Here’s a small tribute to his life and work.

Subtropics Marathon 18 / photo: luis olazaba

“Soundscape with K-Man: Destination Unknown” (2008) GM - 1MB; audio format: mp3

A contribution from HED: (5″x7″) poster that Art was distributing at one of the mid-80s exhibition/events at Moosart Gallery (while dressed in quasi-military gear and orchestrating an army of miniature rockets, soldiers, etc from a camouflaged rolling cart):

Listen to Lorenzo Lebrija, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Program Director for Miami, explain the foundation’s new Knight Arts Partnership initiative. The workshop meeting, sponsored by the Cultural Affairs Department, took place Monday, March 24, at 2:30 PM at Miami-Dade County Commission Chamber. A 20-minute presentation was followed by an extended question and answer period. Only the 20-minute presentation is included here.

The program deadline is Tuesday, April 15, 2008

For more information visit Knight Foundation

(audio no longer available)

Composer Nic Collins, author of the book Handmade Electronic Music conducts a lecture recounting his experiences in the world of circuit-bending and hardware-hacking. Those participating in his two-day intensive hardware-hacking workshop are encouraged to attend this lecture which complements the workshop. This lecture is presented in collaboration with ArtCenter South Florida and the 2008 Winter Music Conference (WMC08)

thursday, march 27, 2008 / 7:30 PM
ArtCenter South Florida
800 Lincoln Road Mall, Miami Beach
admission: $15 - free to WMC08 badge holders
and hardware-hacking workshop participants

this is an official WMC08 event

nic collins leads a hardware-hacking & circuit-bending workshop as part of his 2008 isaw residency. this workshop takes place over a two-day period of intensive electronic experimentation, culminating in a group performance by nicolas and the workshop participants. the hardware hacking and circuit bending workshop follows the text, in content and spirit of his 2006 book, handmade electronic music: the art of hardware hacking. participants leave empowered, carrying several new instruments and the skills needed to continue inventing and building on their own

The book, Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking provides a long-needed, practical, and engaging introduction for students of electronic music, installation and sound-art to the craft of making — as well as creatively cannibalizing — electronic circuits for artistic purposes. Designed for practitioners and students of electronic art, it provides a guided tour through the world of electronics, encouraging artists to get to know the inner workings of basic electronic devices so they can creatively use them for their own ends

Handmade Electronic Music introduces the basic of practical circuitry while instructing the student in basic electronic principles, always from the practical point of view of an artist. It teaches a style of intuitive and sensual experimentation that has been lost in this day of prefabricated electronic musical instruments whose inner workings are not open to experimentation. It encourages artists to transcend their fear of electronic technology to launch themselves into the pleasure of working creatively with all kinds of analog circuitry

location:

artcenter/south florida
924 Lincoln Road, room 203, miami beach

dates:

part1: friday, march 28, 2008; 10am - 6pm
subjects: contact mikes, coil pickups, tape heads, bending radios and toys

part2: saturday, march 29, 2008; 10pm - 6pm
subject: make an oscillator from scratch

performance: saturday, march 29, 2008; 7:30pm
free outdoor performance on lincoln road

this workshop is presented in partnership with artcenter/south florida

number 26 of the “100 of the most beautiful melodies”, with davey williams; audio format: mp3

NIC COLLINS, author of handmade electronic music: the art of hardware hacking comes to miami to lead an intensive isaw circuit-bending workshop at the artcenter south florida that will end in an outdoor performance on lincoln road. His residency activities coincide with the winter music conference and isaw is scheduling an introductory forum and book signing free to conference badge holders.

new york born and raised, nicolas collins studied composition with isaw’s advisory board member alvin lucier at wesleyan university, worked for many years with david tudor, and has collaborated with numerous soloist and ensembles around the world. through the 90s, he was visiting artistic director of stichting STEIM (Amsterdam), and a DAAD composer-in-residence in berlin. since 1997 he has been editor-in-chief of the leonardo music journal. he is currently chair of the department of sound at the school of the art institute of chicago

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march 27-29, 2008
isaw / resident artist (iAR 03-08)

1. forum: handmade electronic music
2. workshop: hardware hacking
3. performance: 9v-battery powered concert

this collaborative interactive residency brings together the members of BlackShiftRed and Absolute Zero to develop material and performance strategies for two works-in-progress: Noicon and Dew of Repentance

Noicon begins its journey with bits of music taken from Absolute Zero’s recording sessions with Pip Pyle for the CD “Crashing Icons”, adds further music bits from current Absolute Zero musicians, and ends up, via Black Shift Red members, interactively generating compositional elements to create a DVD of video/music pieces that mirror the original core within each of the Crashing Icons pieces.

Dew of Repentance is a complex work based on community-input via cellphone and web text, as well as interactive video, music, digitized puppetry and performance. It explores the concept of a city’s aggregated regret and empowerment. The piece was partially commissioned by the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

The materials developed during this residency will be used by BlackShiftRed composer/multimedia performance artists Aislinn Quinn and Adam Rush in a presentation of the Dew concept and compositional approach.

this residency is made possible through grants from the department of cultural affairs of miami dade county and the division of cultural affairs of the state of florida

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february 15-29, 2008
iSAW - resident artist (iAR-02-08)

lecture: progressive rock - enrique jardines (tba)
i sound studio: recording, editing, mastering, multi-media

rene barge will be discussing his perspectives on sound and its meaning from recent experiences as fellow artist at the interdisciplinary sound arts workshop. he will also discuss aspects of his upcoming dorsch gallery show “two chambers divided by an opening”, a sound piece in collaboration with gustavo matamoros

monday, february 4, 2008 / 7:30 pm
dorsch gallery
151 NW 24 street
wynwood art district

free and open to the public

isaw and the south florida composers alliance receive funding from miami-dade cultural affairs department and the state of florida division of cultural affairs

a lecture by composer gustavo matamoros
part of isaw’s understanding sound series in
collaboration with the FEASt electronic music festival
at florida international university

saturday, february 2, 2008 / 3 pm
green library, room 535
fiu - university park campus, miami
free and open to the public

one most striking realization for me in the lifelong experiment of becoming a composer is the myriad contrasting ways we relate to sound. there are as many ways of listening as there are people in the world, and i have learned to take that as a given. from a marketing perspective, a great deal of what stands in the way of a meaningful, productive interaction between composer and community is not so much ignorance or bias, but some form of benign prejudice. in the meantime, with the advent of new technologies, musicians continue to discover new exciting ways of relating to sound. some view these developments as extensions of music while others feel the need to call it something else. in this lecture i will reference examples of my own musical output to stimulate an open discussion about the linguistic undercurrents that frame and color our relationship with sound

isaw and the south florida composers alliance receive funding from miami-dade cultural affairs department and the state of florida division of cultural affairs

premiere performance excerpt, audio format: mp3

in flock, music notation, electronic sound, and video animation are all generated in real time based on the locations of musicians, dancers, and audience members as they move and interact with each other. a miami-made carnival center commission, flock is designed to make new connections between composers, performers, and audiences, while the piece takes off in a new direction every night, each time a new flock of spectators becomes part of the collaboration

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this performance is a miami-made performing arts center commission. additional support for flock has been provided by the funding arts network, inc., the georgia tech foundation, and the gvu center at georgia tech. generously underwritten by mitchell & elizabeth a.taylor (12/7, evening performance); ms. dale moses; mr. and mrs. hebert a. tobin (12/8, evening performance)

location:

studio theater
carnival center for the performing arts
1300 biscayne boulevard, miami

dates & times:

thursday, december 6, 2007 / 8 pm
friday, december 7, 2007 / 10 am & 8 pm
saturday, december 8, 2007 / 2 pm & 8 pm

admission: $25

for tickets, visit www.carnivalcenter.org or call (305) 949-6722. group discounts available (15 or more) contact (786) 468-2326.

miamian JASON FREEMAN is a composer whose music creates new connections among composers, performers, and listeners, using extended notation and new technology to experiment with the ways in which music is created, performed, and heard. his works range from traditional concert performances to mass-audience participation environments to online collaborative music tools to software art

his creative residency at isaw includes a project he calls sound microscope, a web applet accessible from isaw’s main page that will help users explore the complex inner structures of sounds. a simple visual interface (think google maps, but for sound) that will let you zoom in and out and move up and down to isolate and magnify tiny moments in time and tiny slices in frequency of a short sound file

isaw is also acting as producer of flock, jason’s made-in-miami commission for the carnival center for the performing arts

this residency is made possible through partnerships with carnival center for the performing arts and georgia institute of technology. iSAW is funded by the department of cultural affairs of miami dade county and the division of cultural affairs of the state of florida

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december 1-10, 2007
iSAW - resident artist (iAR-12-07)

1. lecture: interactivity in flock
2. performances: flock
3. on-line project: sound microscope