CCRMA Colloquium: Chris Chafe and Ge Wang

Abstract: Francis Bacon, writing in 1626 as if he had one hand on a crystal ball,

imagined a world with "sound-houses, where we practise and demonstrate

all sounds and their generation" and "means to convey sounds in trunks

and pipes, in strange lines and distances." Digital synthesis and

expanding networks for network-based music are compellingly

close to this vision. The talk presents a survey of experimental

music-making using the Internet. "What does it mean to `be here,' when

here is there, and there is here?" It's a question which not only

pertains to these practices but also to real-time networked media

in general. It was asked by a concert reviewer after a performance with

musicians online together in California and China who were

experimenting with music which could only exist in this new "place." 

 

Chris Chafe is a composer, improvisor, and cellist, developing much of his music alongside computer-based research. He is Director of Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). At IRCAM (Paris) and The Banff Centre (Alberta), he pursued methods for digital synthesis, music performance and real-time internet collaboration. CCRMA's SoundWIRE project involves live concertizing with musicians the world over.

 

 

 

This presentation explores the transformative possibilities of combining art, technology, and design to create tools, toys, instruments, and social experiences to make music in new expressive ways.  We will take a journey through software design for music, expressive audio programming, laptop and mobile phone orchestras, mobile/social music apps like Ocarina and Leaf Trombone: World Stage, and an emerging dimension where the computer, music, and people interact. This talk will also cover some recent, ongoing, and emerging collaborations, including musical design for virtual reality, visualizing Turenas for the Allosphere, and continuing exploration of music programming languages (FaucK, ChucK::VR, and more).

 

Ge Wang is an Assistant Professor at Stanford University's CCRMA, and researches the art of design in music and technology, specializing in programming languages and interactive software design for computer music, mobile music, laptop orchestras, and education at the intersection of computer science and music. Ge is the author of the ChucK music programming language, the founding director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk). Ge is also the Co-founder of Smule (reaching over 125 million users) and the designer of the iPhone's Ocarina and Magic Piano.  He is a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow and is writing a book on design through the lens of computer music.