www.x-tet.com » Generative music

FOUND

norbert — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:23:46 +0000

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 7PM @ 101E. 6th Street
Bloomington, Indiana
7PM – 1AM / All ages welcome
$5 / Beer and wine cash bar

A globally cool, local evening of art, design and creative industries celebrating sustainable practices.

FOUND is an extravaganza of sights, sounds and interactions with artists, designers, creatives, musicians, DJs, VJs and performers supporting sustainable practices in art, design, culture and commerce. Creative work and performances in FOUND use hand-built, programmed, open source, DIY, hacked/bent, found or recycled elements and consider sustainable practices.

“Practical Lessons in the Use of English”
by Norbert Herber & Eric Rensberger

An improvisation of words as sound; sounds and words as image. “Practical Lessons in the Use of English” was written by Mary F. Hyde in 1896.

Eric Rensberger has lived in Bloomington, Indiana since 1979. He is a local poet whose collected works may be found at www.ericrensbergerpoetry.net.

Norbert Herber is a musician and sound artist whose research and practice explores the relationship between people and sound within mediated environments.

Also featuring:
Analog Zebra and Snebtor, Younsuk Altieri, Andrew Brennan, Sara Brooks, Amy Burrell, The Canary Project, The Collaboration Room, Laurel Cornell, Terry Dame’s Electric Junkyard Gamelan, William Huster, N_DREW, Caleb Levell and Derek Hopf, Robert Lyon, Andrew Maurer, Edward Morris, Jordon Munson, Annie Murdock, Rob Off, Susannah Sayler, Leslie Sharpe, Mariana Tres, Rachel Weaver, Fabian Winkler

Find Found on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=136939366670

Composition-Instrument Studies

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:46:30 +0000

A musical exploration of space, with reference to Henri Bergson, Guy Debord, Kevin Lynch, and Henri Lefebvre. These studies require the arrow keys of a standard computer keyboard and the Flash player.

Launch first study: Dérive
Launch second study: Mazes

This research has taken me to some unexpected and very interesting places. “Psychogeography” in the writings of Guy Debord (1955) and the idea of “city imageability” by Kevin Lynch (1960) have helped me come to the latent realization of a conceptual spatiality in the way I organize sounds in a musical work. My approach is to first conceptualize the core ideas of a project as different sounds. I then arrange these within a conceptual territory (similar to Henri Lefebvre’s socially produced space (1991)) that is then given over to exploration. Debord’s psychogeography, Lynch’s imageability, and Lefebvre’s social space are all constructions of consciousness. They may make reference to actual physical space, but they are immaterial. These spaces are only real to us as a means of facilitating communication and understanding. I am interested in making music that can be experienced in this way. By conceiving of a subject spatially I find the freedom to explore that subject in all its nuance and complexity. When rooted in sound, spatial concepts can acknowledge potentiality. Movement through space then becomes a kind of instrumental performance where the openness and emergence of true interactivity is articulated through sound, as music.

A(rt) Life 2.0

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:23:54 +0000

A(rt)Life 2.0 is an installation of music, sound, and projected animation. It uses a flocking behavior to reveal the possibilities of sound in Artificial Life systems. A(rt)Life 2.0 examines the relationship of music and emergence by exploring how self-organizing behavior can extend music endlessly in time.

Launch A(rt)Life 2.0 project site

A(rt) Life Study

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:22:54 +0000

A(rt)Life is a new project, initiated Summer 2005. This study uses the PSO algorithm and explores the connection between swarm dynamics and specific parameters of a music composition. Unlike my other PSO-related works this example is only available as an MP3.

Play max.s.o.mp3

AUTOMATIC BODY

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:21:54 +0000

Automatic Body, done in collaboration with Yacov Sharir, is an installation driven by swarm dynamics where individual behaviors are translated into sound and dance. The media has not been optimized for the web, so please excuse the sluggish playback.

Launch AUTOMATIC BODY

Particle Swarm Optimization [2]

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:20:54 +0000

Complexity via simplicity: This piece uses the particle swarm algorithm of Kennedy and Eberhart to make generative music. PSO[2] was premiered at the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing, China in conjunction with “Consciousness Reframed 2004: Qi & Complexity.”

Launch PSO[2]

Word is Virus

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:17:10 +0000

This project is based on the cut-up techniques used by Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs. Burroughs gave a lecture where he discussed his and Gysin’s experiments with cut ups at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in April of 1976. This piece takes that lecture and cuts it into an ever-changing variety of permutations. The lecture is heard in accompaniment with a soundscape and is intended for continuous listening.

Launch “Word is Virus”

Particle Swarm Optimization [1]

norbert — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:19:14 +0000

PSO[1] is my first composition that used the particle swarm algorithm of Kennedy and Eberhart to perform music.

Tonal Clusters

norbert — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:08:08 +0000

This project was completed in May, 2004. Music, as an element of interactive design, shares an equal significance with color palette, typography, imagery, layout, and animation. This piece explores that relationship through the use of non-linear musical composition.

Launch Tonal Clusters

Molly Z Illustration

norbert — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 04:58:29 +0000

Molly Z is an independent illustrator and graphic designer. For this project I did all of the programming, music, and sound.

Launch MollyZ site