DESCRIPTION:
Shawn Greenlee
Quarries - improvisation with objects

Shawn Greenlee is a composer and sound artist. Greenlee’s solo and group discography spans over fifty releases to date, complemented by an active practice as an exhibiting artist and sound designer. He has performed extensively across the United States and Europe, appearing on several conferences, festivals, and tours. These include New Interfaces for Musical Expression (2015 Baton Rouge, 2014 London, and 2013 Daejeon), Re-new (2013 Copenhagen), International Computer Music Conference (2011 Huddersfield and 2005 Barcelona), IN TRANSIT (2008 Berlin), and Elevate (2007 Graz), among several others. Greenlee is Associate Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he is also the Programs Head for the Division of Experimental & Foundation Studies. In 2008, he completed his Ph.D. in Computer Music & New Media at Brown University. In 2014, he was awarded the MacColl Johnson Fellowship for music composition by the Rhode Island Foundation.

Quarries is a piece for electroacoustic improvisation centered on software created in Pure Data situated within an erratic synthesis and audio processing system devised for performance with percussion instruments, including the kkwaenggwari (a small Korean gong). This system includes a laptop alongside separate synthesizer and effects modules programmed with Pd (e.g. the Hoxton Owl, Bela platform). Both through chance and intention, using the patches running across devices, the performer records segments of the developing sound while the system outputs aleatoric recombinations and alterations. The player hunts for emergent patterns, improvising within the arising circumstances.

Audio, Adam Mirza

Friday, November 18, 2016
New York University, Room 220
2:30 PM