberg (Sweden), Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (Milan, Italy) and Hochschule fuer Gestaltung, Karlsruhe (Germany). She has a Ph.D. in music composition from Stony Brook University and an M.A. with emphasis in experimental music composition from Wesleyan University, where she studied with Alvin Lucier. She has been a Visiting Lecturer at Massachusetts College of Art and Design since 2005. She has been working with Cycling 74‘s Max for the past 10 years and received a Max/MSP/Jitter certificate from Harvestworks in May 2011.
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