shadows mixed in is for any number of performers shining strobe lights on photosensitive circuits, with one performer assigned to control a mixer configured for feedback. The circuits feed into the mixer while a player creates and manages feedback loops.

This particular performance was filmed in the Wertheim Performing Arts Center at Florida International University in Miami, FL. It was performed with the FIU Laptop and Electronic Arts (FLEA) Ensemble including Laura Arevalo, Alex Lough, and Asami Takeyama when I directed the ensemble for the 2015-16 season.

spots of foam on the ocean is for any number of performers and asks a crowd to use their mobile devices to access one of a few links to YouTube videos. The crowd should then raise the volume of their devices and let the videos play. The result is a cacophany of filtered noise along with harmonic and melodic swells. If done in an area with low light, the videos will create a wash of colors synchronized with the music.

This particular performance was filmed in the Music Technology Lab at Florida International University in Miami, FL. It was collaboratively composed and performed with the FIU Laptop and Electronic Arts (FLEA) Ensemble including Laura Arevalo, Kyle De Varona, Jacques Le Sante, Alex Lough, Paul Steinsland, and Asami Takeyama when I directed the ensemble for the 2015-16 season.

check is a soundfilm that I composed in the summer of 2013 while taking a class taught by Jodie Mack. After messing with a few hand-made film techniques, I got interested in the sound mechanism for 16mm film projectors and experimented with different ways of getting a soundtrack onto the film. Inspired by the work of Roger Beebe and Alexander Stewart, I photocopied some patterns onto strips of film and made loops with varying tones and timbres. This led to the decision to use the xerography [I love this word] process for the entirety of check.

The patterns seen in check are from Jean Larcher’s “Optical and Geometrical Allover Patterns” published by Dover Books (thanks, Rich Fedorchak). I made a few collages from the patterns which helped me visualize a timeline for the piece and ended up photocopying them onto sheets of film-strips. ~230 splices later, check was finished.

At the end of the Spring term, 2013, I was asked to compose music for an action sports video put together by Max Hammer. This is something I’ve been wanting to do since I saw my first Warren Miller documentary, so I was really happy to work on this project. Seeing the nature of other action sports videos and documentaries, I realized that I didn’t want to stay close to the stylistic trends of the music that normally gets set to these films. I wanted something that, to me, communicated the grandeur of the mountains and the purity of the snow, while setting up the actions of the skier in the video. I decided to record fellow Digital Musics student, Phillip Hermans, improvising with a harmonica and an accordion (which was lent to us by Jessica Thompson). I then chopped up the recordings and structured various raw and manipulated samples into the music that you hear. Apart from this, I used a few small samples from the audio that was recorded by the cameras to accent some of the smaller parts in the film.

The video was put together by Max Hammer, an animation student at Dartmouth and great skier. It was submitted to Teton Gravity Research’s Co-Lab contest where it won the title of ‘Most Creative.’