ABSTRACT:
This discussion of recent projects in computer music composition and performance with wireless sensor networks will cover collaborations between Mara Helmuth and composition students and Dr. Dharma Agrawal and engineering students Peter (Jung Yun) Jun), Talmai Oliveira and Amitabh Mishra at the University of Cincinnati. These performances have included the Spring Dance Show at CCM, using pressure sensors and accelerometers, other dance presentations using RSSI and light sensors, and recent performances using infra-red sensors with the Tornado Project at CCM, and with clarinetist Rebecca Danard at the Society of Electroacoustic Music in the US in Miami. A demonstration of the sensors and video of performances will be shown.
ABOUT MARA HELMUTH:
Mara Helmuth composes music often involving the computer, and creates multimedia and software for composition and improvisation. Her recordings include Lifting the Mask on Sounding Out! (Everglade, 2010), Sound Collaborations, (CDCM v.36, Centaur CRC 2903), Implements of Actuation (Electronic Music Foundation EMF 023), and Open Space CD 16. Her work has been performed internationally. She is on the faculty of the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati and its Center for Computer Music’s director. She holds a D.M.A. from Columbia University, and earlier degrees (M.M., B.A.) from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her software for composition and improvisation has involved granular synthesis, user interfaces, Internet2, and contributions to the RTcmix music programming language. Her writings have appeared in the monographs Audible Traces and Analytical Methods of Electroacoustic Music, and in the Journal of New Music Research and Perspectives of New Music. Recent installations Hidden Mountain (2007) and Staircase of Light (2003) were created for the Sino-Nordic Arts Space in Beijing. She is a past president of the International Computer Music Association. She also plays the qin, a Chinese zither and performs interactive works on computer.