Gestural Music-Making in Max/MSP

This workshop is a 5-day intensive exploration of the art of gestural music-making through different applications of music technology. The course will include topics such as: building interfaces, performance practice, designing interactive systems, mapping strategies, parsing gestural data, and more. On the technical side, participants in the workshop can expect to learn about and experiment with a robust array of tools / systems including, but not limited to:

• MIDI control surfaces
• HIDs and other "non-musical" devices such as joysticks, video game controllers, GameTrak, etc.
• Proprietary gestural devices such as Leap Motion and Genki Wave Ring
• An introduction to Arduino, Teensy, sensors, and bespoke devices
• Motion capture with webcams
• Max/MSP packages such as MuBu, ml.star, ICST, etc.
• Machine learning tools and applications for gestural interaction

Aimed at musicians of all backgrounds and practices, the workshop will provide extensions to numerous avenues of music-making, such as performance, improvisation, sound design, and spatial audio. This practice-oriented workshop emphasizes experience first, providing ample opportunities to experiment and actively create. These activities are supplemented by a full schedule of instructor lectures, live demonstrations, theoretical / historical context, and guest lectures from other members of the CCRMA community.

The week will culminate in the creation of a final project or prototype to be presented in a public forum. Note that this workshop will primarily be taught using Max/MSP; however, participants may opt to use their own preferred tools or languages, such as Pure Data or SuperCollider, at their discretion (the instructors cannot guarantee technical support in this case).

MORE INFORMATION COMING SOON

Participants without previous experience with Max/MSP are encouraged to enroll in either the Max/MSP/Jitter week I and / or week II workshops before attending this one, or alternatively, watching up to Session 8 in Matt Wright’s free online Kadenze course (approx. 20 hours): https://www.kadenze.com/courses/programming-max-structuring-interactive-software-for-digital-arts-i/info

We are committed to making the workshop accessible to all enrolled participants. If you require any accommodations, or would like to make us aware of anything, please contact the instructor or a CCRMA administrator and we will be more than happy to work with you in providing accommodations that are suited to your needs.

A limited number of scholarships are available to promote the engagement of students from underrepresented backgrounds in the field of electronic and computer music, including women, ethnic, and gender minorities. More information, including the application form for this scholarship, can be found here.

Douglas McCausland is a composer / performer who is fascinated with new aesthetic and technological domains, and whose chaotic and dense works explore the extremes of sound and the digital medium. Through his work, he investigates the various intersections of real-time electronic music performance with handmade interfaces / instruments, spatial audio (higher-order ambisonics and binaural), dynamic / interactive systems, the musical applications of machine- learning, experimental sound design, and DIY electronics / hardware-hacking.

His works have been performed internationally at festivals and symposiums including: Sonorities (SARC), SEAMUS, the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, Splice, MISE-EN Music Festival, Klingt Gut!, Sounds Like THIS!, Electronic Music Midwest, NYCEMF, Sonicscape, CEMEC, Eureka!, and CEMICircles. Recent honors include a finalist nomination for the 2021 ASCAP/SEAMUS commission competition, winning the gold-prize for “contemporary computer music” in the Verband Deutscher Tonmeister Student 3D Audio Production Competition, and being awarded the runner-up nomination for the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music's 2019 CIME Prix

Douglas is currently a DMA candidate at Stanford University, working towards his doctorate in Composition while studying with Chris Chafe, Patricia Alessandrini, Jaroslaw Kapuscinski, Fernando Lopez-Lezcano, and Mark Applebaum.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Knoll, 660 Lomita Court, Stanford, United States