This paper entitled "My Work" is a biographical work composed in the fall of 2007.
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-Introduction-
I remember when I was younger; I had a conversation with an older musician. He
was a pianist, and definitely of the “Old School” way of thought.
“Something
went wrong”, he said. “At the beginning of the century we took a wrong turn.
We destroyed tonality. Suddenly the physicists decided to make music. And what
does that music sound like? There’s no emotion. Everything is a theory
exercise.”
I
thought about what he had pointed out. There was a lot of validity to his
statements. Writing tonal music was blasé in the eyes of many theorists, and
the work of some, like Schoenberg works to break down the barriers of tonality.
Indeed, the consummate romantic hero musician had collapse under the weight of
its own chromaticism.
I
replied. “I think physicists have emotions too. I also don’t think all music is
about emotion.”
“Well you’re one of THEM he retorted. What then? Will computers make music? How can a
calculator express anything? Where is the invention if a computer makes music?”
It
was then I had the good sense to think quickly. “Some guy with emotions made
that computer. You cannot escape invention. A quill pen is also a technology.
Why isn’t a computer now a more complex quill pen? It is all an extension of
our nervous system, and as a species our extended nervous system has ascended.
Why then shall we not embrace that?”
Intro:
A Parking Lot Sales Pitch
Perhaps
the hardest thing for an artist to do is to quickly and concisely articulate
his work. That is precisely what the thesis of this paper should be: an all
encompassing, succinct and explanatory burst of information that explains
everything about me in a short time frame.
And
here it is:
My
art utilizes a multitude of new and interesting media. The medium is the
message as well as the content of the medium is the message, involving a
combination of music, sound art, video editing, electronics, computer
programming, robotics and various other materials for creative output. Subject
matter often involves demystification of religion and the supernatural, new
interfaces for art generation, creative approaches to performance art, artistic
refinement of user interfaces and the exploration of humans as social animals
in an emergent system. I embrace the new computational extended nervous system
of humans and pull influence heavily from the sciences. To me, innovation
leads to a more profound degree of artistic expression.
-Getting Here-
Getting
Here: Early Influences
I knew from my conversation with the aging
pianist that I had picked a difficult path with my art. I knew I was becoming
the kind of creative person that many other creative people love to hate.
While they were generating mysticism and voodoo to add mystique to their work,
I was trying to dispel mysticism. The creative process was transparent. I
wanted people to understand everything about my work, and more importantly the
world they lived in. While they were insistent of using age old practices and
techniques, I was thirsty for new ones, to explore new artistic ground. I
couldn’t even understand why they so succinctly and neatly organized
established techniques such as painting, printmaking, photography and digital
image manipulation into different categories. Wasn’t this all the same stuff
fundamentally?
While many saw little value in using
computers to not only implement, but also guide the artistic process, I saw
great value and great potential. Was an acoustic piano not a piece of
technology? Was not a paintbrush? Was the pipe organ not the first synthesizer,
played by J.S. Bach? Did the first percussionist receive such criticism for
moving from rocks to stretched membranes?
At the beginning of my creative career I
found myself drawn to the work of J.S Bach and Arnold Schoenberg. These were
musicians who employed an almost scientific study to their creative output.
While their work varies greatly, both were methodical workers who valued ideas
of balance and beauty. I have never considered the output of either artist to
be devoid of emotion, yet they defile the stereotype of the passionate
“rockstar” musician (I’m looking at you Lizst, Mozart, and Kurt Cobain), whom
can no better articulate himself on his art than restrain his mysterious
passion he claims fuels the artistic process. These two were, in fact, quite
sane. They worked much like scientists. I found this to be beautiful.
Soon after, I encountered the work of Iannis
Xenakis and John Cage. These are two artists that seem to change the way one
even thinks music should be composed. Suddenly, for the first time, I was
dipping my toes outside the paradigm of music and it was very refreshing.
Iannis was an architect, who did not begin composition until later in life,
nearly 30. John Cage redefined what music even was, or should be. He invented
new instruments, like the prepared piano, and wrote pieces, like 4:33, and
sonatas and interludes that pushed the boundaries of what makes a composer a
composer. I began to wonder what made, for example, a composer different from
a computer programmer. I saw actually very little difference between both
fields.
It was my desire to be like these people
that initiated my first attempts at creative material. I saw Bach as the
maestro of the first additive synthesizer, the pipe organ, which he maintained
and composed for. Schoenberg had frequently built his own instruments, as well
as a new tonal system. John cage gave us a new instrument, the prepared piano.
It would seem my heroes tried to innovate their craft, as well as their
artistic expression.
In an early musical work, The Lunar
Savant, I was so inspired by John Cage’s prepared piano piece and my
newfound exploration of sound synthesis that I wrote a piece of music for
prepared piano and the Access Virus C Subtractive synthesizer.
Iannis Xenakis had combined his knowledge of
building and architecture with tonal systems to produce interesting new music.
My heroes, indeed, were more than composers, they were inventors, engineers,
scientists and generally multitalented creative people. For a first step, I
knew it was time to build my own instruments so that I might innovate as they
did.<
Getting
Here: Building Excalibur
It is difficult to discuss my emergence to my
current state in a linear fashion. Like any developing creative person, a
multitude of influences happens simultaneously. While I was stretching my
capabilities as a traditional composer, I was also developing a taste for
computer music.
I worked for nearly ten years to build and
educate myself in the art of studio engineering. I wanted a studio that was
interesting and different and tailored to my specific abilities. At the time, I
wanted a music generation machine as well as a performance machine. In time I
built the Shadow Observatory, my personal studio from the ground up.
I worked hard to become an expert level
studio engineer. My studio has custom build touch screen interfaces,
personalized performance interfaces and a hacked Nintendo that is used like a
synthesizer. I use this studio to produce music and other media arts.
On another front, I was developing as a
performer. I started as a humble bassoonist while in college, but eventually
began to build my own instruments to perform with. (I assure anyone that
playing the bassoon will inspire you to want to redesign your instrument into
something a bit less clunky.) It was not long before I completed The Cube, a
portable performance apparatus that allows me to play a guitar with MIDI
capabilities, process vocals, run a synthesizer, control fog, run sound for the
other players, record and shoot lasers( Yes. Lasers). I am still working on
new and interesting musical instruments that performers can use.
The Cube was an early foray into building new
musical interfaces. It can digitally interface with my studio.
Me performing with The Cube and another
performer, whose saxophone we hacked and ran into The Cube’s effects matrix.
An advantage of completing the studio
and making all my performance devices integrated with the studio was a high
degree of customizability and also the ability to expand very easily. A number
of applications that do more than record and produce music are currently
present, notably applications that allow for conversion of serial information,
computer programming, web development and video editing. This hub of
information is not totally unlike a painter’s palette or a sculptor’s clay
mound. What is interesting is that its customizability is somewhat art in
itself, as it is my creation, built for me to create more art. That is art
that makes art. The entire apparatus is therefore a machine that really somehow
transcends paint or clay. It is a servant that I built with my own hands that I
collaborate with on nearly every project.
After the completion of my studio I had
most, if not all of, the materials I needed to make the kind of media I
wanted. Soon I found I needed even more interaction with the user. I was not
content to make music and video the entire time. I wanted complete immersion.
The last bit of material acquisition involved the incorporation of
electromechanical circuits into my work. I began study of electromechanical
circuits and build a robotics lab. It is still under construction, but has
served my very well in a variety of projects thus far by increasing user
interactivity and art automation in my work.
This is a very clean robotics lab. It is
usually quite messy, with capacitors, resistors IC’s and a variety of other
components strewn about during a project.
Getting
Here: Later Influences
After expanding beyond the realm of music,
namely by expanding the medium of creation I use, I found myself looking to a
larger set of influences in art, engineering, and philosophy.
In engineering and mathematics, I was
impressed by the minds of Nicola Tesla and Thomas Edison. Also, Issac Newton,
Stephen Hawking, Leonhard Euler, Max Planck, Alan Turing, Douglass Engelbart
and Don Buchla have been great influences, each for different reasons. I am
aware that the mediums I use are very influenced by these people, and in some
very basic sense I, like the rest of humans, am standing on the shoulders of
giants. I never forget that when I begin my own work.
In philosophy I found myself drawn to Stephen
Pinker, Daniel Dennett, Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkins. I should also mention
Penn and Teller, as they are performers and illusionists that are dedicated to
debunking myths and demystification of magic. All the above are Atheists, and
much like Bach was inspired by the Martin Luther of his time, I am inspired by
the Atheist leaders of my time. My work frequently employs the concepts of
memes and mind viruses and that is influenced by Richard Dawkins’ ideas.
Daniel Dennett and Stephen Pinker’s written works additionally give me insight
into the idea of a mind virus. A number of works, especially my mobile media
pieces, deal with that topic directly.
In art and literature I have acquired some
new influences such as Neil Stephenson and Arthur c. Clarke, two science
fiction authors, and Tim Hawkinson, an artist who works with robotics and
complex signal chains. Hawkins especially influences my work. He is renowned
for creating complex sculptural systems through surprisingly simple means.
Often his work involved musical elements, and notational elements.
Even other forms of new media like video
games have influenced me greatly. Savvy game designers like Warren Spector and
Ken Levine are responsible for inventing the “intelligent first person” genre,
with philosophically driven open ended storylines. Their visual elements
employ a lot of cyber punk imagery and their narrative themes have echoes of
philosophers such a Locke, Hobbes and Voltaire, as well as new ideas in science
such as those from Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawkings. They also employed
new forms of artificial intelligence in their works, which proved that computer
code can be used aesthetically in itself, and not just as an engine that drives
aesthetically enriched material.
Musically, my tastes were expanding as well.
As I was beginning to experiment with computer music, the academic works of
Milton Babbitt, Stockhausen and various minimalist composers, such as Phillip
Glass began to make their way into my CD player. Most importantly I began to
listen to very complex electronic music, such as Aphex Twin, Venetian Snares,
Wisp, The Flashbulb, Squarepusher and Autechre. This music would inform the
style I wished to write in, just as much, if not more, than most of my former
classical experience and training.
-My Work-
My
Work: Early Work
My early work as a creative person consisted
almost entirely of composed music. Naturally, my undergraduate career
consisted primarily of music school. The earliest works were therefore written
in order to work on craft. These were not works necessarily designed to change
the world, but they refined my technique and help instill discipline in my work
ethic.
At
first, like many young artists or musicians, my work consisted of emulating
styles and learning already established techniques. At this time my output was
very high, and I covered a lot of musical ground. In the academic realm, I
wrote two full orchestra pieces, five pieces using strict Baroque counterpoint
(including two fugues), two string quartets, a brass ensemble piece, three wind
ensemble pieces, four percussion pieces, and four solo instrumental pieces. At
this time I was also gigging with an industrial band and studying popular music
styles independently.
Soon
I began to start writing music in an electronic medium. I wrote seventeen
pieces, of varying length and complexity. I also began setting music to film
and scoring video games. It was not long before I had scored two games for
amateur developers and five short films (between two and twenty minutes of
music each).
At
this point I then began to experiment with programming and video editing
myself.
My
Work: Not-So Early Work
My first attempt at an algorithmic
composition was a piece entitled “Color Spray” in which players rolled dice to
determine pitch and form. Every performance was different, and the piece
altogether was successful.
This is a screenshot from a page of Color
Spray. All information in the piece was determined by chance, and then
execute by performers. This was my first step towards using programming and
computers to make music, and eventually other forms of art.
The
next step was the adoption of a program called Max/Msp as well as the
introduction of video and image manipulation into my work.
Some
early video works included some simple music video- typed works. I created two
pieces based on the science of Cymatics. This is the study of wave phenomena
as is creates physical patterns in various materials. This is an appropriate
topic as it coincided with my personal elision from working with sound only to working
with a visual medium as well. I soon realized that sound and light both are
just energy. I was working in applications that could easily convert one to the
other, and allow them to interact in interesting ways.
These are some screenshot from Cymatics
a multimedia work that explored the relationship between sound energy and
physical form.
In
Cymatics, my first work was to take the audio from the Cymatics and reform them
into a musical collage that corresponded with the images. The result was two
video pieces totaling about 11 minutes.
After
the completion of Cymatics, I wanted to expand my capabilities as a video editor
and my technique as a musician working with visual media. I had also finished
reading The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
by Dawkins and Sperm Wars by Robin Baker. Rather than make another work
that commented on the medium itself, I wanted to use my newfound techniques to
explore an idea unrelated to the technology I was using. The result was an
interesting found footage work that depicted the human animal courtship
ritual. The footage was taken, interestingly enough, from an early OU “how-to”
courtship video by a psychologist called “Are You Popular”. Interspliced are
other bits of found footage, mostly from nature footage, microbe footage, and
era advertisements. The result was a multimedia work entitled Walley likes
Sally and was incorporated into a live performance given at the Upgrade!
International Art Convention.
Wally likes Sally is a video work that can be
performed in front of a live audience. It has found footage and triggered
event that coincide with musical moments and can be controlled by The Cube, my
live performance device.
I
also wanted to make video works that explored my newfound interest in meme
theories and emergent systems. One of my next video pieces involved the
creation of a series of mobile media pieces meant to exist on a cellphone, PDA,
iPhone, or any other piece of multimedia. The first works compared information
to a lambda bacteriophage virus.
This was an early work that combined video
editing, compositing and rendering in order to express Daniel Dennet’s idea of
mind virus and Dawkins’ memetic theory as it applies to mass communication in
humans.
This
was an important work from a technical perspective because it allowed me to
learn how to manipulate images beyond simple cutting. I was able to render
material completely from scratch, and my skill as an editor increased greatly.
My
Work: Recent Work
In
recent work, I am finally synthesizing all of the elements I have developed
independently into singular pieces. A program that is helping me do so is
called Max/Msp and is an object oriented programming environment with extensive
video, MIDI, and data converting capabilities. In one piece entitled, Growth,
the user walks into a room and sees a hanging video game controller. The user
then manipulates the video game controller that controls an algorithmically
generated piece of music that plays as computer graphic leaves are generated on
a wall. As the music becomes more intense, the leaves grow faster and thicker.
This is the artist’s statement that
corresponds with the installation. The leaves in the background are the same
leaves the user controls.
There
are glowing projected leaves as well as leaves coming out of the screen in to
the physical spaces. Likewise, the music comes out of a large PA system. It is
as if the user is completely immersed in the growth.
The piece has been executed twice thus far.
It is a synthesis of computer graphics rendering, algorithmic computer music, computer
programming, installation sculpture and a user interface.
After
growth, I wanted to further develop my robotic skills in a way that resulted in
another new musical interface. It was then that I created Harpbot, a
fully functional robot with two accelerometers, eighteen LEDs, two
microprocessors and eight strings. This was also my first attmpt to program a
microprocessor.
Harpbot can be played by manipulating the two accelerometers. It is
quite intuitive, and resulted in an interesting and eerie sound palette.
turned out pretty well, and was an
interesting new way to control a vibrating string. Virtually no musical
experience was necessary to control Harpbot, and the accelerometers
added a fun and kinesthetic way to make music.
In this image, Harpbot is on display
at the IAO gallery in Oklahoma City.
Another
recent work that synthesizes visual media, music, programming and an
interesting user interface is The Modern Art Machine. This device used
a joystick to create a Mondrian-esque painting, which can then be saved and
printed by the user. During the generation process, FM synthesis adds music to
the user’s movements resulting in a musical interplay of sight and sound.
This is a screenshot of the program. Sound
design and image programming are controlled by a joystick the user wields.
The
patch was built entirely in the Max/ Msp programming environment, and pulled
from many aspects of my training. A joystick was hacked, and its serial
information was sent into a custom built image processor. The information was
also routed to a custom built FM synthesizer that generates a new sonic palette
each time the user decides to make a new work.
The
work has yet to be officially premiered, but I did post 310 images generated
from the machine throughout the art building one day. The effect of the
machine is best felt when a large quantity of its generated works is on display
simultaneously.
Over 500 unique works of art, such as the
nine above, have been created by The Modern Art Machine. It is
intuitive to use, as well as musical.
My Work: Future Work
I
am excited about the future of my work. I have already started a few projects,
that will combine many facets of my skill set to synthesize interesting art
that is, in some sense, alive.
The first project I am working on involves
the reworking of a fish tank to essential treat the fish like a
microprocessor. The Fish is in a tank with a hard light cast upon it. The
light then kits photoresistive cells that detect the shadows of the fish.
This is a basic concept drawing of the fish
microprocessor.
The
circuit has already been built, and I am currently applying it to the fish
tank. There will be over 300 photoresistors and 3000 red LED’s.
The circuit detects shadows, thus enabling
the fish to make “decisions” in the circuit.
The
work will be something of a sculpture. Later, I am working a way to have a
camera pointed at the LED output matrix, which will then generate sound. The
sound will then be fed back into the Beta’s aquarium (as well as the art
space). The result will be a sort of feedback loop, as the fishes respond the
results of their actions. This is a short term project and is expect to be
completed within the month.
Another
project, a slightly longer term project, involves the use of Markov sets to
generate tonal music based on sensory input. For this project, the craft is
very important, because it involves an interesting mathematical approach to
generative music. The result; however, should be immune to any cleverness of
craft. The goal is to generate music the sounds inherently more natural, by
means of a good mathematical approach.
Here
is a general pictorial depiction of how a Markov set works. A Markov set is a
stochastic process, or in other words a way of doing things randomly. You
essentially have an array of numbers, and each number has a probability
assigned to the next number it can go to. Furthermore, there are hierarchies of
orders that enable how far back the system “remembers”. The result isn’t
entirely random, and isn’t entirely scripted. I believe that this model, that
has been used in a number of other applications, such as the stock market,
energy fluctuation models, remote protein homologies, and artificial
intelligence, is also well suited for tonal systems.
The
primary element comes from sensor systems. First, the goal is to simply make a
closed Markov model that makes music that, to my composer’s ears, is
aesthetically pleasing. That is the first way in which artistry is introduced
into application of the mathematical model. Afterwards I can introduce the
aforementioned sensor systems. I am still debating exactly what I want to
sense, but my first impressions are things like temperature and room
occupancy. The result would be ambient music in a space that actually changes
as the environment changes. The unit could be moved to any environment and
would generate new music. My job as the composer would be to decide how the
environment affects the music. This is a long term project that I have
considered devoting to graduate thesis level material.
The
payoff would be great. This would be a great step in learning how to implement
low-level artificial intelligence into the artistic process. I think that
composers and artists absolutely have a lot of intellectual material at their
disposal. I hope the craft of the work does not overshadow my aesthetic
decisions with the craft. Perhaps, someday, artists who use this sort of medium
will be as commonplace as an artist working on a piece of canvas, and likewise
just as readily understood. I hope that the entire process is largely
demystified to the viewer. I do not intend to hide the clockwork of the Markov
set piece in a metaphorical “black box”, but rather a “transparent box of
understanding”.
I
have a few other ideas on the table as well. I am currently selecting a
microprocessor for a MIDI hamster cage, I am researching and working on a
program that will help visualize fractal geometry, and I am working on a short
piece that uses a piezo microphone to amplify the sound of an ant colony. The
other projects exist somewhere between the Markov set project and the LED
augmented fishtank in respect to how long they will take to complete.
-Looking Ahead-
I am excited about my future projects. As I
look back over the progress it took to arrive at my current research, I can see
that I have traversed a variety of mediums, a variety of approaches to artistic
aesthetic, and a multitude of technical challenges. I am happy that my work
has turned this direction, and I hope to follow it where it leads me
enthusiastically. I see a future where the lines between practitioners of
various crafts are blurred and the lines between practitioners of various fields
of study such as art, engineering, and science are likewise just as homogenous.
I also feel like my work fits well in this future. Essentially that is my
art’s place in society.
As far as my art’s purpose, I feel like a
trend emerges as one looks back at my progression to this point. As humans we
no longer think linearly about out work and media. The manuscript is becoming
hypertext and the movie is becoming a nonlinear videogame. Media is becoming
ever more interactive and nonlinear in its experience. The possibilities are
still relatively unexplored, and as we progress technologically the artist is
able to express so much more, and in such a different manner. I want to
prototype new ways of working with the artistic medium, as well as new ways of
experiencing the artistic medium.