“Recently, I have begun translating weather data collected in cities into musical scores, which are then translated into sculptures as well as being a source for collaboration with musicians. These pieces are not only devices that map meteorological conditions of a specific time and place, but are also functional musical scores to be played by musicians. While musicians have freedom to interpret, they are asked not to change the essential relationship of the notes to ensure that what is still heard is indeed the meteorological relationship of weather data.” (Scroll down for the Call for Composers.)

Axis Ensemble (Philip Acimovic, Elliot Cless, Michael McLaughlin, Glenn Dickson, Jason Coleman and Sid Richardson.)

1913 Trio (Janet Schiff, Scott Johnson and Victor DeLorenzo)

Elaine Rombola, piano

Jonathan and Esthelle Rand, French Horn and electric guitar

Composers Wanted!

Dear Composer,

Weather Scores explores the intersection of meteorology with visual art and music, through a unique collaborative compositional process involving weather data, woven sculptures, graphic/indeterminate musical scores and musical performance. The core of the project is a series of musical scores entirely based on weather data, which are adapted by composers to piano performance. In conjunction, these scores are also translated into woven sculptural, data translations that also function as 3D musical scores.

I am a sculptor who focuses on the intersection of art and science and the visual articulation of scientific observations. Using the methodologies and processes of both disciplines, I translate scientific data related to ecology, climate change and meteorology into three-dimensional structures. My method of translation is principally that of weaving – in particular basket weaving – as it provides me with a simple yet highly effective grid through which to interpret data in three-dimensional space.

Three years ago, I began to integrate musical scores into the process, which led to an ongoing collaboration with Elaine Rombola. Together we’ve created a series of scores based on weather data that have been translated into musical performances and sculptures. Our work together has sparked the interest of cross-disciplinary audiences due to its curious location at the intersection of art, science and music, and we’ve had the opportunity to present the collaboration in lectures, exhibitions, and performances.

As the scores I write become more complex, we both feel the next step is to invite composers into the process. We would like to commission them to take my scores and create works based on them (less 10 minutes, for solo piano or piano with small ensemble and/or voice), with the final goal being to produce a series of concerts/sculptural exhibitions to be performed in a variety of venues across the country.

One of the first scores we are looking to collaborate on with composers is The Ghostly Crew of the Andrea Gail. In October 1991, an event meteorologists still refer to as “The Perfect Storm” entered the Gulf of Maine. The confluence of two major storm systems, a low-pressure system building over Nova Scotia called “the Halloween Storm” and a dying Hurricane Grace off Bermuda, created oceanic conditions never recorded in New England Waters. Combining weather data and fishing lore, this score follows the sinking of the Andrea Gail, a Gloucester-based fishing vessel that sank during the storm. Central to this score is the exploration of the human perspective of this tragic, yet awesome weather event.

If this sounds like a collaboration you would be interested in exploring, please contact us for more information at n_miebach [at] hotmail.com or elaine.rombola [at] gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you,

Nathalie & Elaine

9.11.01_Scapes by Helen Thorington, 2002 (16:54)

Read Helen’s beautiful text (with links to more of my images).

Sound Credits: The sound score makes use of materials from Thorington’s 20-year collection of recorded materials, processed found sound, and sounds from the 9.11 event recorded by New Yorkers and archived on the web site SonicMemorial.org With thanks to SonicMemorial.org and those who have contributed to their collection.

If you’d like to contact Helen, her email is newradio at turbulence dot org.

Moori, by Haeyoung Kim, is an interactive audience participatory audio-visual performance. By incorporating multiple modes of messaging on a mobile phone, users tell their stories to guided questions by the performer. User data is processed to generate algorithmic audio and visuals while creating a larger narrative. This collaboration creates dialog among the performer and audience members and suggests new possibilities that can exist through the combination of algorithmic animation, audio and language.

Through text inputs, buttons, and multi-touch pads, user-data is processed to generate algorithmic audio and visuals. iPhone, iPod, and iPad users are encouraged to download the Mrmr application prior to the concert. The set up guideline can be found here.

Moori from haeyoung kim on Vimeo.

Switch - Creative Social Network in collaboration with Associazione Culturale Nub and Tempo Reale present Taming Technology, a two day program including performances, DJ sets, installations, lectures and workshops exploring the territory between music, art and new media. The focus will be on practices such as physical computing, interface and interaction design, hardware hacking and biological computation, framed as fields of research capable of providing new connections between the virtual domain and the physical world.

Taking part in the program will be: Giulio Ammendola, Lilian Beidler, Holo Unplugged Laptop Ensemble, Francesco Giomi, Ivan Henriques, Alessandro Ludovico, Matteo Marangoni, Damiano Meacci, Slugabed, Eddie Spanier, Transductors Connections, Quiet Ensemble and Tom Verbruggen.

The project has the support of the Comune di Firenze and of the Embassy of The Kingdom of the Netherlands in Rome.

Live sound from multiple sound makers is streamed from a set of wireless transmitters placed at opposing sides of an urban space. These transmitters broadcast these audio streams locally on the same radio frequency to a group of participants wearing wireless headphones tuned to this frequency. Because the transmitters broadcast on the same local frequency, a zone of interference is created where multiple audio streams compete for signal dominance.

Participants carry umbrellas made of electromagnetic field (EMF) shielding fabric that enable them to actively shape the surrounding environment of radio waves. By orienting the umbrella in different ways, one is able to filter the interfering radio signals and select a single audio stream to listen to.

The movements of the crowd are sensed by accelerometers attached to the umbrellas and this data is broadcast locally to the sound makers via an ad-hoc wireless network, who in turn use these data streams to modify the sound streams. The resultant feedback loop provides for a form of indirect communication, where the sound producers influence bodily movement of the crowd that in turn influences the sounds the producers make.

Generative music is a term used to describe music which has been composed using a set of rules or system. This series of six episodes explores — written and edited by Mark Fell and Joe Gilmore for Radio Web MACBA (RWM) — generative approaches (including algorithmic, systems-based, formalised and procedural) to composition and performance primarily in the context of experimental technologies and music practices of the latter part of the 20th Century and examines the use of determinacy and indeterminacy in music and how these relate to issues around control, automation and artistic intention. Each episode of the series is accompanied by an additional programme, entitled ‘Exclusives’, featuring exclusive or unpublished sound pieces by leading sound artists and composers working in the field.

This show presents two contrasting generative works by German composer Marcus Schmickler and Catalan collective EVOL.

02:00 Marcus Schmickler ‘RR 0′ (Revolving Realities #0), 2010 (23:43) — ‘RR 00′ is an excerpt from a collaborative auto-reactive light and sound installation that was premiered on 19th January 2010 in Cologne. The sound component is the sonification of astrophysical data and the simulation of dynamic systems.

The installation consisted of computer controlled electro-luminescent wires, quasi-spherical light projections and 10.2 channel audio. The light installation, its custom controllers and the light projections were created by Cologne-based group Interpalazzo. Schmickler created various musical parts especially for this collaborative work. ‘RR 0′ is the process running at sunset before dark, after which the light installation becomes visible.

The piece was originally conceived for ‘The Bonn Patternization’ - which explores the sonification of astrophysical data. The basis of ‘The Bonn Patternization’ consists of readings for different stars, star clusters and galaxies, as well as their properties such as light, distance and coordinates. In addition, sounds are generated from systems that arithmetically simulate astronomically relevant phenomena such as the interaction between celestial bodies due to gravitation. The process underlying ‘RR 0′ simulates the behavior of objects or clusters of objects in a gravity field. It is based on a visual embodiment primarily implemented in Supercollider by Fredrik Olofsson and reworked into a Subtractive Synthesis application with the help of Alberto de Campo.

25:41 EVOL ‘Untitled Anthem Study’, 2010 (12:37) — After reading Benoit Mandelbrot’s 1982 The Fractal Geometry of Nature in 1998, Roc Jimenez de Cisneros became fascinated with self-similarity and iterated function systems and their possible application to musical structures. This piece, which was finished a few days after Mandelbrot’s death in the fall of 2010, uses several synthesis models originally written for Rave Slime (ALKU, 2010) in combination with a recursive algorithm that was used in the composition Fart Synthesis (Presto!?, 2009).

The piece is one of many studies realised in the research process started in late 2008 to combine rave-inspired sounds with generative algorithms to explore particle physics concepts such as configuration spaces, parameter permutations and phase spaces.

This audience-interactive installation involves electric fish from the Amazon River Basin. Twelve different species of these fish comprise a ‘choir’ whose sonified electrical fields provide the source tones for an immersive audiovisual environment. The interface for Scale incorporates custom-designed software, a hacked Wiimote ‘conductor’s baton’ that participants can use to ‘cue’ individual fish so their unadulterated tones (as well as digitally processed versions) can be heard through the audio system, a touchscreen panel to allow for changes in volume, and arrays of LEDs under each tank to provide visual feedback to visitors. Our Amazonian choir members are housed in individual tanks arranged in an arc, comfortably maintained with a sophisticated filtration and water conditioning system, and outfitted with a 12-channel speaker array.

Malcolm MacIver studies electric fish and aims to apply what he learns to the development of underwater robots. To engage the community in an experience of this beautiful fish from the Amazon jungle (which has contributed greatly to our understanding of the brain over the past forty years), MacIver, Novak and Yim have combined their diverse talents to develop an immersive sight and sound experience.

These are the eternal human questions facing Simon Powers, the protagonist of visionary composer Tod Machover’s new opera Death and the Powers, a full-evening work which premiered September 24, 2010 at l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo. In the opera, Powers, a rich, powerful businessman and inventor, wishes to perpetuate his existence beyond the decay of his physical being.

Reaching the end of his life, Powers uses his vast resources to devise a way to ‘download’ himself into his environment. This transformation turns every object in his surroundings — his books, furniture and walls — into a collective, living version of himself, called The System. His family, friends and business associates are left not only to figure out if The System is, in fact, a true embodiment of Powers, but how to sustain a relationship with him in his new form, and whether to abandon their own organic existence and join him in his world of light, free of death and suffering.

In this cutting-edge work, Machover — called “America’s most wired composer” by the Los Angeles Times — elegantly blends his artistic and technological expertise to create an inventive score filled with arching melodic lines, wry humor, richly nuanced textures and propulsive rhythms. Death and the Powers additionally introduces specially-designed technology – including animated walls, a chorus of robots and a musical chandelier – assuredly launching a new era in opera production and expression.

Death and the Powers’ creative fusion of music and technology could reposition opera as an art form that embraces innovation, says Marc Scorca, president and CEO of Opera America, a nonprofit that serves U.S. opera companies. “I’m always cheering when I see opera once again reasserting itself as the richest tapestry for innovative, live art,” says Scorca.

Death and the Powers sets itself apart from other operas with its groundbreaking performance technologies, developed by Machover’s Opera of the Future Group at the MIT Media Lab. A new technique called Disembodied Performance employs innovative sensors and analysis software to translate baritone James Maddalena’s conscious and unconscious sounds and gestures, enabling the set to ‘come alive’ with Simon’s thoughts, feelings, memories and desires even after his physical body is no longer on stage. In addition, a chorus of “Operabots” narrates and reacts to the story; robotic furniture morphs and moves about on stage; and a musical Chandelier engages in a sensuous duet with Simons’ beloved wife Evvy.

Machover collaborated with a creative team that reads like a who’s who of movers and shakers of American culture. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky wrote the libretto. Director Diane Paulus received a Tony nomination for her recent revival of HAIR on Broadway, and is joined by celebrated choreographer Karole Armitage and production designer Alex McDowell, who is best known as the creative director behind such films as Minority Report and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Death and the Powers’ cast features baritone James Maddalena as Simon Powers; mezzosoprano Patricia Risley as Simon’s third wife, Evvy; soprano Joélle Harvey as Simon’s daughter, Miranda; tenor Hal Cazalet as Simon’s research assistant and adopted son, Nicholas; countertenor Frank Kelley as ‘The United Way’; baritone David Kravitz as ‘The United Nations’; and bass Tom McNichols as ‘The Administration.’

Death and the Powers receives its United States premiere March 18, 2011 with Harvard’s American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) and Opera Boston; and its Midwest premiere April 2, 2011 at Chicago Opera Theater.

This isn’t just a crazy idea: we’ve done this before using donations from our website, but now we want to tackle something much more ambitious.

We want your help to hire an internationally renowned orchestra to record and release the rights to: the Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius, and Tchaikovsky symphonies. We have price quotes from several orchestras and are ready to hire one, pending the funds.

What can I do?
Donate, and vote on what we should buy with the money. Then we will release that music in lossless quality with a creative commons license.

You can also help by voting for us on these sites:
Vote for us on Digg (hopefully Digg V4 is working): http://bit.ly/9YUI35
Vote for us on Reddit: http://bit.ly/birkg8
Vote for us on BoingBoing: http://bit.ly/dBLdUN

Or Using Twitter, facebook etc to spread the word.

What about beyond 10k?
Every $1000 buys a complete set of Mozart violin sonatas, or all of Chopin’s mazurkas, ballades, or nocturnes… a little money buys a LOT of music.

Where does the music go afterwards?
Thanks to generous and free hosting from ibiblio, music will remain on our website indefinitely, and we will share it with other organizations: included in Wikipedia articles, added to archive.org, and integrated with OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) laptops.

Project location: Palo Alto, CA

Streams from: Barcelona (Spain), Dakar (Senegal), Boston (US), Ann Arbor (US), Greensboro (US), Amsterdam (Holland), Reykjavik (Iceland), New-York (US), Solleftea (Sueden), Paris (France), Chicago (US), Belfast (Irland), Lagos (Nigeria), Medellin (Colombia), Buga – Valle (Colombia), Quebec (Canada), Montréal (Canada), Mumbai (India), Lijiang (China), Montréal (Canada), Baltimore (US), Yogyakarta (Indonesia), Honk Kong (China), Yokohama (Japan) Marseille (France), Nice (France), Vesinet (France)…

Locus Sonus Lab: Julien Clauss, Alejo Duque, Scott Fitzgerald, Jérôme Joy, Anne Roquigny, Peter Sinclair.

Production team: Etienne Fortin, Stéphane Cousot, Grégoire Louvain, APPLES Marseille, Chabaud et cie.

Partners: Délégation aux Arts Plastiques and Mission Recherche et Technologie from the French Minister of Culture and Communication, CNRS and Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche and in co-production with Transcultures/City Sonics, Mons, Belgium, l’Ecole Supérieure d’art de Aix et Seconde Nature

LOCUS SONUS: http://locusonus.org/
SOUND MAP: http://locusonus.org/soundmap/
FESTIVAL MIMI: http://mimi2010.amicentre.biz/wordpress/