Category Archives: Performances

A DREAM IS A HOUSE for remembering the future

Collaborators, Compositions, Performances, Uncategorized, , ,


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. 




Electronic Ensemble Repertoire

Compositions, Performances, , ,

Here are my compositions for electronic ensemble since 2016. They are categorized by the gears needed.

Laptops

Singaporean Crosswalk (2016)

Dubious Toppings (2019)

Sum and Difference (2021) *for remote rehearsal and performance

Four Hit Combo (2024)

Laptops or Phones

Beat Matching (2018)

CML Suite (2020)

  • Info and score
  • Need: 3 or more computer, tablet, or phone. Amplification strongly recommended

Laptops and Acoustic Instruments

Nested Duets (2022)

Laptops With Controllers

PS Quartet No.1 (2017)

PS Quartet No. 2 (2019)

Electronic Instruments

On Off Fade (2019)

Seven Bird Watchers (2019)

Aphasia (2009) by Mark Applebaum – performed by Joo Won Park

Influences, Performances, Research, , ,

I got obsessed with Mark Applebaum’s Aphasia (2009) in the past two months. I perform my own music and often improvise, so studying and learning another composer’s piece with a score was challenging. But Applebaum is one of my electroacoustic heroes, and I have wanted to try Aphasia for a decade. After about two months of practice, I think I learned enough to enjoy performing it. Thank you for watching!

Seven Bird Watchers (2019) – Performance by EMEWS

Compositions, Performances

Composer: Joo Won Park

Performers: Jacob Joslin, Gavin Langley, Alex MacColl-Artrip,  Sean Monaghan

Scores and info: https://joowonpark.net/sevenbirdwatchers/

Tutorial: https://youtu.be/FK58MvomSlI

Seven Bird Watchers is an electronic ensemble piece featuring synchronized tempo change and graphical notation. The pre-recorded audio file syncs all drum machines to seven sections of accelerando and ritardando. The performers’ task is to change the parameters of the drum machine according to the notation.

Compare EMEWS’ performance with my multitrack version. I like EMEWS one more!