Category Archives: Collaborators

Distant Yet Audible

Distant Yet Audible, Commissioned and Premiered by Sarah Plum, VTNMT Festival, December 7, 2022

Link to Score and Performance Audio Files

Hardware & Software Needed

  • A robot vacuum with remote control: the composer used Eufy Robovac 11S
  • Bluetooth speaker: a light but loud model that can go on top of the robot vacuum
  • Audio player app on a phone or a computer: must have shuffle and Bluetooth function
  • A stage with minimum obstacles for the robot vacuum

Performers needed

  • Violinist: on stage along with the robot vacuum
  • Tech operator: controls the robot vacuum and audio player off stage

Hardware Preparation

  1. Pair the Bluetooth speaker and the audio player
  2. Attach the Bluetooth speaker on top of the robot vacuum. Secure it with tape
  3. Download all audio files (mp3) from https://joowonpark.net/distantyetaudible 
  4. Put the audio files into a playlist in the music player app
  5. Turn on the Shuffle mode to randomize the playback order of the files
  6. Place the robot vacuum and its charger on the stage

Score example and explanation 

Cue #

Low Energy / Slow / QuietHigh Energy / Fast / Loud
  • In each cue, the violinist chooses a phrase from 4-6 options. If the sound emitted from the robot vacuum seems to be in the low energy/slow/quiet category, choose a phrase from the left column. Choose a phrase from the right column if the vacuum sound fits the high energy/fast/loud category.
  • The following determines the cue duration.
    • Duration of the audio file. Go to the next cue if a new audio file plays. 
    • Time for the vacuum to take a turn. If the vacuum changes its direction, go to the next cue.
    • Violinist can signal the tech operator to go to the next cue
  • The regular bar line in the notation indicates the duration of the cue. If a cue lasts 30 seconds, play the phrase between the regular bar line for approximately 30 seconds
  • The repeat bar line in the notation indicates that the phrase should be repeated until the next cue.
  • Improvise the pitch and rhythm according to the note shapes and positions
    • Notes within the bar line: play mid-range notes
    • Notes above the bar line: play high-range notes
    • Notes below the bar line: play low-range notes
    • Note durations: interpret according to the current cue
      • Whole notes and half notes: very slow and slow 
      • Quarter notes: not fast nor slow 
      • Eighth notes: fast 
    • Glissando: notated as a  line connecting two notes
    • Rectangular note heads: play airy, noise-like yet-pitched tone
    • X note heads: mute strings

Performance Instruction for the Tech Operator

  • The Tech operator’s main job is to cue the robot vacuum and the audio player.
  • If the audio player plays the next track, go to the next cue by changing the vacuum’s direction 
  • If the vacuum turns to a different direction before the end of the audio file, go to the next cue by skipping to the next audio file on the audio player.
  • At the performer’s signal to go to the next cue, change the direction of the vacuum and skip to the next audio file.
  • Note that the beginning of the piece (cue #0) is a vacuum solo. The audio file starts to play at cue #1
  • Note the specific sequence of turning off the vacuum and the audio player at cues #28-30 

Contact Joo Won Park for questions or inquiries (https://www.facebook.com/joowonmusic/ or https://joowonpark.net/)

Nested Duets (2022)

In Nested Duets, an ensemble of any size and kind can improvise with one or more laptops running a generative music app. The computer has two roles:  it provides possible pitch choices for the human performers and creates accompanying electronic sounds. The performance instruction is on the computer screen. 

Download and Recording

DropBox Download: contains instructions and SuperCollider file

Performers: Kevin Declaire, Samuel Khalil, De’Andre Little, Jose Llanas, Logan Macka, Lucas Manther, James McCloskey, Joseph Mcelwain, Mal McNitt, Niko Poljanac-Leboeuf, Christopher Reid, Abby Thibodeau, Nathan Zonnevylle
Recording Team: Sinead Cassar, Kevin Declaire, Logan Macka, James McCloskey, Niko Poljanac-Leboeuf, Christopher Reid

Hardware and Software Requirements

  • Computer: PC or Mac. There can be one or more computers. In general, have one computer per 2-3 performers.
  • SuperCollider: Download and Install the app https://supercollider.github.io/downloads.html Mac users will need admin access to the computer to authorize the app
  • NestedDuets.scd file: Download NestedDuets.scd file from https://joowonpark.net/nestedduets
  • Amp and cable: Connect the amp to the computer. If the ensemble is miking the instruments, connect the output of the computer to the house mixer.

Running the Computer Part

  1. Open NesteDuets.scd in SuperCollider.
  2. Select Menu->Language->Evaluate File.
  3. For transposing instruments, enter the transposition in half-steps (positive number only).
  4. Press the “1. Click to start” button. You should hear sounds after a countdown. There is no need for a synchronized beginning when using multiple computers.
  5. When ending, press the “2. Running. Click to end” button. Wait for all sounds to end. Coordinate when to end the piece with the ensemble members.
  6. Press the “3. End. Click to reset” button to reset. Repeat steps 1-5 for replay.

Performance Instruction

  1. Improvise using the pitches displayed in the GUI.
  2. The pitch choices changes at a random pace after a countdown in the top-right corner of the GUI.
  3. Improvise dynamics and articulations.
  4. Make a noticeable change on the “downbeat” after the countdown.
  5. Play like an ambient track. Less is more. Blend in. Play complimentary sounds to the computer part.
  6. Percussionists can improvise freely in ambient style. Avoid making beats if possible.

Commission Info

Nested Duets was part of the 2022 Black Mountain College Radio Art program. 103.3 Asheville FM’s Lucid aired the piece on December 12, 2022. Electronic Music Ensemble of Wayne State (EMEWS) thanks BMC and 103.3 Asheville FM for the opportunity!

Music For Dance

I have been writing and performing electronic music for dance for more than a decade. I learned so much from choreographers, and I look forward to working with them more in the future. Here’s a documentation of my music for dance so far.

Improvisation with Megan Bridge at Philadelphia City Hall (2012)

My dance collaboration started as an improviser. Megan Bridge of the Fidget and I met in Philadelphia, and we had many improv sessions. May sessions I had with the dancers during my Philly years (2008-2014) made me a better musician and listener. Below is another improvisation project with Erick Montes, Eunjung Choi, and Guillermo Ortega Montes.

The strangest thing (2014)

When I moved to Oberlin, I was fortunate to work with Holly Handman-Lopez. I was involved in producing an evening-length show about the woman suffrage movement. My role was to compose music with a short deadline and multiple changes/edits. I learned how to communicate with choreographers and dance production staff. Unfortunately, I do not have footage of the actual performance, but below are a promo video (with someone else’s music) and a recording session of a piece used in the show.

In Detroit, my current stomping ground, I continue to work with the dancers with different roles. In 2021, I worked with IS/LAND as a technologist. I provided an electromagnetic instrument that made sounds as the dancers approach an object. I was happy to be a part of a production as non-composer or non-performer (but still as a musician)

Invisible Embrace by IS/LAND (2021)

Last April, Biba Bell and I collaborated to make a 60min site-specific piece for dance and electronic ensemble. My job was to make music and direct an ensemble consisting of nine electronic musicians. It was the largest work I have ever worked on in terms of the number of people involved. The documentation of the work was also excellent.

A Dream Is A House for remembering the future (2022)

My most recent collaboration is with Joori Jung of Artlab J. Through this collaboration, I worked with a Pansori singer to compose a 20min music. The collaboration also took me to a new stage. I never thought my music was going to be on an Asian Culture Showcase! The video documentation is on the way, but here are pictures of the rehearsal.

Dance and music are time-based arts, and dancers and musicians learn from each other. I am grateful that I had opportunities to work with excellent choreographers and improvisers. I look forward to doing more projects with movements! I am not a dancer myself, but I am studying the relationship between movement and sound. Check out the video below!

A DREAM IS A HOUSE for remembering the future


A DREAM IS A HOUSE for remembering the future from Biba bell on Vimeo.

A DREAM IS A HOUSE for remembering the future, created in collaboration by Biba Bell (Dance) and Joo Won Park (Music), is an hour-long immersive performance created for twenty-one Wayne State University (WSU) dancers and the WSU Electronic Music Ensemble in Minoru Yamasaki’s McGregor Conference Center atrium. A DREAM IS A HOUSE brings together sound, light, movement, embodiment, and storytelling together in the cathedral-esque modernism of Yamasaki’s architecture, evoking creative research driven by memory palaces, buildings as bodies, dream scenes, dancing with ghosts, and personal and collective ritual making. – from Vimeo site

My ensemble (EMEWS) and I worked with Biba and her Dance Class to make a site-specific, multi-channel piece over the Winter 2022 semester. The above is an excerpt of a 60-min piece. McGregor Hall’s architecture and acoustics were ideal for music and movement. I am happy about the result. The in-person experience was something unique, but Noah Eliott Morrison‘s team documented the essential experience of the piece in the video. 

Although EMEWS has worked on the piece since March, I started working on it in August 2021. Biba and I spent Fall 2021 trying ideas and finding voices. The video below is a shorter version of A DREAM…  presented at an end-of-semester showcase.

A dream is a house for remembering the future 12.07.21 from Biba bell on Vimeo.

The Fall version’s 15min stereo audio expanded to a 60-min piece for a laptop ensemble and a guitarist, each emitting sounds from a portable amp. The music evolved and adjusted every week as the choreography changed, and the ensemble ended up performing based on the score below.
I think music can have an altered life. I plan to perform an audio-only ensemble version in an upcoming show. Let’s see how it goes.