ATL&S Spring 09 Shows

This Spring, I was fortunate enough to land a job working for the Center for Arts, Media, and Performance (CAMP) in the ATL&S building at CU Boulder. Here's a quick rundown of the some of the events I got to help set up and run:

I helped run sound for everything from the Italian Theatre's puppet-reality show, to the Conference on World Affairs, and the Multi-Dimensional Dance Performance Thesis 'Toeplitz'. The artistic and erotic interdisciplinary performance 'Sweeping' was a fresh experience -- we only had the performance day to set up... so when we saw the show, it was for the first time (instead of the usual 5th).

The three musical highlights included Michael Theodore's What I Saw at the Apocalypse, Paul Hembree's The Antikythera Mechanism, and the Boulder Laptop Orchestra's (bLOrk) performance:

Janet Feder in front of the Second Life performance

Theodore's multimedia extravaganza featured Michael's band thrashing out apocalyptic power rock, original 3D projections, members of bLOrk, and live instruments. Dancers interacted with the crowd and musicians (Greg Simon - Trumpet, John Gunther - Sax, Lina Bahn - Violin) roamed throughout the space creating a true surround sound. Climaxing with Latin readings from Dantes Inferno and Earth Shattering power chords, the show was truly a spectacle.

Hembree's Thesis Composition involved a number of intricately designed modern music techniques. An orchestra featurd Lisa Phillips (Flute), Katie Vedder (Bass Clarinet), Brian Jack (Bassoon), Rachael Sliker (Violin), Anthony Green (Piano), Mathieu D'Ordine (Cello), Samantha Keehn (Trombone), Members of bLOrk, and few other CU Musicians (sorry, I can't remember everyone). Additionally, there was an 8.1 surround, electronic composition, and accompanying projections. There was even a generative projection, and a piece that utilized the player piano that CAMP owns.

The bLOrk Spring performance featured the work of Janet Feder who played the prepared guitar... something that I have just recently discovered. This is a great technique where you attach clips and other objects to your guitar strings to create different timberal effects. Very exciting stuff. The show was preceded by Ryan Wurst's A Spill, an interactive instrument installation. His paintings were hung from the ceiling grid, and numerous homemade instruments were provided for the audience to interact with. All of these tracks (and many of these shows for that matter) were multi-tracked in ProTools HD. The members of bLOrk (Paul Hembree, Nate Wheeler, Michael Theodore, John Drumheller, John Gunther, and Ryan Wurst) each created a patch in MAX/MSP (and supercollider) for individual performances, and the show ended with a reading of the classic Where the Wild Things Are with all kinds of noises and effects courtesy of bLOrk and Janet.  There was also a virtual version of the performance in Second Life.