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.
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.
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.
I write notes and comments in books, journals, and PDFs. Underlines and scribbles of my thoughts do not change the work, but they help me remember what I liked most about the work and the artist. The four tracks in this album are the sonic equivalent of notes and comments. I highlighted the most memorable characteristics while trying my best to preserve the intent of the original piece. The last track is not a remix, but it is my way to document a few good things about the summer of 2020.
* All tracks were used with the permission of the composers/publishers. Profits made from the sale will be distributed to the remixed artists. * Overall mix of the EP is relatively low and uncompressed for quiet listening.
credits
released February 2, 2022
Molly Jones, Alex Koi, Michael Malis, & Jienan Yuan, composers Joo Won Park, composer & remixer
Sum and Difference is a collaborative composition guideline for music technologists. Each member of the ensemble joins in an online meeting platform to process audio files according to the score. The result is new sample-based compositions that share similar characteristics. The pieces are also different due to the variety of the original samples and the ensemble member’s improvised parameter changes. For participants, Sum and Difference is more about the process of making it than the result. In the pandemic-influenced time, the joy of creating music together, the joy of creating something from nothing in an ensemble, is severely limited. But the current situation forces music technologists to experiment with collaborative methods best suited for online interaction. Sum and Difference works best when each member is on the Internet, physically alienated from the rest of the world.
by Joo Won Park
Performers
Number of performers: 4-10
Needed technology
A web folder accessible by all performers
An audio editor or DAW for each performer
Needed skills
Experience and knowledge in digital audio editing and processing
Data organization and management skills
Preparation
Make a sharable web folder
Upload recordings of non-musical sound with the file names shown in the score (A0.wav, B0.wav, etc.)
The number of uploaded audio files should equal the number of performers
Each audio file should be 2-5 seconds long
Each audio file should be distinct from the others
Each performer should plan a processing or editing technique to change an audio file
Use any DAWs or apps
Establish a short and repeatable process. The performer should be able to execute it within 5-10 minutes
Execution
Step 0. Gather using a remote meeting platform such as Zoom or Google Meet. Assign one performer to one Processor.
Step 1. Download, process, and upload the audio file from the web folder according to the score.
Each cell in the score has ▼FileName-P-▲FileName. Here’s an example of how to interpret it
If the cell has ▼A0-P-▲B1
Download file named A0.wav from the web folder
Process the sound according to the plan
Export the sound with file name B1.wav, and upload it to the web folder
Step 2-10. After 10 minutes, repeat the download-process-upload procedure described in Step 1.
Vary the processing parameters (i.e., move knobs, use different settings)
Strive to add a few more seconds of sounds
Edit and polish the sound if possible (i.e., delete the silence at the beginning, normalize, etc.)
Be consistent with the file format. Use a format readable by all platforms, such as .wav and .aif
Last Step. Share and listen to the resulting sounds. The number of final tracks should equal the number of performers.
Made by Electronic Music Ensemble of Wayne State (EMEWS) on Jan 20, 2021
Matthew Banka, Maxwel Bourgeois, Garrison Briggs, Daniel Kozlowski, Logan Macka, Benjamin Schornack, Alec Segel, Mark Whalen, Daniel Yates, Michael Younger
My friend and musical role model Starkey released a collaborative album. In technical terms, it is a project extended from ISJS. In aesthetical terms, the project is about restraints and forms. Personally, and most importantly, it is two friends saying ‘hey!’ to each other.
Starkey joins friend and composer Joo Won Park for an EP entitled “Piano Triplets” on NOREMIXES. The release showcases Joo Won Park’s unique supercollider processing over Starkey’s production samples. Three unique pieces, each consisting of only three samples: hardware and software synthesis meets piano in these short bursts of experimentation.
