Multi-Location Space Opera and the Future of Music Performance
Event details
| Date | 03.09.2015 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
| Speaker |
Loudon Stearns, Berklee College of Music |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Loudon Stearns, Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music Professor and Master of Fine Arts, Loudon Stearns, is the creator of "Every When at Once," a Multi-location Space Opera, performed on June 20, 2015 as a collaboration between Berklee College Valencia, Berklee College Boston, Emerson College Boston, and Emerson College LA. The opera features simultaneous network-connected music, dance, acrobatic, and graphic performances in three locations (Valencia Spain, Boston Massachusetts, Los Angeles California), connecting technicians and artists from all the institutions, and blazing trails in contemporary opera performance.
Following a trend of applying cutting-edge technology in theatric performances, Loudon's production applied projection mapping, internet streaming, custom websites, and contemporary music techniques under the umbrella of "opera." Though individually these technologies have been explored in theatric performances, the combination of these multiple systems is original, and demonstrates how artists can be the connecting fabric between technicians, and in fact that technicians are artists themselves.
Through working on this project many applications of internet-streaming and long distance bi-directional communication were examined. It was found that the low-latency communication required for real-time musical performances does not yet exist across the vast distances of this project. Though Berklee College and other institutions which are part of Internet 2 are actively working on this topic, the Every When At Once production was forced to find a solution, pushing the artists and technicians to rethink how theatrical performances are run from the ground-up.
An interesting lesson from Every When at Once is that artists with a "resource first" mode of creation are naturally suited to make the most of the diverse pool of the often underutilized human and technological resources already present on campus. As collaborations on campus are often difficult as specialized knowledge grows and narrows within each field, Music and, more in general, Art offer a perfect way to bridge divides by exposing artists to technology and by giving engineers and scientists aesthetic challenges with concrete technological implications. New research questions, innovation, interpersonal connections, and professional satisfaction are natural results.
Loudon Stearns is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music, a course author and instructor at Berklee Online, and an active media-artist. Within the Contemporary Writing and Production department at Berklee College of Music he prepares students to work as independent composers and producers in a technology-laden music industry. Online, he focuses on the latest electronic music styles and music-technology innovations, showing students how to analyze contemporary styles and use the latest music technology in their own works. An innovator in both education and art, Loudon authored a Massive Open Online Class, "Introduction to Music Production," that has provided high-quality free eduction to hundreds of thousands of students, received an award from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association for "Excellence in Teaching" and received the "Excellence in Media Art" award from the Emerson College Visual and Media Art department. Holding a Bachelors of Music in Contemporary Writing and Production and Bass Performance from Berklee College of Music, and a Master of Fine Arts in Media Art from Emerson College, Loudon pulls from a broad range of skills in the creation of his own multi-media performances that include live music, projection-mapping, dance, visual art and interactivity. Of particular interest is using the entire world as a performance space by using internet streaming to coordinate numerous performers and audiences on vastly different parts of the globe. The technical and aesthetic challenges of this type of performance are new and exciting and require the sort of broad skill-set that Loudon has developed through his extensive institutional and self education in music, sound, performance, motion graphics, photography, programming, and construction.
Sandwiches will be served. Please RSVP here, including your name and affiliation.
Berklee College of Music Professor and Master of Fine Arts, Loudon Stearns, is the creator of "Every When at Once," a Multi-location Space Opera, performed on June 20, 2015 as a collaboration between Berklee College Valencia, Berklee College Boston, Emerson College Boston, and Emerson College LA. The opera features simultaneous network-connected music, dance, acrobatic, and graphic performances in three locations (Valencia Spain, Boston Massachusetts, Los Angeles California), connecting technicians and artists from all the institutions, and blazing trails in contemporary opera performance.
Following a trend of applying cutting-edge technology in theatric performances, Loudon's production applied projection mapping, internet streaming, custom websites, and contemporary music techniques under the umbrella of "opera." Though individually these technologies have been explored in theatric performances, the combination of these multiple systems is original, and demonstrates how artists can be the connecting fabric between technicians, and in fact that technicians are artists themselves.
Through working on this project many applications of internet-streaming and long distance bi-directional communication were examined. It was found that the low-latency communication required for real-time musical performances does not yet exist across the vast distances of this project. Though Berklee College and other institutions which are part of Internet 2 are actively working on this topic, the Every When At Once production was forced to find a solution, pushing the artists and technicians to rethink how theatrical performances are run from the ground-up.
An interesting lesson from Every When at Once is that artists with a "resource first" mode of creation are naturally suited to make the most of the diverse pool of the often underutilized human and technological resources already present on campus. As collaborations on campus are often difficult as specialized knowledge grows and narrows within each field, Music and, more in general, Art offer a perfect way to bridge divides by exposing artists to technology and by giving engineers and scientists aesthetic challenges with concrete technological implications. New research questions, innovation, interpersonal connections, and professional satisfaction are natural results.
Loudon Stearns is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music, a course author and instructor at Berklee Online, and an active media-artist. Within the Contemporary Writing and Production department at Berklee College of Music he prepares students to work as independent composers and producers in a technology-laden music industry. Online, he focuses on the latest electronic music styles and music-technology innovations, showing students how to analyze contemporary styles and use the latest music technology in their own works. An innovator in both education and art, Loudon authored a Massive Open Online Class, "Introduction to Music Production," that has provided high-quality free eduction to hundreds of thousands of students, received an award from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association for "Excellence in Teaching" and received the "Excellence in Media Art" award from the Emerson College Visual and Media Art department. Holding a Bachelors of Music in Contemporary Writing and Production and Bass Performance from Berklee College of Music, and a Master of Fine Arts in Media Art from Emerson College, Loudon pulls from a broad range of skills in the creation of his own multi-media performances that include live music, projection-mapping, dance, visual art and interactivity. Of particular interest is using the entire world as a performance space by using internet streaming to coordinate numerous performers and audiences on vastly different parts of the globe. The technical and aesthetic challenges of this type of performance are new and exciting and require the sort of broad skill-set that Loudon has developed through his extensive institutional and self education in music, sound, performance, motion graphics, photography, programming, and construction.
Sandwiches will be served. Please RSVP here, including your name and affiliation.
Practical information
- General public
- Registration required
Organizer
- Michele Petochi
Contact
- Michele Petochi
[email protected]
Tél. 021 693 52 55