Music conference kicks off

NATHAN RUFFER/Daily ABOVE: Dancer and choreographer Celesta Harastzi dances yesterday with sensors attached to her body that convert muscle movement into computer music.

NATHAN RUFFER/Daily ABOVE: Dancer and choreographer Celesta Harastzi dances yesterday with sensors attached to her body that convert muscle movement into computer music.

RIGHT: Research scientist and University of Illinois composer Robin Bargar explains virtual sound yesterday.

By Paul Berg

Daily Staff Reporter

The Ann Arbor music scene, though diverse, has a special proximity to Detroit, the city that fans of the genre call "the home of techno."

The 24th annual International Computer Music Conference 1998 began a six-day event series in Ann Arbor yesterday, and the University's flock of electronically generated music listeners - and those merely curious - will have an opportunity to be a part of the largest gathering of this type in the world.

"People are beginning to re-conceive what music is," said Stephen Arnold, president of the International Computer Music Association. "At any time in history the technology has affected music."

The ICMA, along with the University, is sponsoring the conference, which ends Oct. 6 and features concerts, displays, demonstrations and a series of lectures on composition techniques, ethical issues and technological capabilities.

"This community that is here this week has pioneered a lot of the technology that has made popular electronic music what it is," said Arnold, head of the School of Music at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. "This is a music festival on one hand and a scientific conference on the other."

The conferences includes free performances at Rackham Auditorium from 3 and 8 p.m. today, with the afternoon show changing its line-up for each day of the conference. On Monday and Tuesday, there also will be free concerts at the Rackham Auditorium at 1 p.m.

Evening shows will move to the Power Center starting Saturday and running through Tuesday. The artists will change from night to night, and each Power Center show will be $6.

"There's internationally famous performers, along with local talent," said Mary Simoni, conference chair and ICMA conference coordinator. "Our purpose is to really integrate science and the arts."

Local performers include the resident professional company of the University dance department, Ann Arbor Dance Works; Music Director for the University's dance department Stephen Rush; Ann Arbor Symphony orchestra third flute Tamara Thweatt; and conductor of Ann Arbor's Brave New Works Music Series Chris Kim.

Performers in computer music also have gathered from around the world, including such diverse locations as Seoul, Korea and Copenhagen, Denmark.

"The ICMC is about putting expression beside the most current research, but it's the art that can grab the public, make them excited, and create meaning," ICMC98 music coordinator and Music Prof. Evan Chambers said.

"When I was in high school, I used to play around with sounds on my parents' tape recorder," Chambers said. "Every year, a part of me gets very excited about the experience of listening to sound worlds created by minds from all over the Americas, Europe and Asia."

ICMC98 is composed of a rigorous schedule of lectures and workshops that explore the spectrum of issues concerning computer music.

From discussions about cosine frequency systems to waveguide mesh geometries, approaches to and theories about integration of technology and music consume the conference.

In the Media Union Virtual Reality Laboratory yesterday, a demonstration of the multimedia potential of new forms of music was conducted.

"Virtual reality is an emerging field. This is a technology that goes beyond radio and television, that allows people to explore," said associate electrical engineering and computer science Prof. Gregory Wakefield. "The challenge to engineering is to create the new brushes, palettes and paints that artists can use in creating and organizing sound."

"Music has been around as long as humans, and there are many dialects to this international language," he said.

An exhibit showcasing early electronic instruments can be viewed from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Media Union's Design Lab No. 2.

The music presented at ICMC98 represents the most experimental edge of what is known in contemporary parlance as techno, said Simoni, a Music professor and chair of the music and media department.

"We do a lot of research, produce new instruments and ways of recording, and even performing that end up filtering into the mainstream," she said.

"A lot of the big performers like Kraftwerk owe a lot of aesthetics and technology to our movement," Wakefield said.

Arnold said the organization has nearly 700 members from more than 25 countries. Students can join for $15. More information is available on ICMA's Website: http://www.music.umich.edu/icmc98.

10-02-98