Contact Newsletter (Spring), 1982

Contact newsletter published by the Alumni Association of Morehead State University in the spring of 1982

Live Music for Moving Images: Experimenting with customized musical instruments, sound systems, and performance techniques

Live music can be diversely used to accompany moving images. The transition from analog to digital has vastly expanded the possibilities of audio manipulation in live performances. However, the advanced technology does not solve the essential problem: what is needed to create proficient accompaniment? This Master's Thesis introduces two artistic projects, in which a musical score was realized to accompany moving images; a traditional silent film screening and a real-time live cinema performance. The accompaniments were actualized through the use of experimental means, e.g. self-made instruments and sound systems - both digital and analog - compiled specifically for these projects. The text introduces the musical instruments, the performance techniques, and the sound systems used. It begins by analyzing the creative process and goes on to explain the artistic motives and decisions. It also discusses the history of experimental sound art and musical accompaniments as well as compares the projects with these historical aspects. This work both reflects on and attempts to comprehensively answer relevant questions in the field of contemporary sound art including how technology can be used creatively and how the use of technology affects the content

Monochord to moog : a study of the development of stringed keyboard instruments with special reference to popularity trends

The object of the present work has been to trace the evolution of stringed keyboard instruments from the monochord to the present day piano forte. So many inventions have occurred that a chronology of these would be both tedious and of little added value to the existing literature. In the present work the emphasis has been on those innovations which achieved some measure of popularity and can be regarded as essential steps in arriving at the products and methods of modern piano manufacturers. In order to bring this work up to date, visits have been paid to John Broadwood & Sons and the British Piano Museum in London; to the Essex Institute and Pingree House in Salem, Massachusetts; the Smithsonian Institute (Division of Musical Instruments) in Washington; the various Yamaha Factories in Hamamatsu, Japan; and the Piano Manufacturing Company in Wellington, South Africa. Special attention has also been paid to the development and popularity trends of mechanical, pneumatic and electric pianos. In the last Chapter of this study, the information gained is applied to the identification and dating of stringed keyboard instruments found in South Africa or referred to in newspapers or Africana

1982 January - June

Morehead State University press releases from January to June of 1982

Acts of Contrition: An Exploration of Catholic Guilt and Sensory Pleasure in Kinetic Sculpture

This thesis outlines the formulation of a research-based practice in kinetic sculpture. The primary goal is to investigate how historical and contemporary kinetic sculpture might provide a means for exploring the notion of guilt as seen through the paradigm of the Catholic Church by way of sensory pleasure using Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth as a framework. The methodological model upon which this research is based is a hybrid model that combines elements of experimental engineering methodologies (i.e. experimentation, data collection, data analysis, etc.) as well as historical research. The primary outcome is Acts of Contrition, a series of five kinetic sculptures that illustrate a physical representation of the Monomyth and have added to a greater understanding of guilt as experienced via Catholic theology by way of sensory pleasure

Daily Eastern News: September 27, 2019

https://thekeep.eiu.edu/den_2019_sep/1018/thumbnail.jp

Timbral Learning for Musical Robots

abstract: The tradition of building musical robots and automata is thousands of years old. Despite this rich history, even today musical robots do not play with as much nuance and subtlety as human musicians. In particular, most instruments allow the player to manipulate timbre while playing; if a violinist is told to sustain an E, they will select which string to play it on, how much bow pressure and velocity to use, whether to use the entire bow or only the portion near the tip or the frog, how close to the bridge or fingerboard to contact the string, whether or not to use a mute, and so forth. Each one of these choices affects the resulting timbre, and navigating this timbre space is part of the art of playing the instrument. Nonetheless, this type of timbral nuance has been largely ignored in the design of musical robots. Therefore, this dissertation introduces a suite of techniques that deal with timbral nuance in musical robots. Chapter 1 provides the motivating ideas and introduces Kiki, a robot designed by the author to explore timbral nuance. Chapter 2 provides a long history of musical robots, establishing the under-researched nature of timbral nuance. Chapter 3 is a comprehensive treatment of dynamic timbre production in percussion robots and, using Kiki as a case-study, provides a variety of techniques for designing striking mechanisms that produce a range of timbres similar to those produced by human players. Chapter 4 introduces a machine-learning algorithm for recognizing timbres, so that a robot can transcribe timbres played by a human during live performance. Chapter 5 introduces a technique that allows a robot to learn how to produce isolated instances of particular timbres by listening to a human play an examples of those timbres. The 6th and final chapter introduces a method that allows a robot to learn the musical context of different timbres; this is done in realtime during interactive improvisation between a human and robot, wherein the robot builds a statistical model of which timbres the human plays in which contexts, and uses this to inform its own playing.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Media Arts and Sciences 201

Materials systems and autonomy in electromechanical sound art

Sound art is a difficult to categorise and broad genre description that draws together modes of creative practice which use sound as a medium or a subject. The field is considered to be critically underrepresented and under-theorised despite an increase of attention and popularity since the 1990s (Licht 2007, 2001, Cox 2009). This is partly as a consequence of an analytical and historical emphasis on textual and conceptual approaches which dominated the arts through the 1970s and 1980s (Cox 2011, 2013). In particular, acknowledgement of the influence of object-based and kinetic sculpture within the field of sound art is found to be inadequate (Chau 2014, Keylin 2015). This thesis presents an original body of sound art practice as a means through which to uncover and explore connections between sound art, experimental composition, kinetic art and sculpture. The term 'electromechanical' is used to identify this work, highlighting its particular concerns with the use of electrically animated or amplified materials. Through the production, exhibition, critical appraisal and contextualisation of the work new observations and distinctions within the field are presented. These include the identification of a 'closed system aesthetic' and the distinction between robotic and process driven approaches to electromechanical sound art. A further contribution to the field consists of a detailed consideration of sound art emerging from an intersection of experimental music and sculptural practices during the 1960s. The original works produced for the project, and their production are documented and described in detail alongside existing canonical and contemporary examples of sound art. Analysis of these works is informed by materialist and object-orientated critical positions, and science and technology studies. The method of art practice as research is described and extended in an original way that encompasses and applies a systems approach to creative practice

University of Dayton Magazine. Summer 2018

The University of Dayton Magazine is published quarterly by the Office of Communications for alumni, parents, students, faculty/staff, trustees and other friends of UD. Articles include Making a spectacle, On the prairie, and Happy retirement: Experts do an about face and find fulfillment in new endeavors.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/dayton_mag/1221/thumbnail.jp