Concert Works

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Friday February 7, 2020

7:30 pm

Music Building Room 1145

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Title: Puente

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Composer/Performer: Courtney Brown

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"Puente: A Study in Interactive Tango" is a work for interactive tango dance. Motion sensors are attached to dancer limbs, the data is sent to a computer, and then algorithms then transform movement to sound. By giving dancers agency over musical outcomes, the interactive tango system provides a conduit for non-verbal communication novel to the Argentine tango dance tradition: sound and disrupts traditional tango dance structures. As contemporary Argentine tango is generally danced to fixed recordings, the interactive tango system does not necessarily usurp the musician’s role, but engenders dynamisms in musical, social and political tango practice. By creating sounding duet of the tango dance couple who must now listen and cooperate in new ways as well as giving more musical responsibilities to the follower role (traditionally female), this system subverts traditional tango hierarchies. This opening up of tango traditions facilitates a critique of larger societal structures as well. My interactive tango performance work further pushes the boundaries of the Argentine tango dance, playing with the juxtaposition between the traditional and the new. The dance is a structured improvisation based on choreography by George and Jairelbhi Furlong. 

http://courtney-brown.com

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Title: Babyface

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Composers/Performers: Kate Ladenheim and Amy LaViers

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Babyface is a machine-augmented solo responding to feminized tropes around innocence, servitude, cuteness and spectacle. The “cyborg” performer is outfitted with a pair of robotic angel wings that simultaneously create an effect of grandeur and awe, and a rigid, limiting characterization that becomes eerily burdensome over the course of the performance. This tension between aspiration and limitation fuels this work, and directly parallels the ways that women and machines are talked about, treated, and — in the case of machines — designed to look and behave. Dancer and Machine Choreographed by Kate Ladenheim, with Wali Rizvi and Reika McNish Music by Myles Avery Costume by Reika McNish, with Kate Ladenheim and Wali Rizvi Collaboration directed by Amy LaViers Performed by Kate Ladenheim 'Babyface' is a collaboration between Kate Ladenheim & The RAD (Robotics, Automation, & Dance) Lab.

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Title: Kindred Dichotomy

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Composer/Performer: Chantelle Ko

Performer: Lora Oehlberg

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Kindred Dichotomy is a duet for TRAVIS I and TRAVIS II (II (Touch Responsive Augmented Violin Interface System). Aesthetically, it explores the concept of two entities establishing their opposite identities, as well as discovering core similarities between them. There are motifs that characterize each violin. One violin plays in a romantic, 4/4 style, the other in an upbeat 7/8. In the middle of the piece, the violins start to blend and quote each other’s style. In the end, they return to their original motifs. Kindred Dichotomy is the first interactive composition written for both TRAVIS I and II. As such, the piece demonstrates how well the systems could be used simultaneously. Each violin’s sound is processed in Max MSP/Jitter. Simultaneously the data from the fingerboard sensors controls the parameters of these sound processes. The data also affects aspects of the projected visuals. Each violin is assigned to affect their own half of the projection. TRAVIS I was developed as Ko’s undergraduate capstone project at UBC, under the supervision of Dr. Bob Pritchard. TRAVIS II was developed during Ko’s Master’s degree at the University of Calgary, under the supervision of Dr. Lora Oehlberg.

www.chantelleko.com

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Title: Colors of Time

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Composer/Performer: Momolani Ramstrum

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“Colors of Time” for voice and interactive electronics and interactive multimedia art. The composer is the vocalist, programmer, visual artist and instrument designer. All sounds are made live in the performance, and all the highly textured and colorful visual art is taken from images of her multimedia paintings, mapped onto 3 dimensional objects. Her voice is recorded in up to 12 tracks using her patented wireless MIDI glove - designed and created to trigger real-time vocal recording and digital signal processing in Pure Data. The piece is composed in real-time with voice alone, creating a dense landscape of sound, exploring time and memory. In this piece the voice improvises on the art while the art improvises on the voice. The the visual images change in size, interation, movement and form in response to the pitch, attack, density, dynamics and upper partials of the vocal improvisation. “The Colors of Time” is a voyage through a day. Each moment of contact is stopped, shifted and reignited. How long does a fire burn? How intense is the moment of stillness?

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Title: Somnium

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Composer/Performers: Susan Green, Sofy Yuditskaya, Ria Rajan and Margaret Schedel

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Somnium is inspired by one of the first works of science fiction (according to Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov) written by Johannes Kepler. It is a 15 minute, data-driven, live interactive performance where audiences are taken on a tour of first 5 planets in our solar system. Lead by ethereal guides, inner space is transformed into outer space by an ever changing sound-field of elliptical orbits, harmonies & resonances and the integration of science, mathematics, movement and music.   The journey begins with solar plasma combined with the cosmic magnetic background just before landing on Mars. The complete voyage includes visits to Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury & Earth. This itinerary was set by taking into consideration the Hohmann Transfer Orbit , the key of each planets' rotation period, and the relative key progression from one to the next.

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Title: Cosmic Ritual

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Composer/Performer: Sofy Yuditskaya

Visuals by Ria Rajan

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