The Grid: Exposure

CNMAT live streaming concert AI x MUSIC Festival Opening
The Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT)
University of California, Berkeley
 
WAVEGUIDE - 2017 - percussion, distributed audio and electronics (9 min.)
            Music composition and performance by Andrew Blanton
            Text by Yvette Granata
            Composition and software by Andrew Blanton
            Special thanks to Neal Riley for technical support.
 
CORAIL - version 2020 - improvising saxophonist and interactive computer system (9 min.)
          Composition and computer environment design by Edmund Campion, Director, CNMAT
            Tenor Saxophone by Steve Adams
            Software contributions by Manuel Poletti, Matthew Wright, Edmund Campion (and a host of others)
 
This concert is being streamed live from the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) and made possible by CNMAT Researcher and Technical Director, Jeremy Wagner 
 
 
PROGRAM NOTES:    
 
WAVEGUIDE is an attempt to draw a critical reflection on the growing dependence on networked computation, the new interconnected nature of our artificially intelligent cultural reality and intervene in this newfound intimacy with the glossy black panes of glass. The work was initially conceived to send data from drums on the stage, to a remote server, and back through the audience's cell phones in real time, using the networked infrastructure of the internet as a resonant body for the drums. But in light of the ongoing pandemic, the work uses the infrastructure of the internet to perform through the audience's browsers as they watch the screened performance from remote locations via live video and interactive webpage. Still using the internet as a resonant body, the work creates a multi-headed virtual sound sculpture, connecting the audience and performer in that third virtual space.

CORAIL (Coral) is performed by an improvising saxophonist who interacts with a computer system simply by playing his instrument.  The computer extracts fine details of gesture, pitch, dynamics, durations and silences, then transforms the data into an oceanic sound space. Constrained and guided by the ocean of sound, the soloist is instructed to seek a balance within the environment.  The musician learns to play through playing, and together with the computer-generated responses establishes a feedback and feedforward eco-system. The oceanic sound can be turbulent, but the soloist is instructed to work with the computer as a partner, not an adversary. The musical score for CORAIL consists of a number of "flight training" exercises designed to help the soloist learn to interact without destroying a fragile relationship. It is very easy for any player to create chaos within this system, but a great saxophonist like Steve Adams is able to find beautiful design and that is the goal. The piece is dedicated to John Campion.