Interesting things from ICMC 2006 day 4:
Dan Overholt (CREATE, UCSB) talked about the CUI interface based around a PIC microcontroller and gave lots of nice examples of how the interface has been used by students.
In the education section, it was interesting to see the different strategies and programs at various institutions:
- Georgia Tech: music technology program.
- Arizona State University: Arts, Media and Engineering
- Tulane University: Music Technology
The infamous Convolution Brothers explored the boundaries between cooking and improvisation.
The afternoon program was packed with two paper sessions, posters, demos and a panel at the same time.
I presented my poster on motiongrams.
Max Matthews (CCRMA) held a keynote about the history of computer music. Quote from csounds:
Computer performance of music was born in 1957 when an IBM 704 in NYC played a 17 second composition on the Music I program which I wrote. The timbres and notes were not inspiring, but the technical breakthrough is still reverberating. Music I led me to Music II through V. A host of others wrote Music 10, music 360, music 15, Csound, Cmix, and SuperCollider. Many exciting pieces are now performed digitally.
He ended by mentioning some topics that he believe are important for the future of music technology:
- Psychoacoustics
- Music cognition
- Better ear training for musicians and composers
- Sensors (3D) and haptics
In the evening concert I really enjoyed Russel Pinkston’s (EMS, Austin, Texas) piece for piano and electronics.
