Category Archives: Uncategorized

A DREAM IS A HOUSE for remembering the future

05/24/2022Collaborators, Compositions, Performances, Uncategorizedcollaboration, composition, electroacoustic, electronic ensemblejoowonpark

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.

Page Turner’s Agony – Live at SEAMUS 2022

04/23/2022Uncategorizedcomposition, computer music, live electronic music, supercolliderjoowonpark

I performed Page Turner’s Agony at SEAMUS 2022. I customized and updated the original SuperCollider so I can perform without looking at a computer screen. The performance was archived by Deck10 Media.

Page Turner’s Agony (2021)

10/18/2021Uncategorizedperformances, supercolliderjoowonpark

A page turner, in my experience, has one of the most stressful musical roles. A single mistake could ruin the concert, but the audience does not recognize the turner’s craftsmanship when the task gets done skillfully. Performing music with a computer shares the same position. A mouse click or fader movement on stage does not get praise since anybody can do it. Yet, electronic musicians practice sequences and combinations of those simple actions to express and share something unique. I hope that this piece shows the possibility of digital virtuosity.

SuperCollider code:

PageTurner.scd Download

Kresge Artist Fellow Movie

06/25/2021Uncategorizedjoowonpark

Film by Ben Corona in collaboration with Joo Won Park
Produced by Lara Sfire and Kresge Arts in Detroit

I am pleased to share a short movie capturing my artistic practice. Ben Corona did a phenomenal job!

Octaves in BPM 120

03/22/2021Uncategorizedcomputermusic, electronic music, music, supercolliderjoowonpark

In music, a form helps us to remember. We notice patterns in a form. When we recognize patterns displayed in time, the past makes sense. I invite listeners of Octaves in BPM 120 to focus on patterns and sequences. Listen to the order and combination of elements. Melodies and harmonies are not relevant in this piece as all pitches are Gs. I hope that the order and manner I present five sounds with different characters are delightful nonetheless.

Octaves In BPM 120 Score and SuperCollider File (.zip)Download