1996 New Works Residencies

Caterina Borelli and Sandra Seymour for the soundtrack on “Metrics,” the second in a series of three video tapes that investigate the similarities and differences between literary work and works that employ moving images. The music will be composed with found/recorded sound of industrial machinery. The first of the series, “Prologue” was shown at the third Mostra Video Independent, Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona, Spain. It will also be screened in June 1996 at the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh.

Lawrence Brose for a soundtrack for the film “De Profundis.” The soundtrack, much like the film itself, will be a multi-layered composition of spoken texts and other altered audio samples to create a multiphonic wall of sounds. The lyrics are excerpted passages from Oscar Wilde’s letter from prison “De Profundis” as well as his other writings. Wilde’s passages will be combined with a sound environment of colliding voices from several prerecorded sources that question the framing of a singular voice in the 90’s gay movement and thereby shattering an ideological framework of normalization. “De Profundis” is expected to be shown at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, the Munich Museum of Film and other international venues. The film will also be distributed by Frameline Distribution, Canyon Cinema, London Filmmakers Co-Op, Light Cone Distribution in France, and the NY Filmmakers Co-Op.Zoe Beloff for “Beyond”, an interactive multimedia project. The piece is a philosophical inquiry exploring the paradoxes of technology and imagination posed since the birth of mechanical reproduction: the phonograph severing the voice from the body, photography capturing the soul and cinema resurrecting the dead. Beloff’s piece will be available on CD-ROM and also on the Web.

Tom Cora for the creation of a sound track to Dziga Vertov’s, “The Man with the Movie Camera.” In this particular piece, Cora plays the cello using a STEIM-built controller, while his feet are engaged in live editing and reconstruction of the material. Samples of the created sounds are sped up, slowed down, frozen in “stills,” collaged in various modulations, recalled for flashbacks, reversed and re-edited on the run to create this unique composition. The audio CD is expected to be released by Tellus in 1997.

Nick Didkovsky

Nick Didkovsky for a suite of compositions and improvisations that incorporate solo, duo, and multitracked electric guitar. This project will complete a body of work that will be released on CD.

Linda Dusman

Linda Dusman for “The Voice in Rama,” a visual and sonic gallery installation which investigates the impact of human beings on the natural world — specifically the songbird population. The title of the piece, the “Voice in Rama,” makes an analogy between the plight of the songbird population and the Biblical slaughter of the innocents. The installation will be exhibited at the Clark University Gallery, Worcester, Massachusetts, in February 1996 and also at the International Computer Music Conference in Hong Kong in August 1996.

Annie Gosfield

Annie Gosfield for a new composition entitled, “Burnt Wires and Loose Ivory,” a large-scale work for altered piano. The piece will explore combinations of traditional and non-traditional piano techniques. For example, Gosfield will contrast detuned or microtonally tuned piano samples with equal-tempered instruments and combine a notated score with improvisational techniques in order to break the barriers of traditional piano composition. The piece will be broadcast by KPFA, Berkeley; KCBC, Santa Barbara; and KOTR, Saint Luis Obispo.

Masahiko Kono

Masahiko Kono for a new music composition that incorporates trombone, space, electronics, and computer. The CD will be aired by KPFA-FM  in Berkeley California and FM MINI in Tokyo, Japan.

Lou Mallozzi

Lou Mallozzi for sound work on the radio show “Drift.” In this piece, Mallozi will investigate language’s dual nature as bodily utterance and conveyor of meaning by using a combination of studio recordings, location recordings, and electronics to explore texts and narrative structures that drift, slip, or decompose in meaning, utterance, intent, and materiality. The radio show will be aired by: WHPK-FM, Chicago; CJSR-FM, Edmonton; WZRD-FM, Chicago; WLUW, Chicago; KNUM-FM, Albuquerque; and CKDU-FM, Halifax.

Myra Melford

Myra Melford for the sound track for “My House Was Collapsing Toward One Side.” This dance/music/theater piece uses the details of everyday life on earth to evoke a sense of mortality and fleetingness. The piece will explore the lives of three Japanese women from different times: the 10th Century, Hiroshima in 1945 and contemporary New York. Melford’s piece will be shown at Dance Theater Workshop, NYC during March and April 1996.

Neta Pulvermacher

Neta Pulvermacher for sound tracks for “Long Story Short,” “To Bite an Orange with its Peel,” and “Matza Matzot.” All three are dance/theater projects. “Long Story Short” is a site piece created for the Danspace Project. It draws from the common human experiences of desire, loneliness and alienation. Musically it is a collage of various John Zorn pieces with recorded and live texts and whistling. “To Bite an Orange with its Peel” investigates the interplay of rhythmic patterns in music and movement. Driven by the passion of Schumann’s Lieder, this suite of ten dances evokes images of nature while exploring the human stages of love and infatuation. “Matza Matzot’ is a solo for Pulvermacher with a bunch of Matzas. “Long Story Short” and “To Bite an Orange with its Peel” will be presented by Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church in February 1996. “Matza Matzot” will be presented at the Knitting Factory in April 1996.

Frank Ortega

Frank Ortega for the recording of the radio show, “Toward Akaba.” This audio journal will track a personal journey through the Middle East during the “Gulf Crisis,” starting in Istanbul on the back of a Bedford truck and ending in Cairo on a “flying coffin.” “The soldier watches the border, that absurd cyclone fence representing a new line on the map, a change of stationary.” The show will be offered to Pacifica Program Service, NPR,  and American Public Radio as well as individual radio stations.

Nelson Smith

Nelson Smith for sound work on “Human Radiation,” a performance piece that occurs within a self-contained installation. The work explores the idea of human mental energy. Objects which include small appliances and house objects are used as mediums for communication or generating energy. In performance, the performer interacts with the objects and speaks/intones texts that are integrated with an electronic sound/music score as well as with audio samples that emerge from the environment itself. The installation/performance piece will be shown at The Theater at Marygrove College, Detroit, and at the Performance Network in Ann Arbor in fall 1996.

Helen Thorington

Helen Thorington for “North Country” an interactive multimedia project inspired by an article in a local newspaper that reported the discovery of an unidentified skeleton in the vicinity of North Elbe, NY. “North Country” focuses on the theme of disappearance, using short blocks or fragments of texts to shape its particular web of related ideas. Snow, water, things remembered and forgotten, the skeleton of a tamarack tree, a dead woman, and other elements intertwine in a narrative that is the plurality of its connections. Thorington’s piece will be available on CD-ROM and also on New Radio and Performing Arts’ Web site (http://www.somewhere.org).

Catherine Weis

Catherine Weis for sound work on the video/performance piece “FRACTURED, Just the fracts, ma’am.” In this piece Weis poses the question, “When technology and the human body become partners, who leads?” Video imagery, sound elements and live performers move separately throughout the piece, coming together at odd moments to ignite in flamboyant vignettes. The incredible downtown cast of six unacceptable yet inspired divas include: Scott Heron, Anne Iobst, Ishmael Houston Jones, Jennifer Miller, Jennifer Munson and Cathy Weis herself. The piece will be performed at the Dance Theater Workshop, NYC in March 1996.

The Programming Residencies are for acoustic and electronic music composers who wish to explore and incorporate into their work the capabilities of computer music MIDI systems. The residencies include a professional software instructor and access to the Studio PASS Macintosh computer’s music software and MIDI equipment. This year’s recipients were: Lisa Karrer, Fred Lonberg-Holm,  and Leopanar Witlarge.