Archive

CNMAT welcomes the Tana String Quartet as an ensemble in residence for November, 2018. Public events include a concert at CNMAT on November 11th featuring new works by UC Berkeley graduate student composers and a concert at the Center for New Music in San Francisco on November 13th featuring works from the group's repertoire.

Recent developments in Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are opening up new, unprecedented ways of representation and interaction.

Alice Unchained is a virtual chamber for chamber music. It is the third work loosely inspired by Alice in Wonderland, created by media artist Claudia Hart and composer Edmund Campion, Director, at the Center for New Music and Audio Technology, UC Berkeley. Alice mashes 3D animation, motion-captured live performance, and music performed by live and virtual musicians whose sound is analyzed in real-time and remixed in the bodies of sculptural avatars. It feeds-back the virtual and the live, blending them together in a liminal, uncanny mix.

In the Summer of 2018 CNMAT was awarded a grant to construct infrastructure for producing mobile, multi-channel concert events.  We set out to construct a surround audio system, designed with robust mobility in mind, that can be rapidly deployed in numerous performance contexts.  The result is the CNMAT Mobile Array, an expandable mobile infrastructure for sonic events.  The system is conceived to be deployed in under an hour by a small crew of one or two people.  Its speaker elements are weather protected to enable work outdoors and we have included a number of flexible rigging options to

Sound and Habitat Audio Prototyping Environment (SHAPE) is a collection of nature-inspired electroacoustic devices created for sound art in public spaces. It is part of an ongoing audio feedback research project at the Center For New Music and Audio Technologies. By repurposing old electronics and manufactured objects, low-cost materials are used to make interactive sound sculptures and musical instruments. Subtle gestures and actions by participants change the sound in real time.

BLOOM is a flower-like analog oscillator on a transparent substrate comprised of three piezoelectric transducers, one transistor, one 3V battery, three LEDs, three photoresistors, and three resistors. Configured in a feedback loop, the circuit self-oscillates and produces variable light/sound sequences. The transparent substrate and stem-like conductive trace design gives each component an aesthetic quality. Photoresistors on the piezo elements provide subtle interaction by changing the electrical resistance when light is more or less present.

In Spring 2019 Jeremy Wagner set out to build a piano resonating device for upcoming research projects and performances by CNMAT composers.  This work draws heavily on prior design work by Per Bloland, et al. with some improvements specific to upcoming CNMAT projects.  The design brief called for a device meeting the following criteria:

TONE is an analog audio feedback circuit with a tree-like array of three electret condenser microphones, resonant 4Ω loudspeaker, 9V amplifier, and cylindrical waveguide. Acrylic 'leaf' microphone mounts are suspended at the end of each cylindrical 'branch.' Acoustic feedback is situated by arranging the loudspeaker upward toward the mic array. As pressure waves propagate upward from the loudspeaker, sound is filtered through the pipes before arriving at the mic array, thus introducing non-linearities and expressive opportunities.

A E R is a site-specific installation, by UC Berkeley Graduate Composer Didem Coskunseven and Engin Daglik (Stanford), focusing on turning a ‘transitive space’ into a ‘space of experience’ by using lighting design and interactive spatial sound design in such a way that they manifest both an uncanny and inviting ambience. The work consists of four light structures hung on the surfaces of a shipping container and 8-channel interactive audio immersed in this transitive space.

t h e b o d y y o u d r e a m o f i s y o u r o w n (2019) is a musical theater piece designed and composed by UC Berkeley Music and Data Science Senior, Trevor Van de Velde. The project incorporates elements of video installation, microprocessors, and live performance. Inspired by the aesthetics of vaporwave, the body you dream seeks to explore our bodies in relation to technology. The installation consists of video and audio of white noise emanating from these artefacts that slowly diverge into those of the corporeal body.

From concerts and research conducted in the main room of our main facility at 1750 Arch Street in Berkeley, CA to large-scale installations in concert halls at UC Berkeley and beyond, enabling the exploration of a spatial dimension in music composition remains a central feature of CNMAT's research agenda.  

The CNMAT StompBox 2.0 is being designed, programmed and assembled by Music and Computer Science major Luke Dzwonczyk with support from CNMAT's Jeremy Wagner and Professor Edmund Campion.  Luke completed Music 158A and Music 158B which qualified him to participate in the Music and Technology "Discovery Experience", a CNMAT and Department of Music initiative to increase Undergraduate Research and Capstone projects involving music and technology at CNMAT.