Natures and Numbers in Music

Partnering with Composers Now Festival, Harvestworks presents a “behind the scenes” look at how algorithmic systems and data inspire and shape new music by these contemporary sound art and experimental music composers. It will feature presentations by Liz Phillips with Butoh Dancer Mariko Endo Reynolds, plus Tom Hamilton, followed by a panel discussion.

Composer and interactive artist Liz Phillips with Butoh Dancer Mariko Endo Reynolds will perform a short version that shows how their collaborative work “Biyuu” activates the body’s potential energy fields with dynamic and radical events in nature—bamboo, tall reeds and water. Our behind the scenes look will include a new video document of the performances of “Biyuu” by video artist Mary Lucier and a demonstration of Phillips’ system where Mariko’s body becomes an antenna that interacts with the 3-D sound and video performance landscape.

The short performance will be followed by Tom Hamilton’s “London Fix (music changing with the price of gold)” an 8 channel composition created specifically for loudspeakers and presented in a darkened room to facilitate a superior listening experience. “London Fix” follows the contours of the spot gold market as defined by the twice-daily London Fix. The composer used price charts to animate an electronic pitch-making system of his own design, mapping the charts to control individual pitch possibilities, range, and portamento. He used the historical chart data both in a linear and recursive fashion, resulting in sonic fluctuations that compress and superimpose time in a way that discourages any literal interpretation. The CD recording of London Fix was released by Muse-Eek Publications, and was awarded an Honorary Mention in the 2004 Prix Ars Electronica; one of ten in a field of over 600 entries. London Fix was first presented at CCNOA in Brussels, as part of the 2003 Earwitness series.