April 18, 4pm @ Grant Recital Hall, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island :: Joel Ryan: Spawned in the first generation of computer music hackers in San Francisco’s silicon valley, Joel Ryan is a composer who has long championed the idea of performance-based electronic music. Drawing on his scientific background,he pioneered the application of digital signal processing to acoustic instruments. At STEIM in Amsterdam since 1984, he has collaborated extensively with artists and musicians including Evan Parker, William Forsyth, George Lewis, Steina Vasulka and Jerry Hunt. Formerly a Research Associate in physics at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories of the University of California,he has taught philosophy, physics, and mathematics. He is a researcher at STEIM in Amsterdam, tours with the Frankfurt Ballet and is Docent in Sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He has performed at the Theater Chatelet in Paris, the Concertgebau Amsterdam, the Pit Inn in Tokyo, Brooklyn Academy of Music and The Kitchen in New York. Recent work includes a series of duets with Evan Parker,Frances Marie Uitti and Joelle Leandre, EIDOS/TELOS, with William Forsyth and Roberto Zucco with the Royal Shakespear Company. Other works include Or Air, The Number Readers, Hat Moon Joy, and The Effect of Noise on the Sleep of Children.

Here are some texts on Musical Aesthetics and Electronic Music Practice dealing with issues like interactivity, DSP, and instrument design.

April 19, 4pm :: Michel Waisvisz: Composing the Now - Michel Waisvisz is a composer/performer of live electronic music, who has developed new ways to achieve physical touch with electronic music instruments. Sometimes this is done by literally touching the electricity inside the instruments and thereby becoming a thinking component of the machine. He was amongst the first play with synthesizers on stage and very early developed and performed using gestural controllers. He also is the inventor of the CrackleBox and The Web and other instruments based on touch interaction. Together with Frank Bald he has designed live performance software like LiSa and JunXion.

Beside the solo performances and the composing for music theatre he has collaborated with a great variety of musicians and composers: Laurie Anderson, Steve Lacy, Jan Werner (Mouse on Mars), Truus de Groot, Najib Cheradi, Hans Tutchku, Moniek Toebosch, The Nieuw Ensemble, DJ Spooky, Willem Breuker, The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Maarten Altena, etc. Waisvisz was one of the first organisers of electronic sound festivals in Holland and The Touch exhibition, with electronic music instruments that can be played by the visitors, is traveling regularly through Europe. He leads the STEIM foundation in Amsterdam where performance artists from music, theater, dance and new media art, and DJ’s and VJ’s, work to develop their personal electronic instruments.

Waisvisz is the founder of ‘Physical Philosophy’ a science where axioms are replaced by physical objects. He also advocates that artists, in order not to have their work being polluted by the generic typicality’s of the aplied tools, appropriate their
tools and instruments by modification, or even complete custom builds. Waisvisz in the seventies introduced the slogan: “If you don’t open it, you don’t own it”. In this realm he also more recently instigated the OIK (Open It Kit) project at STEIM. Nowadays this statement is at the root of the work philosophy at STEIM: music makers are encouraged to also play an important role in the design and building of their authentic live electronic performance instruments.

Waisvisz has made works and performances in a variety of musical scenes from starting as an independent student to working in the avant garde of new music as well as in more popular venues.