IDEAS Performance: Spellbound

Date: May 11th, 2013 Time: 6-8pm Location: Calit2 Theater, Atkinson Hall, UC San Diego Host: IDEAS [event website]

DESCRIPTION/ABSTRACT: This performative exploration, Spellbound, by Nicholas Drashner, is part of the Calit2 Initiative for Digital Exploration of Arts and Sciences (IDEAS). Spellbound is an exploration in interactive audiovisual art that explores ways of allowing users to effect audiovisual and musical content through a network of parameter-control assignments. As audience members navigate the space, position and gestural input are captured using a Microsoft Kinect, and the data is used to effect form on various time scales; some are immediate and others are of larger section and phrase manipulation. The visual engine is a built-from-scratch OpenGL graphics program running on a laptop. It exchanges data points (like audio, collision, and scene) over the network with the custom-built MaxMSP/Ableton audio server. All the rendering data is then sent over the network to the head node computer that runs the high-resolution vRoom wall using Mugic, and all the audio is output from the audio server to the system in the room. SPEAKER BIO: Nicholas Drashner is a sound designer, composer, and interdisciplinary artist. He holds an MFA in Sound Design for Theatre and Dance, and a BA in Interdisciplinary Computing in the Arts, both from University of California, San Diego. In his work he often explores immersive sonic environments that merge organic and stylized/synthetic soundscape elements to augment the perceived aural environment both in the type of the sounds that inhabit the space as well as the character of the space itself. Aside from his sound design work, he also programs musical software for creative application and teaches adjunct at University of California San Diego in the Theatre and Dance department.