IDEAS: New Works for Percussion, with David Bithell, Aiyun Huang and Terry Longshore |
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DESCRIPTION/ABSTRACT: A performance showcasing recent trans-disciplinary works for percussion, live electronic music, interactive video and animation.
Windward, composed by David Bithell in 2018 and premiered at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity by Aiyun Huang, is a technologically driven meditation on storytelling and the power of myth. Using the head of a concert bass drum as a projection screen, the performer conjures dynamic images and sounds through their musical gestures. The interactive visuals for Windward are created through procedural animation developed in Unity and triggered by audio-analysis cues and events generated in 3ds Max. Real-time audio processing of the bass drum is mixed with pre-recorded sound elements to create an immersive environment. With visual inspiration drawn from traditional and contemporary shadow play practices combined with the iconography of percussion performance, the second work, Penumbra, focuses on the human form situated in a technologically saturated atmosphere. Collaboratively composed by David Bithell and Terry Longshore in 2014, Penumbra explores the gestural implications of percussion performance, as well as the audience’s expectations about how physical gestures and percussion manifest in sound and image. Penumbra makes use of 2D and 3D animations that are reactive - changing shape, size, and scope in relation to the live musical input. The sonic environment is created out of real-time processing of live input (including granular synthesis and sample triggering), generative sample playback and patterning, and prerecorded electronic elements.
SPEAKER BIO: David Bithell is an interdisciplinary composer, artist, and performer exploring the connections between visual art, music, theater and performance. Using new technologies and real-time interactive environments, his work brings the precision and structure of contemporary music and audio practices together with an understanding of performance, narrative and humor drawn from recent theater, live cinema and performance art. His works have been presented at major venues in the United States, Europe and Asia. Highlights include: the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), SPARK Festival of Electronic Music and Art (Minneapolis), Ghent International Film Festival, Pixilerations [v.6], the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, the MANCA Festival (France), the IS ARTI Festival (Lithuania), and at numerous colleges and universities in the United States. He has received grants and commissions from Meet the Composer Commissioning Music / USA, the American Composerʼs Forum, the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology, and the President's Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Fund at SOU. He is a professor of art and emerging media at Southern Oregon University where he heads the Cross-disciplinary Studio for Art and Technology (xARTS) and is a core faculty member of the Center for Emerging Media and Digital Arts (EMDA). MORE INFORMATION: A reception will be held at 6 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. RSVP requested to galleryinfo@calit2.net |