MTT research cluster extra muros

• Corcoran School of Arts and Design, George Washington University (27 Feb)

Presentation by Orpheus Research Fellow Juan Parra Cancino and Director of Research Jonathan Impett.

• New York City Electroacoustic Improvisation Summit (29 Feb)

Performance by Juan Parra Cancino and Jonathan Impett: Three states of wax (guitar and trumpet interacting with/through the authors' Timbre Networks and Artificial Life for music software). → More info

• Downtown Music Gallery, New York (1 March)

Performance by Juan Parra Cancino and Jonathan Impett: Three states of wax

Three states of wax 

This performance aims to merge Parra's work on "Timbre Networks" with Impett's research on the use of A-Life to design interactive environments for electronic music performance. We aim to address the terms and definitions of complex systems as a metaphor for structuring improvisation. We are looking at the notion of complex systems from two perspectives: From the perspective of network architecture, where actors and acting agencies are articulated as nodes and threads. In this approach, particular structures determine the connections and interdependences between nodes and the potential affordances of connecting multiple nodes, and, As A-Life, where we focus on the inner nature and behavior of the actor-nodes themselves: Phenomena such as recursivity, decay and acceleration are then embodied as primary musical behaviours. In this view, network architecture becomes an emergent (musical) structure. The interaction and affect/effect of the resulting friction between these simultaneous perspectives unfolds itself as the network, and the performance.